Black History Month: Honoring Bishop Daniel A. Payne

Today we want to honor Bishop Daniel A. Payne. Bishop Payne was born February 24, 1811 to London and Martha Payne, free blacks in Charleston, South Carolina during the height of slavery. Sadly Bishop Payne was too familiar with the loss of loved ones: his father died when he was four years old and his mother died when he was nine. In 1847 Daniel Payne wed Julia A. Farris, a widow from Washington, D.C. and a year later his wife died giving birth to their daughter who died nine months later.

Bishop Payne gave his life to educating himself broadly from learning reading and writing to Latin, Greek and Hebrew. At the age of fifteen he turned his interest to spiritual matter and eventually surrendered his life to Jesus at the age of eighteen. Daniel Alexander Payne's lifelong mission to improve the educational condition of his people came after a prayer when he heard a voice say, "I have set thee apart to educate thyself in order that thou mayest be an educator of thy people."

Bishop Payne did not take the pastorate lightly and understood how serious the responsibility and call of the minister was: "...the work of the gospel minister stops not here: a flock of rich souls is committed to his care, and it now becomes his duty to train them for usefulness and for heaven."

Excerpts from "The Faithful Preacher" by Thabiti Anyabwile

Books

Bridging The Diversity Gap by Alvin Sanders
The Gospel For Life: The Gospel & Racial Reconciliation by Russell Moore