History And Future Of The Black Church

The Black Church is an adapting institution and a source of courage and vitality for resisting dehumanizing conditions. It was the primary and only institution black people had to deepen and to strength their spiritual life and to nurture and to practice Christian ethical value, to reconcile and liberate themselves. The days of coming to church for personal salvation alone are over. Now we are looking not only for personal salvation but for social salvation. If we do not change, the community will not change. I believe the writer is seeing the church as it is now and the future of the Black Church. He states “Bishop John Hurst Adams of the African Methodist Episcopal Church observed recently, black churches are operating essentially on the
(Of course, in the antebellum period a concern for the eradication of slavery was also central.) That these items continue to dominate the church’s mission priorities and stewardship planning may be attributed in part to the continuing marginality and relative powerlessness of blacks in American society. At the time after slavery was eradicated, black churches nickels and dime of dues and assessment created their own economics and political structure building their businesses and churches. However, due to population grow the church is now in a time of
By 1900, the churches had compiled an impressive record: black Baptist associations were supporting 80 elementary schools and 18 academies and colleges; the African Methodist Episcopal churches were underwriting 32 secondary and collegiate institutions; and the smaller AME Zion denomination supported eight. The denomination now named the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, only 30 years old in 1900, had established five schools. Though not a part of the format agenda of the churches, church buildings have been crucial community assets. From the earliest times, they were the only assembly halls to which the black community had access. They housed schools, dramatic productions, cultural events, social welfare programs, rallies and benefits of all sorts, and civil and human rights activities. The requirements in these areas are less critical today. However, if the need for meeting space has declined, the claims placed on church members by movements for social, political, and economic justice have not diminished. According to W. E. B. DuBois, the NAACP could not have survived without the support of the black