“The church has been to some degree disengaged,” said the Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson of Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. “Churches that have social consciousness are pushed by this anniversary into a place of reflecting on how far we have come or not come, and have we abandoned what he gave his life for?”

For pastors like Bishop Blake, that means embracing the parts of the movement he agrees with — ending police violence and empowering black entrepreneurs, for instance. But it also means holding the line on church teachings that young activists disagree with.

There are also differences in approach. Pastors often want to work within the system to effect change, while many activists try to disturb and upend the system.

Bishop Blake is not someone to be found on protest lines or shouting down law enforcement; he tends to advocate through more formal channels. He departs from some activist ministers in his social conservatism, opposing same-sex marriage and abortion. Yet he tries to strike a welcoming posture in an era of activists who can feel like the church is judging them.

He hosted a rally at his church to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. Last year, he wrote a letter to the mayor of St. Louis suggesting that if police practices were not reformed, his denomination could take its annual convention — and the millions of dollars that come with it — elsewhere. And at a gathering of black congressional leaders, his raspy voice grew louder as he declared that black people needed “to take charge of our destiny.”