Reviving the Black Church

By Thabiti Anyabwile

Is the Black Church dying? The picture is mixed and there are many challenges. The church needs spiritual revival. But reviving and strengthening the Black Church will require great wisdom and courage.   Reviving the Black Church calls us back to another time, borrowing the wisdom of earlier faithful Christians. But more importantly, it calls us back to the Bible itself. For there we find the divine wisdom needed to see all quarters of the Black Church live again, thriving in the Spirit of God. It’s pastor and church planter Thabiti Anyabwile's humble prayer that this book might be useful to pastors and faithful lay members in reviving at least some quarters of the Black Church, and churches of every ethnicity and context— all for the glory of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781433688843

Book preview

Some have argued the Black Church is dying or, even worse, dead. Others staunchly defend her and her indomitable spirit. In this well-written book, my brother and friend Thabiti Anyabwile cuts through the conjecture and anecdotes and offers a loving critique and hopeful encouragement for the church he loves and desires to see revived and faithful. Reviving the Black Church is both timely and refreshing. If you love the Black Church like I do, you will want to read this book and hope our beloved church’s obituary has proved false.

—Tony Carter, Lead Pastor, East Point Church (East Point, GA)

Thabiti Anyabwile is one of my favorite authors (as well as one of my favorite people), so it is saying quite a bit for me to say that I think this is his best book yet. His powers of analysis have been clear in earlier works—his love and appreciation and hopes for African-American churches come to the fore in this book. Reviving is God’s work we know, but the appearance of a book like this suggests that He is at work doing it even as we ask. Read this book and pray in hope.

—Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, DC)

This is a must read for anyone who wants to know the truth of how we as a people gravitated toward emotional religion, instead of an expository relationship with our Savior. This book puts us back on track.

—Don Hayes, Pastor, Oakland Baptist Church (Alexandria, VA)

With her tradition of annual weeklong preaching services, the historic Black Church has always in some way been interested in being revived. Thabiti’s Reviving the Black Church points the way forward for her with biblically clear, precise, and extremely hopeful insights. I grew up in her, came to Christ in her, was married, licensed, and ordained to gospel ministry by her. If you love her as I do, then pick up several copies and pass them along to everyone you know, who is interested in the future of this sacred institution.

—Louis C. Love Jr., Pastor, New Life Fellowship Church (Vernon Hills, IL) and Contributor, The Front Porch

Every now and then a book is written that is truly on time and speaks to a critical need in our lives. Every now and then a book is written that truly speaks what many of us in the body of Christ are thinking. Well, Reviving the Black Church is such a book. Thabiti Anyabwile has written a book that should be required reading for every pastor, every leader, and every member of a black church! For a lot of reasons, the Black Church is not as effective in our communities and our cities as she once was. Therefore our communities and cities are suffering the consequences of a church that seems to be sick and unhealthy. However this book gives us the prescription we need to revive the Black Church. As God asked the prophet Ezekiel once, can these bones live? Well Anyabwile through this book would say YES!! I highly recommend this life-giving book!

—Fred Luter Jr. Pastor, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church (New Orleans, LA) and Former President, Southern Baptist Convention 

Though many have grown discouraged, the Black Church is ripe for revival! Remaining faithful to our historical tradition and our biblical foundation, Thabiti Anyabwile is a prominent voice in the area of church health. Reviving the Black Church is a thoughtful, respectful, and challenging treatment of the viability of the African-American church. This book renews excitement and zeal for the great move of God taking place in our local faith communities.

—Dr. Bobby Manning, Pastor, First Baptist Church of District Heights (MD) and author of Saving Our Sons: Effectively Engaging Young Men of Color

Reviving the Black Church makes me as jealous as it does joyous: How I have longed to express these ideas for my people in such simple terms! Thabiti provides a blueprint for refashioning the Black Church to make a transformational impact in the African-American community and the world. Its loving, biblically-guided, yet biting, no-nonsense, manifesto calls the Black Church away from a syncretistic association with the culture to a redemptive relationship with the culture. Unflinching in his call to recover a New Testament church, Thabiti’s proposal is sure to draw naysayers and enemies as he prioritizes identifying the people of God over seeking social significance. But such critics should give the work a full and judicious hearing, for the sake of the exaltation of our people, and for the salvation of people everywhere. Out of deep love for the Black Church, Thabiti has spoken up loudly and timely, with grace and truth.

