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A Life Well Lived: Founders Remember Dr. John M.Perkins
37 Plays2 hours ago
In this special episode, we are taking time to remember the life and legacy of Dr. John M. Perkins, one of the founders of the Christian Community Development movement.
Throughout this episode, you’ll hear from other founding leaders and friends who walked closely with him. These friends include Dr. Mary Nelson, Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Dr. Dolphus Weary, Dr. Wayne Gordon, and Dr. Kathy Dudley. They reflect on his life, his friendship, and how his legacy continues today.
Dr. Perkins showed us what it looks like to follow Christ in community. And as we listen, we are invited to consider what it means for us now, how we carry that witness forward together.
Learn more about CCDA and how you can get involved at ccda.org. Connect with CCDA on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Follow CCDA on YouTube.
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Dr. John M. Perkins
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the CCDA podcast. My name is Christina For and I'm the director of engagement and mobilization here at CCDA and I am the host for this episode. Today's episode is a little different.
00:00:22
Speaker
Instead of our usual conversation, we are taking time to remember the life and legacy of Dr. John M. Perkins, one of the founders of the Christian Community Development Movement.
Reflections from Friends and Leaders
00:00:34
Speaker
Throughout this episode, you'll hear from other founding leaders and friends who walked closely with him. These friends include Dr. Mary Nelson, Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner, Dr. Dolphus Weary, Dr. Wayne Gordon, and Dr. Kathy Dudley.
00:00:49
Speaker
We are so grateful for their reflections on their relationship with John. Dr. Perkins showed us what it looks like to follow Christ in community, and as we listen, we're invited to consider what that means for us now, how to carry that witness forward together.
Mary Nelson's Recollection and Activism
00:01:06
Speaker
We begin with Dr. Mary Nelson, who is at the first CCDA conference gathering back in Chicago 1989.
00:01:15
Speaker
From the very first moment, I met John in that stuffy hotel room at O'Hare Field in the very beginning when the idea of CCDA was hatched. I knew that here was a man, his enthusiasm, his interest in people, his a commitment to Jesus was so clear. And so I wanted to to be up alongside of him, to walk alongside of him in the vision for Christian community that came out.
00:01:43
Speaker
And, ah you know, over the years, i haven't always agreed with John, but I know that John has always been a friend and that we could ah disagree and ah and still be friends and hold out on what was important, which was the work of following Christ in community and in in the road of justice.
00:02:05
Speaker
Mary also shares a moment that captures something essential about his life. One of the remembrances and pictures I will always us hold dear is when we were called to Washington, D.C. to protest budget cuts to WIC and food stamps. And as we stood there and sang songs and gave little speech pep talks about why we were there and what was important. And as the police came one by one and and handcuffed us, John had on his face such a smile of joy.
00:02:37
Speaker
in the process of it. And I knew why he had that smile, because the night before, he had shared with us that when John was an infant, his mother had died of malnutrition because there weren't programs like WIC. And so he said he had to be there in order to to fight for those things that would make make it possible for other children not to lose their mothers to malnutrition.
00:03:01
Speaker
And so he had that smile on his face. And there's a wonderful picture of that that I will never forget.
Influence of Dr. Perkins' Faith on Others
00:03:07
Speaker
And a reminder that when we follow Jesus into the places where it's important that we can do it, even if there's suffering, we can do it with a smile on our face.
00:03:18
Speaker
Mary's story shows us how deeply personal and embodied Dr. Perkins' faith was. And for him, that kind of life flowed directly from how he understood the gospel.
00:03:29
Speaker
So here's Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner with reflections on how Dr. Perkins influenced her. Beyond the word of God and Tom Skinner, no one else has had more influence on my understanding of the gospel mandate to love every neighbor as ourselves than John Perkins.
00:03:53
Speaker
John Perkins would just say, the only way God knows that you love God is the way you love everybody else. And he lived that. He had all kinds of people around him, in and out of his house, in and out. He and Vera Mae were parents, were surrogate parents of people of all races and backgrounds.
Community Projects and Ministry Legacy
00:04:10
Speaker
I was not as impressed just by his teaching, but also his modeling the gospel. Thank God for a life well-lived.
