News > April 17, 2008

By Alex Osteen | Opinion editor

On April 15, Wait Chapel came alive with the passionate words of renowned Detroit reverend Charles Adams as the last installment of this year’s Worship in Wait series. An estimated 200 people came to hear Adams’ motivational sermon on the great potential that exists in meshing faith and knowledge titled “All Things Are Yours.”

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Baptist Reverend Charles Adams of Detroit delivered a sermon titled “All Things Are Yours” to about 200 people as the last part of this year’s Worship in Wait speaker series April 15 in Wait Chapel. (Margot Lamson/Old Gold & Black)

The ceremony, which started at 11 a.m., included hymns led by the Divinity School Choir, a call to worship, a scripture reading from the Bible and prayers, all parts of a typical Christian worship service. Adams’ sermon was the main event, however.

Adams’ church in Detroit expanded to 10,000 members since he became pastor there in 1969. Recently he was named to a position at Harvard Divinity School.

His sermon, chock full of humorous anecdotes and colorful, energetic and almost poetic verses, centered around his belief that humans have the ability and responsibility to seek out truth and knowledge. Adams’ impassioned voice echoed clearly through Wait.

“All things are yours” is a quote from 1 Corinthians that served as his inspiration. He urged that having faith is not enough and shouldn’t be held as an excuse for not being ambitious in learning.

The world isn’t a matter of exclusivity but rather interdependence, he said, and close-minded faith is dangerous. Adams concluded his sermon saying that, “We live in one world. All things are yours. All people are yours. God is your key.”

By the end of his sermon, some of the audience had jumped to their feet and applauded and shouted in agreement and joy. Adams’ ability and mastery of motivation certainly could not be denied by those who witnessed the sermon.

Shelmer D. Blackburn, instructor of homiletics and Christian education at the Divinity School, described Adam’s preaching as being “situated in the black preaching tradition and thus reflects sensitivity to the questions and concerns of persons who find themselves with their backs against the wall in any number social, political and religious contexts.”

She went on to say that, “He urged us to resist the schism and compartmentalization that leads one to believe that their religious perspectives or understanding of God is the only right or true perspective, and acknowledge that while we may possess a particular understanding we cannot own God.”

Worship in Wait, in its second year of existence, is a speaker series similar to President Hatch’s initiative of “Voices of Our Time,” but it is obviously geared towards religion.

The Divinity School, Chaplain’s Office and President’s Office work to bring religious leaders of different fields to the university to discuss important issues facing the world today. According to Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School and the person who worked to organize the event, Adams’ sermon, “gave Wake Forest students an opportunity to hear one of the most prominent preachers in the county, a person long involved in community activities, the Civil Rights Movement and special leadership in African American church life.”

These are all things that have even special relevance currently, in light of the recent presidential elections season, something that has meaning to university students, he said.

It was because of this and because of his experience working with issues such as religious freedom and separation of church and state that Adams was chosen as part of the Shurden Lectures Series in special conjunction with Worship in Wait. The Shurden Lectures focus on religious liberty that has been touring college campuses in the South that is sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Adams served on this committee, along with university Resident Professor of Christianity and Public Policy James Dunn, the man who introduced Adams. This sermon was the last event of this year’s Worship in Wait series.

Although few undergraduate students were in attendance, the crowd that showed up included university Divinity School students and professors, religion professors and Baptist and other reverends from around Winston-Salem as well as other members of the community at large.

Perhaps the lack of undergraduate students and professors in the audience can be attributed to the fact that the ceremony took more than an hour and spread over into the 12 p.m. class time.