—Eric C. Redmond, Assistant Professor of Bible, Moody Bible Institute, and author of Where Are All the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men’s Questions About the Church

This is the book for which I’ve longed. Anyabwile takes seriously the scholarly and activist chastisements of the Black Church, while himself offering a hopeful, gospel-driven challenge to black congregations on spiritual life support. The prophetic word is sure: dry bones can live again if we hear the word of the Lord and receive afresh God’s invigorating breath. Reviving the Black Church should be read critically and receptively by everyone who loves God’s blemished yet beautiful Black Church. If nothing else, it will convict us to pray for revival! Let it begin in me.

—CJ Rhodes, Pastor, Mount Helm Baptist Church (Jackson, MS)

Churches can die, because Jesus said they can. He warns that the church in Sardis was on the verge of death. Europe, the birthplace of Protestantism, is strewn with once vibrant but now spiritually dead churches. Like Thabiti, I fear that the Black Church is not well and is in dire need of revival. The question that every pastor must answer is how can I help? But unfortunately, pastors, like most men when we’re lost, don’t like to stop and ask for help. I’ve had a lot of how do we help the church? questions, and I think Thabiti answered all of them and more. This is simply the most helpful handling of the Scriptures about reviving the church that I have ever read. So if you are burdened with a concern for the urban church, please, please, read Reviving the Black Church and apply it.

—Bobby Scott, Co-pastor, Community of Faith Bile Church (Los Angeles, CA)

As pastor of a predominantly African-American church established by free slaves more than 150 years ago, I cannot express how encouraged I was to read Reviving the Black Church. This book speaks to the heart of every person who has a passion to see black churches thrive in the truth of the gospel. But this is not just a book to be read, but a reference tool to be consulted for guidance on how any church, but particularly the African-American church, can experience true revival. Thabiti pours into this book his personal experience, pastoral concern, sound wisdom, biblical support and a knowledge of the history, tradition, and culture of the Black Church. I highly recommend this book for those considering the call to ministry, newly installed into the ministry, pastoral search committees as well as church members.

—Victor G. Sholar, Senior Pastor, Main Street Baptist Church (Lexington, KY)

Thabiti Anyabwile speaks as one who loved the Black Church, left the Black Church, was saved in the Black Church, and still loves (and hopes for!) the Black Church. His experience and biblical fidelity should merit a reader’s attention. This book sounds like that old hymn, Revive Us, Again.

—Kevin L. Smith, Assistant Professor of Christian Preaching, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Reviving the Black Church is an excellent resource for any pastor or lay member. Chapter by chapter and line by line, the reader can hear the cry of Thabiti Anyabwile’s heart to recover a biblical approach to pastoral ministry and authentic Christian living. Brother Anyabwile provides innovative responses to the challenges that face not only the Black Church, but also the church community at large.

—Nelson Sneed, Senior Pastor, Little Forest Baptist Church (Stafford, VA)

Reviving the Black Church is the book I’ve been waiting for from Thabiti Anyabwile. With a pastor’s heart and a theologian’s mind, Pastor Anyabwile strides right up to the wolves prowling in some black churches and scatters them with the rod of God’s Word. But unlike others who coldly critique the church, Pastor Anyabwile speaks the truth in love, realizing that even with her flaws, the church is Christ’s bride and the womb that nurtures our faith. While focused on the Black Church, this book will inspire believers from all church backgrounds to esteem God’s Word more highly and work for the health of the body more diligently. If you love Christ and His church, this book will thrill and inform you.

—Jemar Tisby, President of the Reformed African American Network and Director of the African American Leadership Initiative at RTS Jackson

Copyright © 2015 by Thabiti Anyabwile All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 978-1-4336-8632-0 Published by B&H Publishing Group Nashville, Tennessee Dewey Decimal Classification: 262 Subject Heading: BLACK CHURCHES \ BLACKS \ CHURCH Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the English Standard Version® (

esv®

), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Also used: Holy Bible, New International Version®,

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, Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Unless marked as 2011, all

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references are taken from 1984 version. Also used: King James Version (

kjv

) which is public domain. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 • 19 18 17 16 15

Dedication

Rev. F. D. Betts (Files Chapel Baptist Church)

Rev. John A. Cherry II (From the Heart Church Ministries)

Rev. Dr. E. R. McNair (Spring Garden Baptist Church)

Rev. John W. Cade (Files Chapel Baptist Church)

Rev. Peter L. Rochelle (Church on the Rock)

Rev. Mark E. Dever (Capitol Hill Baptist Church)

Men and pastors the Lord has used to bless my life.

