Pastor William H Lamar IV

LIVING BLACK JOY

CHOOSING THE SACRIFICE OF HIGHER SERVICE FOR A BETTER WORLD

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BOWIE, Md. — PASTOR WILLIAM H. LAMAR IV smiles broadly as he talks about his work to make America as equitable as it can be. Donning a gray hoodie, Lamar, affectionately known as “Billy,” casually exudes the black joy he says “makes the world go ‘round” during our Zoom interview on a quiet Saturday evening.

Lamar is the senior pastor of the historic, nearly 2,000-member Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, which is nestled in the shadows of the White House in Washington, D.C. The voices of Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B DuBois and Ida B. Wells once reverberated within Metropolitan’s sacred walls. The 183-year-old institution has been the site of memorial services for such iconic figures as civil-rights activist Rosa Parks and contemporary journalist Gwen Ifill.

Metropolitan AME still stands as a historic beacon of righteousness and justice, a symbol of endurance and hope . . . a place that has witnessed shades of dark humanity and the winds of change. On Sunday mornings, in the time of COVID-19, Lamar preaches in a virtual space using Zoom to stream on Facebook, YouTube and the church’s website — inspiring the minds and encouraging the hearts of his congregation.

“I endeavor to speak truth,” Lamar said. “I endeavor to hear from God and the ancestors so that I can say something that is disarmingly true about where we are and who we are, but I can also punctuate the peaks and valleys of life with this incredible black joy that makes the world go round.”

He is a long way from his Southern roots, a long way from Florida A&M University, which he fondly remembers visiting as a high-schooler drinking deeply from the intellectual and cultural wells that the university offered.

HIGH HILLS, HIGH CALLING

“I had a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier,” Lamar said. “I would drive my Cavalier to campus and go to concerts. I would see Julian Adderley and the FAMU Essential Theatre put on plays.”

Lamar graduated from FAMU in 1996 with a degree in public management, and a minor in philosophy and religion. It was during his time at FAMU, that he felt led to ministry. He shared this feeling with the late Professor Herbert Clark Alexander, who was also a local pastor. The Rev. Dr. Alexander encouraged Lamar to attend seminary.

“What God is going to have you do is going to require you to be in conversation with the world,” Lamar recalled Alexander saying. The world stage is where Lamar now lives, using his literary and rhetorical gifts to do interviews and pen pieces for such media powerhouses as MSNBC, NBC News, the Huffington Post and National Public Radio.

After attending Duke Divinity

BY [ Kara IRBY ]

FOR A BETTER WORLD

ABOUT PASTOR WILLIAM “BILLY” LAMAR IV, SENIOR PASTOR, METROPOLITAN AME, WASHINGTON, D.C.

■ Graduate of the Duke University Divinity School ■ Born in “the transplanted African Village” of Macon, Ga. ■ Lived and educated in Tallahassee, Fla. ■ Co-Host of “Can These Bones,” a Faith & Leadership podcast, with the Rev. Laura Everett ■ Currently pursuing his Ph.D. with Christian Theological

Seminary ■ Featured in the Washington City Paper’s 2018 People Issue as one of the “21 Washingtonians who give D.C. its distinct character”

1 Pastor William Lamar IV of the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which still stands after 184 years in the shadow of the nation’s White House 2 Before COVID-19 changed things, Lamar spread the word to a full house of his 2,000-member flock 3 Police lead the handcuffed preacher to jail after a protest for racial justice 4 This Black Lives Matter sign was destroyed in a nighttime visit from vandals who confessed and identified with the “Proud Boys.”

PHOTO CREDIT: WIRES

School, he pastored congregations throughout the South and East, and also taught religion classes at FAMU. He served from 2008 to 2011 as managing director of Leadership Education at Duke University Divinity School in North Carolina.

