By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black
Given its rich history, it’s safe to say that New Psalmist Baptist Church is as much a part of Baltimore as crab cakes, Orioles baseball games and “The Wire.”
Founded in the basement of a house just a few decades after the CIvil War, the church grew from a few dozen souls in the late 1800s to a congregation that at one point reached 7,000 active members. Revs. Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson have visited; so has Pastor T.D. Jakes, former President Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama. It ministers to the poor, the deaf, the homeless and the formerly incarcerated, among others.
Yet in 125 years of existence, through growth and change, New Psalmist has had just three pastors shepherding its congregation: its founder, Rev. Junius Gray; his successor, Frederick C. Atkins; and its current leader, The Right Rev. Walter Scott Thomas Sr.
Passing the torch
Recently, however, the church received its fourth leader. After 49 years at the helm, Bishop Thomas stepped down as the church’s pastor to make way for New Psalmist’s next leader: his son, Dr. Walter Scott Thomas Jr.
“I’m excited to see him run against the wind and to accomplish the sight you see when you make that last turn and start heading down the straightway,” he says.
As one of the nation’s most influential Black churches — and Thomas’ profile as Bishop and Presiding Prelate of The Kingdom Association of Covenant Pastors — the installation ceremony received national attention.
But Bishop Thomas also knows it’s time to pass the torch.
“The last thing I wanted for New Psalmist was for them to be left with a vision of me dying in the pulpit,” he joked, acknowledging it’s not an unusual occurrence. “We often see a church in transition because someone has died or even left the church, and there’s no time for the new leader to glean from the previous leader.”
A lifetime of preparation
Fortunately for him, Dr. Thomas has had a lifetime of preparation to fill his father’s enormous shoes, even though he found the idea daunting in the beginning.
“First, just the thought that my pastor was retiring — that was a big thing to take in,” he says. Then came the decision whether to leave First Baptist Church of Steelton in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he’d been senior pastor since 2014, and move his wife and young children to Baltimore.
But the young minister said he and Jarrette, his wife of 15 years, prayed continually until they were content with their decision.
Dr. Thomas grew up in New Psalmist and will now pastor people who have known him his entire life. As with most preacher’s kids, his experience included doing maintenance, cleaning up trash, working with the catering ministry, serving food and cleaning the bathroom. But his call to ministry seemed almost preordained.
After hearing the call to ministry in 2001, the preacher’s son graduated Cum Laude from Morehouse College, majoring in religious studies with a minor in psychology. He then went on to obtain his master’s of divinity from Howard University and his doctorate from United Theological Seminary. All the while, his ties with New Psalmist deepened.
The succession process
Dr. Thomas says him being his father’s successor wasn’t guaranteed.
“The church had to vote and they could have said yes or no,” he says. “I’m grateful that the process was one where the vote happened while my predecessor, my pastor, is still in position, so we can walk this journey together.”
As for the ceremony itself, it was filled with “praise and worship, great preaching by the Bishop, as well as much of the traditional pomp and ceremony,” Dr. Thomas says. “We were trying to streamline the service, but we agreed this was a time to do what was needed and desired, and not worry about the time.”
He hopes other churches will follow the succession model they’re putting into practice, leaning into what a blessing the senior pastor can be to the incoming pastor.
For Bishop Thomas, it was an emotional moment watching his son take the church into the future. But he plans to share the space with Dr. Thomas as the handoff takes place. After that, “I’ll serve with him through the year and then he will be running that race — and I’m excited to see what that leg will look like.”
This article was originally published by Word in Black.
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