Acknowledgments

First giving honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you’ve ever sat in an African-American church when visitors are welcomed, you’ve no doubt heard someone stand and begin their introduction with those words. Aren’t they fitting words? I’ve never done anything worthwhile that didn’t entirely depend upon the grace of God. If this book proves to be worthwhile, the credit and honor will be due to God our Father. First, I want to acknowledge and honor God, apart from whom we can do nothing.

After the Lord, the second person to whom I owe thanks is Kristie, my wife, best friend, fellow foodie, and partner in everything. You deserve my undying appreciation for not only putting up with me but also making me better than I would ever have been without you. You have made me happy since the moment I first saw you. You are the good thing I’ve found and "favor from the L

ord

(Prov. 18:22). I see you in my eyes."

Several brothers read the manuscript and provided incredibly helpful insight and constant encouragement. My brother and partner in crime at The Front Porch, Louis Love, helped me keep perspective and make my thoughts clearer. Mark Dever read every word, called, or Skyped after each chapter, and spurred me on in completing the book. Eric Redmond kept me in dialogue with points of view different from my own and seemed to drop me notes each time I got distracted from writing.

Over the years the entire team at 9Marks Ministries has left so many deposits of grace in my life that it’s sometimes difficult to know when an idea was my own or really should be credited to them. To each of you, thank you for being faithful to our Lord and for investing so richly in me and in so many churches around the world.

Devin Maddox, my editor at B&H, has shepherded this project with constant enthusiasm and care. I’m grateful not only for our partnership in this project but also for our growing friendship. Thank you for caring about the church and serving her with your talents.

Many of the ideas in this book have been tested and refined in the lives of at least four churches: Church on the Rock (Raleigh, NC), Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, DC), First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands), and Anacostia River Church (Washington, DC). Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving you and learning from you.

I know I risk missing someone I love who played an incredible part in this journey. If so, please forgive me and give me a hard time every chance you get so that I might learn to be thoughtful. But go ahead and buy the book and multiple copies for friends!

Introduction

Is the Black Church Dead? Or, Can These Bones Live?

The hand of the L

ord

was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the L

ord

and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, "O Lord G

od

, you know."

—Ezekiel 37:1–3

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

—Revelation 3:1–6

The Obituary

On February 24, 2010, in the waning days of Black History Month, Princeton professor of religion and Chair of African-American studies, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., hurled a grenade into the sleepy camp of the Black Church. Glaude posed and answered a question that many whisper in private, but few dare raise in public. They will debate with passion one-on-one, but not in a widely-read forum such as the Huffington Post.

In a single post, Glaude felled both the long-standing African-American principle of not airing your dirty laundry in public (read, ethnically mixed public) and the African-American belief that the Black Church is the one necessary institution in the African-American community.¹ In the post, Professor Glaude offered three reasons he believes the Black Church is dead.

First, he points to the conservatism of some black congregations, a conservatism at odds with the traditional narrative describing the Black Church as a progressive force in African-American and American life. Glaude points out that the true narrative is more complex than traditionally believed, and apparently the continuance of conservative black churches means the death of the venerable though mythic Black Church.

Second, the differentiation and diversity of today’s African-American communities mean there is no center of black life at which the church can stand. As Glaude puts it, The idea of a black church standing at the center of all that takes place in a community has long since passed away. Instead, different areas of black life have become more distinct and specialized—flourishing outside of the bounds and gaze of black churches.² Glaude identifies competition with nondenominational and evangelical megachurches as another factor leading to the death of the Black Church. He sees these alternative worship communities attracting more African-American worshippers than was possible historically.

