The De-Evolution of the Black Church: Rescue or Recovery - Softcover

Williams, L.D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 152465793X ISBN 13: 9781524657932

Verlag: AuthorHouse, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

This book is a look at the entity individually and collectively called the black church from its beginnings as an ethnic enclave comprised of African slaves and their descendants into an organization dedicated to the spiritual empowerment of its members in their respective communities in these United States. Beginning with an exploration of the author's personal introduction to the black church from childhood to adulthood, the book also gives background of the church's historical origins in the United States. The question believers and church members alike should ask themselves is whether the black church has maintained its relevance and power by evolving into a business-for-profit for one or a select few members, or must the black church de-evolve to its social and spiritual beginnings spawned in part by slavery and the fight for equal rights in the Civil Rights Movement that made it so revered, treasured and respected.

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The De-Evolution of the Black Church

Rescue Or Recovery

By L.D. Williams

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2017 L.D. Williams
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5246-5793-2

CHAPTER 1

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF ... TO MYSELF

In the beginning I was raised in the church — a native Arkansan, born and reared, and later acquainted with Jesus Christ in Mississippi County. Cotton was the cash crop at the time, and although we were desegregated, there was still institutional racism, classism, and intraracism where I lived.

Our mother made a point of making all the children attend church. She never made it an ultimatum and never directly expressed why we should attend; we just did because it was beyond our ability to resist. I never understood until much later, despite her protestations, why my father did not attend church with us. It wasn't until much, much later in my life that I understood.

My maternal grandfather, however, God rest his soul, made no bones about why he did not attend church. He believed that it was a money-making enterprise and took too much time away from people's real lives. Now in the South, the church was a very real part of people's lives, right down to the many programs, assemblies, ministries, meetings, auxiliaries, afternoon programs, worship programs, friends and family days, visits with other churches (same denomination, mind you — wasn't any mixing!), and, finally, raising money for the "building fund"!

It didn't help that my grandfather was a raging alcoholic and an avid baseball fan. He loved the Atlanta Braves most of all, but I believe that is because he almost always had the channel tuned to TBS Superstation, the Ted Turner-owned station out of Georgia that we viewed most frequently. His vitriol and speeches on Sunday afternoons when we would walk our grandmother from church are the stuff of legend and comedic genius.

My grandfather would often have in his hand a large dark cup of alcohol, and he was also a chain smoker. He sat with his legs crossed and apparently could not wait until we all arrived at his home in order to eat a home-cooked, after-church meal at my grandmother's home before we went to our home to eat another meal of our mother's food.

He would excoriate and mock my grandmother's unflappable obedience to God — and, more importantly, to the pastor and the church. My grandfather remained the same even after I left for college. In his last days, I did not sense any sort of repentance or remorse about his unchronicled experiences with the church or about his oft-anticipated monologues about churches and their insatiable need for your time and your money. To this day, I have no idea where it all came from. But as I said, his tirades were the stuff of legend!

Once we were at church, all the -isms I referenced earlier, all the awkwardness, and all my actual or imagined inadequacies disappeared — and I learned to love Jesus.

But before Jesus, I was regaled with the Old Testament prophets and their indoctrination into the causes of doing what God told them to do for His glory, and their willingness to serve.

Samson, David, Elisha, Elijah, and Moses. It helped that I was a great lover of fiction and a burgeoning avid reader — especially comic books. I was reading about the archetypes of some of the greatest superheroes of Marvel and DC comics such as Superman (Samson) and Batman (Moses, and his staff); only the Bible was real.

Because I was such an avid reader, I digested these stories and began to build the foundations of my belief in a higher power — a power greater than myself. The physical church, the building, was where my belief was fomented and expressed without fear, rejection, or ridicule. As such, I became the youngest assistant superintendent in that building's history.

Let me stop for a moment and clear something up. I am purposely distinguishing the word building from the word church because I believe the church is comprised of the actual human believers of Jesus Christ as expressed in the scriptures; it is not the myriad denominations and buildings that saturate our American landscape.

Let's face it. These buildings are ubiquitous in the black church community: they come with the standard crucifixes affixed atop the building, or they have one of those eight-foot-tall Sam's Club crucifixes on the church grounds. And there's an obligatory sign stating the title of the church, the hours of operation of Sunday school and worship services, and the pastor's name — and in some iterations, the names of the associate ministers (less commonly) and the name of the wife of the pastor (more commonly), who was titled at some point as the "first lady." I don't specifically remember or know the origin of this designation as it relates to black church bodies; nor do I understand its rise to prominence, relevance, or reverence in the black church. But at this time I will state a recurring theme that has no biblical or spiritual rhyme or reason with many things currently found in this exploration of the black church: it just is!

I was still the youngest superintendent in the church's history (ten years of age), and I was having a ball. I was quoting the scriptures and regaling my peers and my older contemporaries with my understanding of the principles of God's ultimate authority; I shared the lessons that He provided in his Bible and spoke about how they assisted us in our daily lives.

The fire and brimstone sermons of the pastor added to my own understanding. This black preacher, his son, and others would go into the pulpit — a place we were taught to never ever enter. By this time, I had seen the Easter classic film The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecile B. DeMille and starring Charlton Heston as Moses and the great Yul Brynner as Rameses.

A scene that continues to captivate me to this day was when Moses appeared before the burning bush, and the voice of God told him to take his sandals off his feet because he stood on holy ground. Moses's fear and obedience at that moment resonated with me, and for several years after that, every time I walked by the pulpit, I had that fear. Even if someone told me to grab a fan or get a water tray, I stood with fear and trembling because I literally thought I would hear that same voice and face some type of curse by setting foot on the pulpit because of my unholiness.

So there I was, between being accepted by this group of believers and having a place where I was not mocked or was pleasantly mocked, depending on the day, because of my race, size, where I lived, or how I dressed. There at the church I was doing something and believing in something that transcended all of those petty human beliefs. Why not love Jesus the way He showed love for me?

I was baptized at the age of twelve because I just believed there had to be something greater — something better — and my actions and my life at that time were defined by it. I had several talents, and I was going to use them for the greater glory of God by serving in as many capacities as I could in the black church I attended.

My belief system at that time in my life as a big black southerner helped me get through a very rough and confusing childhood. My size and my ethnicity were the only stereotypes that were spot on at that preteen-to-teenage stage in my life. I was an avid reader of comic books, loved music, could sing first tenor, and was deathly afraid of women. I was not a particularly great athlete because I cared more about reading and girls than I did sports. And...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: AuthorHouse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 152465793X
• ISBN 13: 9781524657932
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 166
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
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