{"id":19270,"date":"2024-01-01T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=19270"},"modified":"2024-01-03T12:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T17:07:29","slug":"celebrating-martin-luther-king-day-in-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/celebrating-martin-luther-king-day-in-your-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Martin Luther King Day in Your Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a civil holiday in the United States, celebrated on the third Monday of January each year (King&#8217;s birthdate was Jan. 15, 1929). However, many churches celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. King in worship that weekend, with special attention to the way King&#8217;s Christian faith influenced his activism and the broader Civil Rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>Wondering how you can celebrate MLK Day in your church? Here are 5 ideas:<\/p>\n<h3>5 Ways to Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Your Church<\/h3>\n<h4>1. Incorporate liturgy that honors and celebrates Dr. King into your regular weekend worship services. Resources are available from:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcusa.org\/resource\/martin-luther-king-jr-day-worship-resources-22363\/\">The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/umcdiscipleship.org\/resources\/resources-for-human-relations-daymartin-luther-king-jr- day\">The United Methodist Church<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ministrymatters.com\/all\/entry\/3549\/prayers-and-suggested-readings-for-martin- luther-king-jr-day\">Ministry Matters<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>2. Organize a community discussion on one of Dr. King\u2019s speeches or writings<\/h4>\n<p>One suggestion is to use <em>Letter from a Birmingham Jail<\/em>, which was written specifically to moderate white Christian clergy as a call to action for all people of Christian faith. <a href=\"http:\/\/africa.upenn.edu\/Articles_Gen\/Letter_Birmingham.html\">Click here for the full text<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>3. Serve Your Community<\/h4>\n<p>Find out what others in your community are doing for MLK Weekend and ask church members to attend or participate. Many nonprofit organizations hold a Day of Service on the Saturday before or on the day of MLK Day.<\/p>\n<h4>4. Read a children\u2019s book celebrating Black voices with the kids during children\u2019s moments or Sunday School<\/h4>\n<p>Train and resource families in your church to talk about race at home by using a following guide developed by the Western Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church. <a href=\"http:\/\/wpaumc.org\/files\/resource\/act+newsletter+-+talking+to+children+about+race.pdf\">Click here to access the guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>5. Use the weekend to kick off a congregational\/community study or focus on anti-racism<\/h4>\n<p>Many denominations and judicatories have anti-racism resources or diversity, equity, and inclusion offices to help. <a href=\"https:\/\/facing-racism.pcusa.org\/\">Click here<\/a> for PC(USA) &#8220;Facing Racism&#8221; resources and recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a civil holiday in the United States, celebrated on the third Monday of January each year (King&#8217;s birthdate was Jan. 15, 1929). However, many churches celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. King in worship that weekend, with special attention to the way King&#8217;s Christian faith influenced his activism&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-19270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Celebrating Martin Luther King Day in Your Church - Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in your church but don&#039;t know where to start? 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