Third, and most important for Glaude, the routinization of black prophetic witness means that too many people assume the prophetic past of the church will continue to be true for today’s social and political context. They mistakenly think the church is inherently prophetic and active rather than necessarily redeployed in fresh and changing contexts by each successive generation. According to Glaude, Prophetic energies are not an inherent part of black churches, but instances of men and women who grasp the fullness of meaning to be one with God. This can’t be passed down, but must be embraced in the moment in which one finds one’s feet. This ensures that prophetic energies can be expressed again and again.³

Glaude poetically describes a dead black church from his view: Memory becomes its currency. Its soul withers from neglect. The result is all too often church services and liturgies that entertain, but lack a spirit that transforms, and preachers who deign for followers instead of fellow travelers in God.⁴ Consequently, the church loses its power because it becomes alienated from the moment in which it lives. For Glaude, the most telling evidence of rigor mortis is the church’s inaction on a range of social causes, including unemployment, health care, child poverty, incarceration, home foreclosures, and helplessness. He laments the absence of a coordinated national program of cooperation between churches to remedy these issues. For him, such inaction smells like death. Glaude’s article reads like an obituary for a once-great person who survived long beyond his or her usefulness and prime.

The Wake

But Glaude is not the only person asking the question, Is the Black Church dead? Prompted by Glaude’s provocative Huffington Post comments, Columbia University’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies and their Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life sponsored in October 2010 a panel discussion on the topic.⁵ In 2012, Professor Anthony Bradley, in a conference to promote his recently released book, Keep Your Head Up: America’s New Black Christian Leaders, Social Consciousness, and the Cosby Conversation, featured a panel discussion asking the same question.

But, this is not a new question for the African-American community. It’s a question that lingers in the minds of everyone who loves the Black Church, like heavy-hearted mourners at a wake wondering to themselves, How did he die so soon? I didn’t even know he was sick.

I’ve been in informal and formal gatherings around the country where this topic has haunted conversation and dialogue. In one two-week period, I found myself discussing the health, sickness, or death of the Black Church in Atlanta, Louisville, and Los Angeles. A palpable fear and trepidation invaded the room each time someone posed the question. Faces sallowed. Shoulders slouched. Eyes fell to the floor, surveying tiles and shoelaces to avoid the daunting implications. No one wants to say aloud, My loved one is dying, even if the doctors have already summoned hospice-care workers. Even if doctors have already uttered the dreaded words, There is nothing else we can do, we feel unable to pronounce a family member’s imminent demise.

But we do have a surprising ease and fluency at sharing the news of death in someone else’s family. I can’t recount the number of times I’ve heard my mother and other older ladies in the community share the news of someone’s failing fight with cancer, sudden death in their sleep, or pig-headed avoidance of proper health care on the way to the grave. These older women spoke freely, in detail, and with the entire range of human emotion about deaths in other families. But those same ladies would press their lips tight before speaking that way about their own spouses, parents, or children.

So it is that Pentecostals call quiet churches dead. Liberationists proclaim politically inactive churches dead. Conservatives label liberal churches dead. It seems everyone thinks churches not like their own ought to be given a proper burial and the news broadcast for others to know.

But Did Anyone Identify the Body?

Responses to Glaude’s comments were steady and varied. For instance, Byron Williams—syndicated columnist, author, and pastor of Resurrection Community Church in Oakland, California—readily agreed with Glaude that the Black Church is dead but for different reasons than those proposed by Glaude. According to Williams, Glaude "is right because the institution that he critiques in his essay never existed (emphasis mine). Williams called the Black Church of Glaude’s essay a straw man made for easy dismantling. According to Williams, The myth of the black church being the storehouse of the nation’s moral compass was created largely during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. But history indicates that it is more accurate to suggest that there have been individuals who were products of the historical black church that were on the cutting edge of justice and equality issues than to offer the institution as pushing the nation en masse to live up to the ideals to which it committed itself in 1776."⁶

Williams reminds us that of the five hundred black churches in Birmingham, less than twenty actively marched with King. Many of Birmingham’s black pastors opposed King by using the same outside agitator language white segregationists once used to describe the Civil Rights leader. Williams ends his essay by suggesting that the real difficulty lies with the inability of the Black Church proponents to embrace the high and the low moments of the institution . . . with equal authenticity. The mythic Black Church is dead, or perhaps needs to die.⁷