00:04:22
Speaker
Dr. William Skinner helps us understand what Dr. Perkins believed, that to love neighbor was to love God. Dr. Dolphus Weary shows us how he lived it out, by inviting people in and forming them over time.
00:04:36
Speaker
Because for Dr. Perkins, discipleship didn't happen at a distance. It happened in relationships. But one of the things that happened to me in 1964, I attended a um tent meeting in a small town called D'Lo, Mississippi.
00:04:53
Speaker
And that night I recognized that I was a sinner needing a savior. And the only thing I had to do was to go forward and to give Christ my my life. ah John Perkins came to me afterwards and said, Dolphus, we have a ah meeting on Thursday night and on Saturday night.
00:05:11
Speaker
ah We want you to you know to come to those meetings. And ah it was interestingly good because he says, we have a a pickup truck that will come get you and all those kind of things. So that the truck came and got us and sitting in the back of the truck and and would come to Mendenhall and have a Bible study time. That was the beginning part of all of that.
00:05:32
Speaker
What began with invitation didn't stay theoretical. It took shape in the place they lived, places where people could grow, learn, and experience dignity. He and I began to dream What can we do in this community?
00:05:49
Speaker
How can we change this community from the inside out? What is it our kids have to deal with? And we looked around and we saw that kids were getting into trouble and problems and getting in trouble. And we saw them getting in trouble and said, why are they getting in trouble? They have nothing to do.
00:06:05
Speaker
And so we decided to build a gymnasium in the community because we can say, okay, at least we can develop a a gymnasium so we can have the kids to come in and play. And we put some classrooms on the side of the gymnasium for tutoring. If we have to do some tutoring kids, we've got a place for tutoring them and they have a come place to come to play. So the first part of our vision out into the community was building a gymnasium. Then we started looking at health care as a problem.
00:06:36
Speaker
And we began to ask the question, can we believe God to bring a doctor into this community so we can have a health clinic? So we ended up building this building.
00:06:48
Speaker
We had a nurse ought to come with her husband. And so we started doing some things in the clinic. And then I was speaking in in Newark, New Jersey in 1973.
00:07:00
Speaker
And there was a black doctor sitting in the audience. And I was up there saying, we'll believe in God to send us a doctor to Mendenhall, Mississippi, to live in the community and provide services in that community.
00:07:12
Speaker
At the end of the service, he came to me and he said, listen, I'm interested. You know, God has been talking to about doing Christian service, but I was afraid God was going to call me to Africa and I don't want to go to Africa.
00:07:26
Speaker
So I said, OK, great. Come to Mississippi. He became the first black doctor in that community. We started with the health clinic, and that was a major part that what we ended up doing. One of the other things I have to mention is is we started a thrift store.
00:07:42
Speaker
because we used to collect things and give them to poor people. And we discovered that if somebody paid 10 cents for something, they felt better about it than if you give it to them free.
00:07:54
Speaker
So God enabled us to have a thrift store, and that became a part of our ministry as well. So many people were coming and asking us what we are doing.
00:08:05
Speaker
And now they went back and they started doing ministry.
Personal Impact on Leaders and Community
00:08:09
Speaker
When we started talking about the CCDA, then there were places that had been started all around the country, many of them because of the delight that John Perkins started there in Mendenhall through the ministry there.
00:08:25
Speaker
As that work began to take shape, something else was forming alongside it, deep relationships, partnerships built over years of shared life and calling. Wayne Gordon, affectionately known as Coach, was one of those people.
00:08:39
Speaker
He poured his life into me. He poured it into my wife. He poured it into my children. And he poured it into all of Lawndale. You know, Lawndale, he probably was in Lawndale a couple times a year for the last 30, 40 years. And so the people just loving me. you know, my office is in the Perkins Center. It's the John and Vera Mae Perkins Center.
00:08:58
Speaker
And every day when I walk in, I see him. So I think what John did for me is modeled what it means to live out your faith. and And even in this season in my life, you know, I'm in my 70s now.