Bishop Adam J. Richardson Jr., the senior bishop of the AME Church, a fellow Rattler alumnus and Lamar’s former pastor, called him back to the pulpit in 2011. Richardson was a member of the team that appointed Lamar the pastor of Metropolitan in 2014.

“Bill Lamar is a very bright light in the Christian Church, especially so in the AME Church,” Richardson said. “He is intellectually gifted and committed to social justice as part of who he is as a man and as a believer.”

ONE RECENT NIGHT WHEN HATE RODE IN ON THE WINDS OF PROTEST

In a time of great civil unrest and racial divide, the Proud Boys, labeled as a far-right, neo-fascist, and male-only political organization, sought to dim the light of Metropolitan and two other Washington area churches. On Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, the “Black Lives Matter” sign that was prominently displayed in front of the church was vandalized. Proud Boys leaders confessed to the act. Lamar virtually addressed his congregation the next morning during worship.

“They don’t want to just ruin signs, they want to destroy lives,” Lamar said. “They want to destroy hope, they want to erase history and they’re not going to be able to do that — we won’t let them do that.”

Retired Judge Ted Newman, D.C.’s first black chief judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, has been a member of Metropolitan for more than 30 years.

“I have had opportunity to witness the abilities of multitudes of AMEC clerics and tide of other denominations,” Newman said. “Rev. William H. Lamar IV is in a class with few peers. I have watched as Rev. Lamar has greatly increased the community outreach of Metropolitan and I enjoy hearing him preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ: ‘for as much as you have done it for the least of these my children, you have done it for me.’ Metropolitan AMEC is truly blessed to have him as its pastor — a modern-day prophet!”

Lamar also co-hosts a podcast, Can These Bones, which features conversations with leaders from varying backgrounds about leadership and the future of the church.

“Reverend Lamar is highly regarded among his clergy colleagues,” said the Rev. Laura Everett, his podcast co-host. “It’s not that he’s fearless; he knows the insidious power of racism, sexism, empire and homophobia, all those mythologies that keeps us divided and numb. He knows his history, his Bible, his rights and his God. Rev. Lamar listens with compassion, acts with dignity and speaks with courage in the face of all of those powers and principalities.

ARRESTING MOMENTS, PRAYERS FOR REST IN A WEARY LAND

“I went to sleep on a steel slab, I used my boot as my pillow and I flipped off roaches of various sizes all night long,” Lamar said. And that was just one occasion of arrest. He jokingly discusses his long “criminal record” and says he believes he’s willing to sacrifice even more if necessary.

“I try to live in such a way so that if I’m called to make the sacrifice, I don’t pass the sacrifice on to the next generation. I make the sacrifice,” Lamar said.

When Lamar is not on the frontlines of social-justice issues or speaking about liberation through faith, the 46-year-old enjoys listening to a wide range of music, podcasts, and public radio. His musical tastes range from jazz to ‘90s hiphop and his podcast playlist just might include episodes on evolution or Johnny Cash. In short, he admits to being a consumer of knowledge, beautiful words, and beautiful music.

Pastor Lamar is a newlywed, married to Dana Williams, interim dean of the Howard University Graduate School. He lovingly jokes with her throughout the interview and mentions that she made the call to his parents, who live in Tallahassee, Fla., about his arrest at the Supreme Court. “What was that like?” he quips.

Lamar clearly adores his parents. He says being their son “nourishes him.” He credits them with instilling in him the “importance of extraordinary service and presence.”

“We encouraged him to model hard work, commitment and service to humankind for his younger siblings,” said his father, William Lamar III. “His calling to the ministry and activism was from God, through the Holy Spirit and the spirit of our ancestors.”

FAMU’s sixth president, Benjamin L. Perry, at one time, inspired Lamar to be FAMU’s president himself. That is not quite the case anymore.

“I feel like my best service to Florida A&M is not to be its president … my best service is to take all the black joy and fierce black intellectual energy that Florida A&M gifted me with to build the kind of world that can exist, but does not yet exist.”