“AT THE TABLE”

May 7, 2009

By Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman

For a few remarkable years, a number of black
preachers and pastors, myself included, met for
communal breakfast and spiritual refreshment, every
week day morning at Niecie’s Restaurant near 60th
and Prospect, in Kansas City, Missouri.

We met “at the table,” roughly, over a ten-year
period from 1994 through 2004, under the faithful
and persistent leadership and example of Rev.
Emanuel Johnson, former pastor of Mount Vernon
Missionary Baptist Church, now deceased, and his
friend, Rev. Aaron Neal, Sr., former pastor of
Paradise Missionary Baptist Church in Kansas City
Kansas, also deceased.

Rev. Neal, himself newly arrived from
California, had invited me to the table shortly
after I was licensed to preach in the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1994. Brand new to
the ministry, my zeal for the word was such that I
would carry a minimum of two different versions of
the Bible with me, among my legal papers, in my
“satchel,” as Rev. Johnson, an Arkansas native,
termed my brief case.

They called me “De lawyer,”
as I was, in fact, a sole practitioner, and also
the pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, in
Butler, Bates County, Missouri, simultaneously.

Other ministers who frequented the table,
during my tenure there, included Rev. Kenneth Ray
of Highland Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Gregory
Washington of Good Samaritan Missionary Baptist
Church, the late Bishop Emmanuel Newton of the
Christian Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, the
late Bishop W.B. Henderson of the Trinity Temple
Church of God in Christ, the late Rev. O. Cordell
Moore of the Temple of Faith Missionary Baptist,
the late Rev. A.L. Johnson and his associate, Rev.
Carl Hatcher, both of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist
Church, Rev. Gregory Stevenson, Park Avenue
Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Davenport, Pilgrim
Rest Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. F.J Jordan,
Gospel Tithing Baptist Church, Rev. Elijah Clark,
Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Frank
Witherspoon, Freewill Baptist Church, along with
many, many others. Visiting ministers, revivalists,
and evangelists also enriched the table while in
town.

Camaraderie and commensality distinguished the
table. Laughter was always on the menu.
Sometimes, even Myra, and Renona, her sister,
two of Niecie’s no-nonsense waitresses, would chime
in with their acerbic wit, to keep “it” and
everybody “real” at the table.

Of course, the main preoccupation at the table
was Jesus Christ: him crucified and resurrected.
In this regard, I remember Rev. Johnson describing
how he had fashioned a sermon entitled “It Depends
on Whose Hands It’s In.”

Once, while driving to Omaha, Nebraska, up highway I-29-North, he happened
to see a billboard describing an insurance company
as “The Good Hands People.” That insight led the
preacher to proclaim that in his hands a piano was
just a noise-maker, but in the hands of a skilled
musician, it became a magnificent instrument.
Similarly, a scalpel in his hand was a murder
weapon, but in the hands of a skilled surgeon it
was a healing tool. Finally, 2 small fishes and 5
barley loaves, in his hands, was just lunch. But,
in the hands of Jesus--but, in the hands of Jesus!-
-that little lunch could feed over 5,000, with
twelve baskets of fragments left over. (Matt.14:13-
21) “It just depends on whose hands it’s in.”

At the table, there were no big “I’s” and
little “u’s.” There was brotherhood at the table.
There was hope at table. There was renewal at the
table. There was love at the table. Deliverance
at the table. Joy at the table. Provision at the
table. Holy Ghost at the table.
At the table, at the table, at the table!