The Hope of the Believer . . .

Visiting Other Churches: New Series, No.6...

THE BLACK CHURCHES 

There are eight black churches in my town, all of them small, the average attendance being no more than 100. Four of them are Baptist, and these are in close proximity to each other. Two are Churches of Christ, one is Methodist, and one is Church of God in Christ (Pentecostal). The last named is the most vocal and the most enthusiastic, even acrobatic. Brothers shout and sisters dance in the aisles. At this church someone recognized me and told the pastor who I was, and he in turn invited me to sit on the platform, introducing me as a Church of Christ minister. I sat there for two hours and finally had to leave before the service concluded.

I was warmly and enthusiastically received in all the churches, and but for one exception I was the only white person present. In a class in the Morse St. Baptist Church the teacher called on me to say a word, referring to me as "the man in the raincoat." I was impressed that he identified me in that manner rather than as "the white brother." On that occasion I told them of visiting all the churches in the city -- Hispanic, black, white -- and that I was disturbed that we are so divided. "Will we be divided by race and color in heaven?," I asked them, "And if not we should make more effort to be one here on earth." The teacher appeared taken aback by my remark but said he agreed. When a young sister later led the dismissal prayer she poured out her heart about what I had said. "If we have to be segregated in this world, O Lord, may we not be segregated in our hearts," she prayed. I afterwards took her hand and told her that she had prayed a great prayer and that I was confident the Lord would answer it. When these churches ask the visitors to stand and tell what church they belong to, which they do more than the white churches, I speak out loud and clear that I am from the Church of Christ. It helps to correct our bad image of being a people that have no fellowship with other Christians.

The black churches all have long services, going on and on as if time did not matter. It is common for white folk to conclude their services, go out for dinner, and then drive by a black church that is still in session. It is common for them to have an extended altar call, a series of testimonials, long sermons, special music, singing by both choir and congregation, and mutual sharing. Except for the non-instrumental Churches of Christ these churches have multi-electrical instruments that have a pronounced if not an exaggerated role in the services. One gets the impression that some of the musicians are real artists, suitable for the entertainment world. Some of the organists dub in to a sermon or a testimonial, providing undertones that punctuate what is said, a delicate and skillful performance indeed. Music in a black church has much to do with the overall enthusiasm of the service.

Enthusiasm is a hallmark of a black service. They pray as if they believe someone is really listening. Emotions have free reign, whether tears, laughter, hearty amens, or cries of hallelujah. The preachers really rev it up. It is the rare black preacher that does not shout. He may start in low key and revert to low key now and again in his discourse, but he usually "orates" his audience to the ceiling if not to heaven time and again in his sermon. There is usually lots of repetition. It is often a single word or phrase, such as Sometimes — "Sometimes I am discouraged. Sometimes I am lonely. Sometimes I don't know what to do." This might go on and on and with great emphasis. Occasionally it is eloquent, sometimes spellbinding. If there is oratory in today's pulpits it is more likely to be found in black churches. There is lots of exchange — give and take — between pulpit and pew in a black church.

Most blacks would be bored in a white church, and this is one reason why they want their own churches. They may not want segregated churches, in the sense of not being wanted, but they do want separated churches. They want to run their own churches in their own way. Theirs is really a different kind of religion, the same Christian faith but different. Just as they speak the same language, but different.

A white man never finds himself in a more separated culture than when in a black church. He steps into a different world. In a Sunday School class he may hear sophisticated talk about the Bible and world problems by computer technicians, engineers, teachers, and lawyers as well as by common laborers, as much so as in any white church. He can't help but be impressed that everyone is black, and they all seem oblivious to the white man's world. They have their own culture, separate and distinct, especially in the black church. The white man definitely senses that he has stepped into their domain. He is an outsider, no matter how accepting he may he. It is in the black church that one also sees how much progress the black people have made in recent decades. It is not uncommon to hear an older minister or teacher say something like, "My grandchildren tell me, 'Granddaddy, it couldn't have been as bad as you say,"' when he recounts the days when he had to search out a segregated toilet or drinking fountain. And the white man sits there knowing that it was as bad as granddaddy says it was.

