Otis Moss III asked for one thing: for those listening to “make a way” for future generations.
Moss, the senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was the keynote speaker during Monday’s Dream 365 Commemorative Breakfast Program, which is the culminating event in a five-day celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.
Moss gave a rousing speech about paving the way with good for others to follow.
Moss told the audience that there was always someone to come before, someone to “make a way” for current and future generations.
“We are all called to make a way,” Moss said. “Sometimes, in our own particular ego, we think that we’re the end-all, be-all and nothing ever happened before us.”
This also holds true for King, Moss said. While celebrating and remembering King on MLK Day, Moss asked people to recognize that someone came before him and allowed him “to be the prophet that we know today.” That person was the Rev. Vernon Johns, who was the pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., before King became the pastor.
“He was always fighting with the deacon ministry and said, ‘If we’re going to be God’s people then we need to change our ways in Montgomery, Ala.”
Johns was asking questions in the 1930s and 1940s about whether heaven was segregated, Moss said, but “the deacons got him out” and searched for a young preacher that would “listen to them.” According to Moss, that paved the way for King.
The knowledge that people came before and will come after is what the community, country and world must live by, Moss said, noting a “me mentality” has harmed the country on the economic level.
“It’s not about us; it’s about the next generation,” he said. “Have you opened the door for somebody else? Have you let someone else inside, so they can be fully human in what God wants them to be?”
Moss also told the audience toward the end of his speech to stick to their own uniqueness and “be an original you” instead of a copy. The advice enticed roars of cheers and applause from the packed Trotter Convention Center auditorium
“Copies are always inferior to the original,” Moss told the crowd emphatically.
After the program, Amy Clark, a Franklin Academy fifth-grade teacher, said Moss’ message is something she can relate to her students.
“I have to remind them to be the best you that they can be,” she said.
Marvin Clark of West Point echoed the positive reflections about the keynote speaker.
“It was a really inspirational message from Rev. Otis Moss. I hope it inspires me to go out and open doors for others,” he said.
Moss has ties to King’s legacy. His father, Otis Moss Jr., worked with King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Moss’ father also served as a co-pastor with Martin Luther King St. at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Moss grew up in a Cleveland suburb and attended Morehouse College and graduated in 1992. He earned his Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in ethics and theology from Yale University in 1995. He started at Trinity United in 2006, initially as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s assistant, before becoming the pastor in 2008.
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