00:09:12
Speaker
i've I've retired as the lead pastor of Lawndale, but I haven't retired from the kingdom and from working in the kingdom. And and John really never retired. I mean, he wrote a book about three or four years ago was his last book. So, I mean, you know, in his 90s, and he still wanted to do more. He and I were talking about doing another book together just six months ago, and he wanted to do that. He modeled for me what it means to be a a man of God, and he let Christ live through him. You know, it's not John Perkins that lives, but it's Christ who lives in him. And the life he lived in the flesh, he lived by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself up for him.
00:09:48
Speaker
So I think being the role model was was was that for me and somebody that I can talk to. I mean, we could talk about everything. I miss him greatly. I love John Perkins and and he loved me. I think i think also he just he just said, you know, I'm going to live for Christ until the day I die. And I often quoted to him, Philippians 1, for me to live as Christ, to die as gain. And I think John lived that till the very end of his life. And so I want to do that too. that's That's kind of the lasting thing that John did for me is he showed me how to retire, which is you might retire from a job position, but you don't retire from your role in the kingdom of God.
00:10:29
Speaker
What began as a shared life and calling didn't stay contained. It multiplied, through relationships, through communities, through leaders who carried it forward. Dr. Kathy Dudley reflects on that legacy.
00:10:44
Speaker
John and I shared an interesting history. We were both children of sharecroppers. He was in the Mississippi Delta, and I was in the hills of Appalachia. And both of those, after coming to faith in Jesus, realized that the gospel had the power to transform the lives of marginalized people like us.
00:11:03
Speaker
Though John and I did not always agree, ah never doubted his love for me, and my respect and love for him have remained constant. Having journeyed these many years with John, i rejoice in his calling, sacrifice, and steadfastness, and his legacy will live on through the leaders that he invested in.
Summary of Dr. Perkins' Journey and Legacy
00:11:25
Speaker
I'm privileged to be one of them. Across all these stories, there's a thread that holds them together, a life marked by faithfulness. Mary names it in the words Dr. Perkins returned to again and again.
00:11:39
Speaker
he would always quote that passage from 2 Timothy 4, which says, i have fought well, and John really did, for the cause of both community and justice and following Jesus into the places of hurt.
00:11:53
Speaker
I have finished the race, and I have been faithful. And John, indeed, has shown for all of us the good life that happens when we, too, can fight the fight, can finish well, and be faithful.
00:12:10
Speaker
So what does faithfulness look like for CCDA? How do we carry the witness of Dr. Perkins and the Founders forward? Coach offers us some insight. So many ministries in so many places, people want to have an arm's length away from the poor and the hurting and the disenfranchised.
00:12:29
Speaker
and And John didn't do that. He lived... among the poor until the day he died. Now, not all of us will necessarily do that, but I mean, the the importance of not just proximity, but it was it's it's where community becomes who you are.
00:12:45
Speaker
So your neighbors are your real neighbors and that you you set yourself up not above the people you're ministering to. I think he modeled again for us that you know we cannot set ourselves above. The incarnation, you know Christ left heaven and came to earth. We're not gods doing that, but as human beings, we enter into other people's lives.
00:13:06
Speaker
you know I really can't love somebody unless I get to know them a little bit. How do they wanna be loved? I think John modeled that, and that sets CCDA aside from other Christian urban ministry philosophies, is that we live among the people.
00:13:21
Speaker
And I think if CCDA loses that, We've lost the heart of John Perkins, and I think we've actually lost the heart of the gospel.
Call to Action for Listeners
00:13:29
Speaker
Living among the people and being a part of the community is is really a CCDA tenant that is so important, and I think we got that from John.
00:13:40
Speaker
We often ask in these episodes, how do you see the Christian community development philosophy at work in your community? But today we ask, where do you see this kind of presence, this kind of love for neighbor, this kind of commitment to dignity and justice taking shape where you are?
00:13:58
Speaker
Dr. Perkins showed us what it looks like to follow Christ in community. Now, how are we carrying that witness forward? How are we building, resisting, and loving in our own places?
00:14:09
Speaker
Because as these founders and the legacy of Dr. Perkins has revealed in this episode, it's only together that our communities can flourish.