In Denton as across the country we have two separate and distinct cultures, one black and one white. A black Baptist church may announce a fellowship dinner with another church, but everyone will know that it is another black church, not a white one. Black and white ministers may as well live on different planets, considering their lack of fellowship. In all my visits to black churches I saw not one other white person, save one couple that was present for a special service. In all my visits to white churches there was no more than a handful of blacks all together, and in most churches, even large ones, there was not a single black present.

I don't know what God thinks about all this, but I am persuaded that the whites can do more to correct it than the blacks. We should visit their churches first of all, and we should seek to visit blacks in their homes as well as to invite them to ours. In time we can invite them to special affairs in our churches, providing them with a leadership role. It is something that we will have to work at with both skill and wisdom. There are whites that have a gift for that kind of outreach and fellowship.

You may be curious about the two Churches of Christ. The old Simmons St. church dates back to the days of Marshall Keeble. I once heard the old patriarch of the black Churches of Christ in that very church. It is a typical black Church of Christ, as separated from the white Churches of Christ in Denton as if it did not exist. The second church, only three years old and no more than 15 or 20 members, meets in a shack-like facility about a mile away. The minister told me he started a true church because the Simmons St. church had departed from the Bible. When I asked for particulars, he named eating in the building and "letting women run the church."

Of the 28 million blacks in America most of them are associated with some church, at least nominally. There are 8.5 million Baptists in three different conventions. Three Methodist denominations have four million members. The black Holiness and Pentecostal churches total another 4.5 million. There are millions more in smaller sects. Statistics aside, the black churches are very much at the center of black community life in this country.

Our nation's forebears could hardly have imagined such figures, for the time was in Colonial America that it was deemed to be against English law to baptize a black slave. Since it was seen as unchristian to enslave a Christian, it was thought best to leave the slaves in paganism. Beside, once they became Christians they no longer made good slaves. They were too inclined to want to be free! But back in Europe leaders argued that slavery was justified in that it was a means of Christianizing pagans. By the 1770's our Colonial fathers resolved the matter by decreeing that baptism had no bearing upon one's social status. Slaves could be converted to Christ and still be kept in bondage. But still the slaveowners had little interest in their slaves becoming Christians. Christianity, like white skin, belonged to the Englishman.

Finally, the Church of England took steps to evangelize the slaves by sending missionaries, who contended that there was compatibility between Christianity and slavery, and they sought to convince masters to instruct their slaves in the Christian religion. The missionaries, in tract after tract, argued that slaves would be better slaves once they were Christians. But the complexities of Anglicanism was not suited to the American blacks and there were but few who became Christians for the first 120 years of American history. It was not until the 1740's and the Great Awakening, when the preaching was more evangelical and urgent, that large numbers of blacks became Christians. Some historians believe that the difference was that the ecstasy of the revivals was akin to the drumming, singing, and dancing that the blacks had known in the festivals honoring the gods of Africa. But it is evident that many slaves became sincere followers of Jesus Christ.

The rise of the Methodist and Baptist denominations, who were at first antislavery but had to retreat from this position in order to survive, led to the mass conversion of blacks. These churches ordained black ministers who took the gospel to the slaves. While Christianity gradually penetrated the slave quarters, the majority of slaves were still not Christians at the time of emancipation. But on the American frontier in those days only a tiny minority of whites were church members.

Our own people in the Stone-Campbell Movement converted blacks along with whites. They were integrated into the churches even though they were seated apart, often in the loft. They were listed in their records as members of the church. Usually a good brotherly spirit prevailed. The most notable instance of an integrated church was the Church of Christ/Christian Church in Nashville, where both Alexander Campbell and Tolbert Fanning often preached. It was a great missionary church (with no paid minister!) of 500 members, half white and half black!

It could be argued insofar as the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches are concerned that there was more contact, more concern, and more fellowship between blacks and whites in the days of slavery than there is today. As we approach the twenty-first century who are the real slaves in this so-called Christian land? — the Editor