Close Menu
    Advertise With Us
    Religion

    10 things I wish everyone knew about the Black Church

    6 Mins Read3 Views
    Advertisement

    blackmanchurch210 things I wish everyone knew about the Black Church

    There’s more to the story than soulful music and whooping preachers. Way more.

    By Nicole Symmonds

    For most of my life, I have been in and out of the Black church, and it has been a spiritually formative and resonant space. The dynamism of the preaching, the soul of the music, the embodiment of worship, the scents of soft peppermints or smoking gold balls (yeah, they exist) — all these characteristics combine to create the Black church experience. Even when I have turned my back on it, the Black church beckons me with her call to justice and endurance in the Black community.

    So here’s a list of what I wish everyone knew about the Black church, some of it born out of personal experience and some contributions from friends and colleagues.

    1. Not all Black church pastors whoop.

    When children play church, especially black children, one of the things they know how to do well is to be a whooping preacher. They scream, they shout, they sing, and they breathe heavy and hard into their faux microphones. Yet, as popular as the style is in some Black church pulpits, it isn’t style of all Black church pastors. As a CNN article noted, some in the Black church are divided on the efficacy of whooping, so just because you’re in a Black church, don’t expect to hear a whoop.

    1. The Black church is not a bastion of prosperity gospel preaching.

    Reality television and televangelists aside, the black church is not all about the prosperity gospel. At its roots, the Black church is an institution founded on social justice principles — it carried us through slavery, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Era, and our so-called post-racial state. While aspects of prosperity teaching have been an underlying philosophy that delivered/delivers us out of all of those stages, its current usage and parlance is misguided and not representative of the whole black church experience.

    1. Some Black churches have white pastors.

    Four days after 18-year-old Mike Brown was shot by a white police officer, Renita Lamkin took a rubber bullet as she attempted to mediate between the police and protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. Lamkin is the pastor of St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she is a white woman. She is one of a few other white people who are in pastoral leadership over a Black congregation. One of the first documented instances of a white person over a Black church congregation was Dedra Ann Kimensky, who was the first white woman ordained as pastor to an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church.

    1. Black women keep the Black church going.

    Black women are often relegated to the periphery of the church, yet these same women have been integral to sustaining the church. In the early days of the Black church, women’s ingenuity in fundraising helped to build and sustain churches, schools, and social services.

    In more recent decades, Black women have led the church further, including Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first woman appointed as bishop in the AME church, and Bishop Yvette Flunder, who has been one of the most visible and vocal pioneers of radical inclusivity in the black church.

    1. Black churches are beginning to shake off homophobia.

    In a 2009 survey, 46 percent of members of historically Black churches said that homosexuality should be discouraged by society (compared to 40 percent of the total population). People in Black churches will tell you that those numbers are probably low, given current attitudes. But things are changing. While it is rare to find an open and affirming Black church, churches such as the City of Refuge UCC in San Francisco, Covenant Baptist in Washington, D.C., Trinity UCC in Chicago, and Victory Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia are the early sites of change.

    1. Some Black churches are Catholic.

    Newsflash: not all Black churches are Protestant. Up until five years ago, I didn’t know there were Black Catholics, let alone Black parishes — the black Protestant church can be a seriously isolated space. My first encounter with a Black Catholic parish was St. Anthony of Padua in Atlanta’s West End. Little did I know that a Black Catholic parish would pull on my heartstrings as I was in the midst of my theological education. I now am a frequent visitor of Our Lady of Lourdes, a 102-year-old Black parish located in the heart of the Martin Luther King historic district of Atlanta.

    1. Black church choirs sing contemporary Christian music.

    The Black church is the birthplace of some of our most treasured voices in both gospel and popular music. It was the place where Negro Spirituals were redemption songs and remains the place where church chorales take on those historic works. But among spirituals, hymns, and contemporary gospel songs, Black churches also take on the works of white contemporary Christian artists, from Michael W. Smith’s “Here I Am To Worship” to Chris Tomlin’s “How Great Is Our God” — although you should expect those songs to be remixed to fit the music minister’s tastes.

    1. Non-Black people attend Black churches.

    Black churches are still some of the most segregated spaces in religion — just like white churches, Asian churches, and so on. But white people do worship at Black congregations, often as members and not just outliers.

    1. Millennials aren’t leaving the Black church.

    The much-reported mass exodus from Christianity isn’t happening is the Black church or among Black people of faith. One reason, as Bryan T. Calvin has written, is the church’s status as the locus for social justice organizing, and another is that it is a primary place of refuge for those who work in predominantly white settings. Also, Black Millennials are starting their own churches, ones that are steeped in the historical consciousness of the Black church, but that also pay special attention to other marginalized groups within the church.

    1. The Black church is all around us.

    I can say a great many things about what I wish people knew about the Black church, but I will leave you with this last thought: the Black church has touched the world beyond its walls. From its bent toward social justice, which has helped mobilized people for decades, to its soulful music, which has moved people of all races and ethnicities, to its compelling preaching style, which has shaped the course of American history, traces of the Black church can be felt all around us.

    Share.

    Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

    Related Posts

    This College Chaplain Fills The Pews By Teaching, Not Preaching Lawrence Lockett Jr., Morgan State University chaplain. Credit: Lawrence Lockett Jr. via LinkedIn By REV. DOROTHY S. BOULWARE (Source: Amsterdam News) It’s understandable for parents of strong faith to worry about the spiritual lives of their children who’ve gone away to college. After all, it’s easy for a young person, perhaps on their own for the first time, to suc-cumb to the temptations of partying late on Saturday night and sleeping in on Sunday morning. But Minister Lawrence Lockett Jr., chaplain at Morgan State University in Baltimore, is packing them into the pews most Sundays. He is engaging them in lively ways during the week. And students are joining the choir, accompanying worship on various instruments, and serving as readers and leaders throughout the service. It is by the grace of God for sure, but also by the loving service of Lockett, who’s beginning his second year as the school’s director of chapel. He has grown his flock from the 25 or so students who showed up at his first services to more than 200 each Sunday. Sometimes, it’s standing room only. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do next because on Easter Sunday we had 342 people, and some were standing in the back,” he said. Word In Black talked to Lockett about the secrets of his success: how his adjustment of Sunday ser-vices got people into the pews, why his philosophy for guiding students on their spiritual journey centers on independent thought, and how his “Spin the Block” initiative is shaking things up on campus. The in-terview has been edited for length and clarity. Word in Black: The first thing we want to know is, how do you get so many young people to chapel every Sunday?. Lawrence Lockett: Well, first of all, I changed the time of service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. I realized a lot of the students like to sleep in late. It gives them time to do whatever they need to do. I’m sure many of them still like to party hearty over the weekend. So they have a good chance just to kind of refocus, recali-brate, get themselves lunch, and then come over to the chapel for service. When I started in November, maybe 20-25 students came, but now it’s over 200 that come every Sun-day, and it’s pretty cool. So now we’re repositioning ourselves to go after the freshman class this year. If we have the same success as last year, there’s definitely not going to be any room. Word in Black: Tell me about pastoring on a college campus. Lawrence Lockett: Morgan actually started as a biblical institute, so the Christian traditions have al-ways been here. As a pastor or shepherd, I’m walking students through their questions, not always just trying to preach answers to them. It’s about being vulnerable. I tell them I was in their same position, just trying to figure it out. And it’s not me just trying to give them answers. Having been there helps me really walk with them and anchor them in the storm of life that’s going to come. I want them to understand that their soul really matters. A lot of students focus on mental health, but they really need to focus on spiritual health as well. It should be one and the same. So I’ve been trying to preach that, if anything, spiritual health is just as important as your mental health. But we do encour-age the use of the counseling center, for sure, if there is a mental health crisis. WIB: What does Monday through Friday look like for you? LL: Mondays, we are usually off because of Sundays. On Tuesdays, we have Bible studies, so I’ll host a Bible study at noon along with my colleagues that work in the chapel. And then, I’m teaching a class called Hip-hop and the Gospel on Tuesdays at 2:30 p.m., dealing with mixing culture and religion. On Wednesdays, we do something called “breath and balance,” which is just a meditative type of pro-gram with breathing exercises as stress relievers. We work with the School of Nutrition Science and the food resource center so that the students get a nice free meal and practice breathing exercises and meth-ods to feel good about the day. For Thursdays, we started something called the mosaic, in which we have different campus ministers gather in small groups, just like a mosaic painting. So the students who come on Sundays then get plugged into small groups on Thursdays. And on Fridays at 1 p.m., we do prayer for Muslims.. We have an imam lecture and then lead in corporate prayer. It’s a good mix. WIB: What is “Spend a Block?” Didn’t you receive an award for it? LL: That started last year. We just basically do services outside: outside the residence halls, in the quad, wherever it may be. Honestly, worship on a college campus looks different than it did 20 or 30 years ago. Students want something real and authentic, something they can gravitate to, and something that’s convenient. So when we’re outside, people are like, “What’s all the noise outside? What’s all the music?” Then they come outside, and there are chairs, so they grab one and sit and enjoy the service. We come to them. They don’t have to come to us. At the very beginning of the semester, we do services outside the four resi-dence halls. And that kind of gives us a steamroll into homecoming week. And we’ve seen a lot of success because of that. WIB: What should I expect when I arrive for Sunday service? LL: You’re gonna see a lot of involvement with students. I’ve learned that students like to feel invested, and they want to participate in what’s going on. They don’t want to be told by adults what they should and shouldn’t do. So when you go to the service, you’ll see our praise team full of students. You’ll see a choir full of students. You’ll see students reading scripture. You’ll see students giving testimonies. And then I’ll come in and give a sermon, or I’ll have a guest friend or a guest preacher come in to do the sermon. But you’re gonna see a lot of student involvement, and I think that also assisted with a lot of the growth be-cause when they see fellow students, they understand they’re just like me, and if they can do it, I can do it. WIB: What about musicians and choir? LL: The musicians are also students. They say, “Hey, I love to play. I wanna use my gifts in some way, shape, or form.” And they’ll ask whether or not there’s a spot for them. And we say absolutely. And there is a chapel choir. Some of the members are also members of the university choir. WIB: What is the “next” you see for the chapel? LL: I want the students to know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. The chapel really is the heartbeat of the campus, and I want students to know more about where faith, hope, and belonging really stem from. I also want the chapel to become more interfaith and involve as many students and beliefs as possible.