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lost piece of silver The Rev. Dr. James C. Perkins of Detroit preaches a memorable opening Preaching With Power sermon in the program’s 22nd year
PHILADELPHIA (March 15, 2004) – Toward the end of last night’s kickoff Preaching with Power service at Germantown’s Grace Baptist Church, host Pastor G. Daniel Jones said simply: "I’ll never look at Luke 15 the same way again." He certainly wasn’t alone. Scores of visitors to Grace were obviously powerfully moved in response to the preaching of the Rev. Dr. James C. Perkins of Detroit, MI. The scriptural focus of his message was Luke 15: 8-10. His title was "Ten Pieces of Silver or Stella’s House Party." The three verses describe a woman’s loss of a piece of silver, and how she lights a candle and sweeps to find it, then celebrates the discovery with others around her. Perkins noted the celebration was not unlike the one by actress Whoopi Goldberg in the feature film, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." In his message Perkins began with a low-key monotone, reciting a litany about so much of the inhumanity of the everyday world. The message was comparatively simple. God prizes each and every human being as preciously as the woman prized her missing piece of silver no matter how cold and impervious our place on earth seems. "None of us is loose change or chump change!" he cried at one point. "God has not created us to be treated like animals and things. God’s image is stamped all over us." It’s not the message we get from the world, where prisons are on the increase and schools are hit with reduced budgets, he said. "There is no unity in community!" And just as the woman lost a prized piece of silver, we are all capable of losing something we prize, our cherished relationships and other things we value. "You can lose your groove and focus. You can lose your rights and what’s important…People on the streets today include those who lost it at home. You can shortchange yourself. But to God every person is as important as the lost piece of silver was to the woman. You may lose your silver some day, and only the Lord will be able to help you to find it! By the end of Perkins’ message, the preacher was fully wound, jumping, spinning and active -- praising God as the "Joy of my salvation and yours! Most of the congregation was on their feet, cheering and urging the preacher forward. It was POWER. More than 50 listeners met Perkins afterward for a session reviewing his message and how it had been crafted. At one point he was asked about whether he had modeled his preaching style after anyone else’s. He noted that where he had grown up he had not had a mentor for his ministry. "Preaching is truth through personality," he said at one point. "Each person is unique. Nobody can beat you at being authentically you." About his ministry he said at one point that he had come to learn over a 23-year pastorate at Greater Christ Baptist Church in Detroit, "that we live among broken lives and the church is often disconnected from the real world. I used to think that ministry was all about preaching and that’s it. And now I know there is so much more to ministry." He said the congregation had studied the demographics and realities of its surrounding neighborhoods and decided that the focus needed to be on working to "redeem our neighborhoods." The recognition led to establishing programs like the Fellowship Housing Nonprofit Organization and the Benjamin E. Mays Male Academy for young men.
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