Pulpit Confessions: Exposing the Black Church

By N. Moore

Pulpit Confessions: Exposing The Black Church is an honest, behind the scenes look at the African-American church. The author spent a decade as a preacher and pastor in the black church and is actually betraying an unofficial code of silence by writing this book.

The author began ministry in his teens and was pastoring by his early twenties. He speaks frankly about his and other ministers' odysseys from sincere, well-intentioned prodigies to cynical, sinful, showman.

He soon discovered that things in the church were not as they seemed. In this ground-breaking book, he describes a secular and often profane ministerial community that is often shrouded in pseudo holiness.

He exposes the thoughts and motivations of both ministers and congregations and their degenerate power struggles which often turn violent.

He pulls no punches as he untangles the myths, unravels the mystique and reveals the secrets of the Black Church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 3MB Publishing
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386432692

Book preview

PULPIT CONFESSIONS

Exposing the Black Church

N. Moore

Pulpit Confessions: Exposing the Black Church

Copyright © 1998 N. Moore

All rights reserved.

.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One

The Call

Chapter Two

The Process

Chapter Three

Obtaining a License to Preach

The Initial Consultation

Board Examination

The First Sermon

Welcome to Flunkdom

Chapter Four

Ordination

Open Ordinations

Closed Ordinations

Chapter Five

Mentors

Chapter Six

Let's Talk About Preaching

The School of Whoopology

The Academy of Plagiarism

Chapter Seven

Landing A Church

Chapter Eight

Show Me the Money

Chapter Nine

Learning to Play Hard Ball

Chapter Ten

Dr. Jekyll and Rev. Hyde

Chapter Eleven

Where Do We Go From Here?

Bibliography

Dedication

For my Grandmother

Introduction

I CHOSE TO WRITE ABOUT the black church because it is where my primary Christian and ministerial experiences are grounded. This book is more than an outright criticism of the black church. It is also a celebration of what makes it different and special. The African American church is unique in many ways from any other religious body in Christendom. There are traditions that you will find nowhere else. Some situations described in this book would simply never happen in white churches. There are problems and circumstances that arise in African American congregations that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere, including decadence and corruption on a level that I believe is unrivaled. I saw it. I was a part of it.

I am aware that there are morally upstanding black ministers who sincerely serve God and His people. I applaud them. Unfortunately, however, they are not the majority. I admire black churches that are sincere and committed to being God's ambassadors on earth. Though this book is about many different ministers and churches, I think everyone will find a little of themselves in the following pages. If the shoe fits . . .

I experienced a mixture of emotions while writing this book. I both laughed and cried. I even felt some guilt because I feared I might be tarnishing the black church's reputation, but they have done an adequate job of that by themselves. This book is not a work of fiction. The following account is true, to the best of my recollection. I'm reminded of the film, A Few Good Men, when Tom Cruise said to Jack Nicholson, I want the truth. Jack responded, You can't handle the truth!! If you cannot handle the truth, close this book now.

I have been asked, Why criticize the black church at all? I responded, Why not? The Old Testament prophets regularly chastised the Israelites when they went astray with hypocrisy and idolatry. The black church is losing its credibility and needs a wake-up call.

Why shouldn't someone criticize the black church? It does not hesitate to condemn wrong in society whenever it pleases. The church constantly preaches against drugs, while many of its ministers and members abuse alcohol and narcotics at alarming rates. The church condemns violence, yet more than a few ministers and church members have come to blows inside the sanctuary. The church scorns society for its pervasive sexual promiscuity, while its own members and ministers fornicate and commit adultery with the best of them, and often even better. Well, the tables have been turned. The spotlight is not focused on the unrighteous sinners outside the church, but on the self-righteous transgressors within.

Chapter One

The Call

HE looks like a preacher. He walks like a preacher. He sounds like a preacher. These statements are spoken by well meaning church goers; people who seem to have an insight for recognizing God's call upon another person's life. Maybe they use telepathy to see the future or maintain some other psychic power . . . or perhaps they think that any Christian who can quote ten scriptures is destined to preach. Is it possible that some of them have a spirit of discernment or is it that they simply cannot distinguish between an enthusiastic lover of the Lord and someone who is chosen to proclaim the Word? I heard those phrases. I heard those voices. I cannot say that they forced me into ministry, but they helped to influence my calling.

IMAGINE BEING IN A department store and needing help with a particular item. You look around and find someone who looks like an employee. You soon discover that they are, indeed, a customer like yourself. If someone continually mistakes this individual for a salesperson, they may be influenced to apply for a sales position even though they may be terrible at the job.

Similarly, a person who may look like a minister may not be called or equipped for that vocation. The Call to ministry is vitally important in determining whether or not a person is qualified to serve God in a professional capacity. Divine authority legitimizes a person's entry into the pulpit. Without a calling, they are unfit to fulfill the responsibilities of ministry. One should not simply choose ministry as a profession as they would law, banking, or medicine. A divine appointment is required.

Persons entering ministry under questionable pretenses is not new. These incidents range from some Catholics who purchased their church offices in the pre-Reformation era to the field hand during American slavery, who, in the heat of a long summer day's work, received a call to carry the gospel (as well as get out of the heat). Literate slaves were also prime candidates to preach and pastor.

In Parting The Waters, Taylor Branch described the formative stages of Martin Luther King's ministry.  King was initially uncertain about his professional aspirations. Young King worked as a laborer in a tobacco program during 1947. The work was difficult, but the camaraderie made it more tolerable. Things got out of hand while the young men were partying one night and they came very close to being arrested. King, a preacher's kid, knew this news would soon reach his father.

Back in Atlanta, he (King) told some of his closest friends that he had decided to soften the blow by first telling Reverend King (Sr.) what he most wanted to hear: he would follow him into ministry...The younger King's friends knew he was too sensitive to be teased about these circumstances at the time, but later they joked about how it was really the 'hot sun of the tobacco field' that had called him (Branch: 65)

The Call originates from the Biblical tradition. Moses, the emancipator of the Israelites, received his calling on a mountain when God revealed himself in a burning bush. Similarly, Isaiah's calling experience intrigues me:

Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone . . . Also I heard a voice saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I; Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6:8)

When Isaiah responded; Woe is me, for I am undone, he recognized that he was incomplete to perform a proficient job for God. Isaiah's undone complex has two manifestations. First, it encourages well-meaning Christians to mistake articulate, well-dressed individuals for potential preachers. Second, it plagues ministers