Of course, not everyone agreed with Professor Glaude’s assessment. Joel C. Gregory, a white professor of preaching at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and coauthor of What We Love about the Black Church,⁸ took issue with Glaude’s pronouncement of the Black Church’s death. Gregory, a self-described veteran of preaching in more than two hundred African-American congregations, conferences, and conventions in more than twenty states each year, found himself at a loss for an explanation of Glaude’s statements. Gregory offered six signs of vitality in the African-American church, including: thriving preaching, vitality in worship, continuing concern for social justice, active community service, high regard for education, and efforts at empowerment. Gregory contends that these signs of life can be found in African-American congregations in every historically black denomination and in varying regions across the country. He writes:

Where is the obituary? I do not know any organization in America today that has the vitality of the black church. Lodges are dying, civic clubs are filled with octogenarians, volunteer organizations are languishing, and even the academy has to prove the worth of a degree. The government is divided, the schoolroom has become a war zone, mainline denominations are staggering, and evangelical megachurch juggernauts show signs of lagging. Above all this entropy stands one institution that is more vital than ever: the praising, preaching, and empowering black church.⁹

The back-and-forth between those pronouncing death and those highlighting life reveals the difficulty of defining the Black Church. In fact, we must admit that speaking of "the Black Church remains a quixotic quest. The Black Church" really exists as multiple black churches across denominational, theological, and regional lines. To some extent, we can define the Black Church by referring to the historically black denominations—National Baptist, Progressive Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ), Church of God in Christ (COGIC), and so on. But increasingly we must recognize that one part of the Black Church exists as predominantly black congregations belonging to majority white denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention or even African-American members of predominantly white churches. Still, other quarters of the Black Church belong to nondenominational affinity groups like the many congregations involved in Word of Faith and prosperity gospel networks sponsored by leaders like Creflo A. Dollar Jr. and T. D. Jakes.

Clearly the Black Church is not one thing. Black churches come in as many flavors as any other ethnic communion. Indeed, many African-Americans have experiences with many parts of the varied Black Church world.

I grew up attending a Missionary Baptist congregation. I came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ while visiting an AMEZ church. My first church home was a congregation belonging to the National Baptist Convention. Later, my family and I joined a team of families to help plant a predominantly African-American nondenominational church. A few years later we became members of an ethnically diverse but predominantly white Southern Baptist church in Washington, DC, before going to pastor a multiethnic largely Afro-Caribbean congregation in the Cayman Islands.

Speaking of the Black Church calls for careful differentiation. We have to identify the body before we can finally conclude a death has occurred. But at least the family has been called and alerted to the possibility that a beloved relative could expire.

What Makes a Church Alive?

Amidst all the autopsies, coroner reports, and death announcements, two questions often go unasked: What makes a church alive? And, can a dead church live again? Everyone assumes they know what constitutes life and simply mourns the impending or recent death. And, surprisingly for a people whose Lord rose from the grave three days after death, few consider the resurrection of the church a real possibility.

Professor Glaude’s pronouncement of the Black Church’s demise construed that death largely in terms of the church’s loss of prophetic energy, its public insistence upon justice for the marginalized, poor, and vulnerable. A living church expresses itself in social action according to Glaude. However, others think of dynamic worship as the main indicator of life in a congregation. Still some others contend supernatural signs and wonders signify the presence of spiritual life. The symptoms and activities of life don’t constitute life itself. But even a decapitated chicken mimics life after its fated encounter with the ax.

Where does life come from? What is the source?

The Lord Jesus taught the earliest followers, the apostles, where genuine spiritual life comes from when He said, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24

niv

). Life comes from hearing the Lord’s Word and believing it. Or, as the Lord puts it in John 6:63, The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life (

niv

). Spiritual vitality results from the Spirit of God using the Word of God to quicken faith in Jesus Christ. That life, though abundant, does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15), nor is it a matter of the flesh, of human nature exerting itself in various deeds of righteousness (John 1:13).

Life comes from God to the church through His Word and Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ.¹⁰ There is no other source of life. So the Master proclaims, I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Or, as Jesus puts it to Martha in the moving scene following the death of Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25–26). Life is bound up in the Son of God (1 John 5:11–12), who quickens everyone who believes in Him. Even though a person dies in Christ, he shall yet live and never die!

Which brings us to our second crucial question: Can a dead church live again?

Do We Need a Eulogy or a Birth Announcement?

Like most African-Americans my age and older, I have been touched by the virtue and disturbed by the failures of the African-American church. I have had some of the