Two Evanston faith leaders win peace and justice award

Submitted by American Baptist Home Mission Societies

The Rev. Michael Nabors, pastor of Second Baptist Church, and the Rev. Michael Woolf, pastor of Lake Street Church will receive the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace and Justice Award for outstanding work for peace and justice.

The award, announced by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, began in 1964 and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was its first recipient.

Second Baptist Church was formed in 1882 when 10 Black members of Lake Street Church (then First Baptist) resigned to form the first Black Baptist church in Evanston.

Pastors Nabors and Woolf began a conversation about the rightful ownership of Lake Street Church’s historic and valuable property, and their congregations have acknowledged together that Second Baptist is a full and rightful partner in the ownership of the Lake Street property.

Discernment continues about how that partnership will be lived out, but the work of reparation by these two faithful congregations, inspired by their prophetic leaders, is underway.

“In our increasingly separated and polarized society, we celebrate the prophetic and courageous witness and leadership of pastors Nabors and Woolf in leading their congregations toward racial justice and reconciliation,” said Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of American Baptist Home Mission Societies and CEO of Judson Press.

“In their pursuit of reparations and the restoration of the relationship of their two congregations, pastors Nabors and Woolf exemplify the pursuit of peace and justice that was the hallmark of the life and ministry of Edwin T. Dahlberg,” said the Rev. Jamie Washam, president of American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ board of directors.

Dahlberg was an American Baptist minister committed to social justice and peacemaking. A disciple of and sometime secretary to Walter Rauschenbusch, Dahlberg served as president of American Baptist Churches USA from 1946 to 1947 and president of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA from 1957 to 1960. He also helped found the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.

American Baptist Churches USA named the denomination’s Peace and Justice Award for Edwin T. Dahlberg to honor his unflagging commitment to Christian discipleship.

The award will be presented at the 2023 Biennial Mission Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June.