Otis Moss III (born 16 September 1970) is the pastor of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's Trinity United Church of Christ. He espouses black theology and speaks about reaching

inner-city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists someti ...

black youth.

Early life and education

His father Otis Moss Jr. was an affiliate of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

working together in the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

and serving in 1971 as co-pastor with his father

Martin Luther King, Sr. Martin Luther King (born Michael King; December 19, 1899November 11, 1984) was an African-American Baptist pastor, missionary, and an early figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He was the father and namesake of the civil rights leader Martin Lu ...

at Ebenezer Baptist Church. After growing up in the Cleveland suburb of

Shaker Heights, Ohio Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the city's limits. In July 1911, a ...

, graduating from Shaker Heights High School, Moss attended Morehouse College in Georgia as an undergraduate, initially majoring in political science and film with the intent of becoming a filmmaker. He was a runner and named by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

as an All-American Track and Field athlete. After hearing his call to the ministry during track practice, he changed majors to religion and philosophy and graduated with honors in 1992. He then attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in Connecticut, receiving in 1995 a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in ethics and theology. During his time at Yale he became enamored of the black theology of

James Hal Cone James Hal Cone (August 5, 1938 – April 28, 2018) was an American theologian, best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book ''Black Theology and Black Power'' provided a new way to comprehensively de ...

. He was also ordained as a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

minister by his father in 1995. Moss moved to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

to study for a Ph.D. in religion and social change from a joint program of the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

and the

Iliff School of Theology Iliff School of Theology is a graduate Methodist theological school in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1892, the school's campus is adjacent to the University of Denver. Fewer than 200 students attend the school. Iliff is one of thirteen United ...

, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

seminary. However, he entered ministry full-time before completing the degree. While in Denver, he became the minister of youth programs at the New Hope Baptist Church. A sermon tape from a youth rally was given to the retiring pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, leading to his call there.

Career

Tabernacle Baptist years

In 1997, Moss moved to

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...

, to take up the pastorate at Tabernacle Baptist Church, founded in 1885 as Beulah Baptist Church. During the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

the church served as a local base for that movement. At the time Moss took over the church, it had 125 members, growing to 2,100 members by the time he left it in 2006, reportedly mostly through the inclusion of formerly unchurched young people. During his tenure, the church also undertook a major renovation of their historic building. In 2000, he published a sermon collection entitled ''Redemption in a Red Light District - Messages of Hope, Healing and Empowerment'', consisting of sermons from his first year of ministry. He also periodically swapped pulpits with the pastor of the

First Baptist Church of Augusta First Baptist Church of Augusta is a Baptist church in Augusta, Georgia. The original location is now a historical site. The current church building is located on Walton Way. Baptists Praying Society According to the earliest church records, ...

, where the Southern Baptist Convention was originally organized in support of slavery. In 2002, he was the first recipient of a prize, carrying a $25,000 stipend, for exemplary community service, evangelism and preaching. He had been nominated by the historian of the

Chautauqua Institution The Chautauqua Institution ( ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education center and summer resort for adults and youth located on in Chautauqua, New York, northwest of Jamestown in the Western Southern Tier of New York State. Established in 1874, the ...

in New York who considered him one of the best to have preached there. The prize is jointly awarded by three

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

organizations; the

Columbia Theological Seminary Columbia Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Decatur, Georgia. It is one of ten theological institutions affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). History Columbia Theological Seminary was founded in 1828 in Lexington, Geor ...

, the

Presbyterian College Presbyterian College (PC) is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina. History Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by the William Plumer Jacobs. He had served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Cl ...

, and the

Peachtree Presbyterian Church Peachtree Presbyterian Church is a megachurch located in Atlanta, Georgia. Peachtree averages about 3200 in weekly worship at two venues on both sides of Roswell Road in the Buckhead region of Atlanta, and is one of the largest Presbyterian cong ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. During this period, Moss was a member of the

Progressive National Baptist Convention The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), incorporated as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., is a mainline predominantly African-American Baptist denomination emphasizing civil rights and social justice. The headquarte ...

as well as state and local Baptist organizations. Politically, he was a member of the NAACP and the Georgia branch of the Rainbow/Push Coalition founded by Jesse Jackson. He also served on the boards of the local

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

chapter and Augusta's black history museum, which is named after

Lucy Craft Laney Lucy Craft Laney (April 13, 1854 – October 23, 1933) was an American educator who in 1883 founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia. She was principal for 50 years of the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Ed ...

Trinity United Church of Christ

Moss received two job offers. One was to come to the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio to succeed his father as pastor, the other to move to Chicago's Trinity United Church, a

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...

(UCC) church pastored by

Jeremiah Wright Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr. (born September 22, 1941) is a pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he led for 36 years, during which its membership grew to over 8,000 parishioners. Following retirement, his be ...

, to become Wright's successor at the roughly 8,500-member

megachurch A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant C ...

. Moss says that after

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...

and

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

, he felt God's call was for him to go to Chicago, and did so in 2006, initially as Wright's assistant. Moss assumed responsibility for regular preaching at Trinity on March 9, 2008, and was installed as the senior pastor in May 2009. Early in 2007, Moss was one of four additional contributors to the book ''The Gospel Remix: Reaching the Hip Hop Generation'' by Professor Ralph C. Watkins of the

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller consistently has a student body that compr ...

. That summer, Moss was one of several black ministers who gave eulogies at a mock funeral the NAACP put on for the word "

nigger In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

", where he described it as "the greatest child that racism ever birthed". , Moss is a board member of ''

The Christian Century ''The Christian Century'' is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and review ...

''.

Personal life

Moss is married and has two children.

References

External links

Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Otis III Clergy of historically African-American Christian denominations Morehouse College alumni United Church of Christ United Church of Christ members Living people African-American Christians University of Denver alumni People from Shaker Heights, Ohio Yale Divinity School alumni 1970 births Chicago Theological Seminary alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people