Rev. William H. Lamar IV
Pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
By Rev. Mia McClain
Rev. Mia McClain
Rev. William Lamar IV is a stalwart leader among clergy in the nation’s capital. One of the first to welcome me to D.C. and to invite me into the collective work of change-making, Pastor Lamar, affectionately known by many as “Bill,” unapologetically calls his colleagues, congregation, and critics to a higher quest for justice. My favorite recent quest of Pastor Lamar’s was when his congregation secured the trademark for the Proud Boys, a right-wing organization that vandalized the property of his church after a pro-Trump rally.
He is “cantankerously creative” in his unrelenting and unconventional approaches to calling the demons by name and demanding more of our religious, political, and social institutions. He quotes hip-hop lyrics in playfully delivered harangues that inspire us to examine the breadth and depth of our justice imagination. I am most inspired by his assertion that the Black Church is not a derivative of anything — as in a secondhand White Church that only came to be because of exclusion and expulsion — but a uniquely ingenious institution rooted in the tools of our ancestors that has the power to transform the conditions of our living together.
Rev. Mia McClain is Senior Pastor at Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
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Reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens.