A Time for Burning – Film Screening and Discussion

Watch and Discuss with the Good Shepherd Community

A Time for Burning is a 1966 American documentary film that explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to “Negro” Lutherans in the city’s north side. The film was directed by Bill Jersey and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the 1967 Academy Awards. The film was commissioned by Lutheran Film Associates (LFA).

The film was remastered by the Academy Film Archive and premiered at the Oscars Museum in Los Angeles on December 17, 2023. The film is shot in “cinéma vérité” style. It chronicles the relationship between the minister, L. William Youngdahl, and white and black Lutheran parishioners. The film includes a meeting between Youngdahl and a black barber, Ernie Chambers, who tells Youngdahl that his Jesus is “contaminated.” At one point another Omaha Lutheran minister, Walter E. Rowoldt of Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, says, “This one lady said to me, ‘pastor’, she said, ‘I want them to have everything I have, I want God to bless them as much as he blesses me, but’, she says, ‘pastor, I just can’t be in the same room with them, it just bothers me’.” Rowoldt and other ministers also discuss the concern that blacks moving into white neighborhoods will decrease property values. The attempt to reach out does not succeed and Youngdahl resigns as minister of the church.

In 2005, A Time for Burning was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Chambers completed law school and was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1970. Senator Chambers is the longest-serving state senator in Nebraska history.