Let the Church Be the Church: The Twenty First Century African American Christian Church and the Struggle for Spiritual and Moral Authenticity

By Elbert Ransom, Jr., D. Min.

“Let the Church Be the Church” is a book that provides the reader with the author’s” “up close” experience in many African-American Protestant churches throughout the United States of America over the past forty years. He grew up in the African-American Baptist church while being raised by devoted Christian parents who made the church an integral part of the lives of their four children. The book is an expose of the misunderstandings that many so-called Christians have of the church of today. The holy Bible records Jesus Christ established the church upon Peter as an institution that “the gates of Hades
will not overcome it.” Matt. 16:17b Included are some spiritual and divine offerings to those who are in search of reclaiming God’s church in hopes of kingdom building. The author extends his revelation of the bold selfishness of those who claim to have been called by God to this gospel venture, but ended up in woe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483442211

Book preview

LET THE CHURCH

BE THE CHURCH

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THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICAN

CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND THE STRUGGLE FOR

SPIRITUAL AND MORAL AUTHENTICITY

ELBERT RANSOM, JR., D. MIN.

Copyright © 2015 Elbert Ransom, Jr., D. Min.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4220-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4221-1 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 09/26/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter I The Great Proclamation

Chapter II Understanding and Submitting to the Call

Chapter III Some are Called, While Some Go

Chapter IV God’s Call and the Search Committee

Chapter V Money and the Church

Chapter VI Women in the Pulpit

Chapter VII The Church: An Advocate for Social Change

Chapter VIII The Decline of Church Music and the Rise of Rap and Hip Hop

Chapter IX Homosexuals in the Church

Chapter X Youth and the Church

Chapter XI The Church in a Changing World

Chapter XII Feed the Sheep

Chapter XIII The Church Sustainable

Chapter XLV Reclaiming the Church

Chapter XV The Church Transformed

Epilogue

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is written with humility and understanding of our human weaknesses, flaws, It is also for those who feel called by God to Christian Ministry. My early exposure and training in Christianity came from my loving parents, Elbert and Bernice Ransom who were devout in their Christian practice and service. The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sister Mary Elise, SBS, Xavier University, and Rev. A. L. Davis, Pastor of New Zion Baptist church, New Orleans, Louisiana, these individuals gave me the solid foundation on which to build my faith, and my heartfelt thanks goes to them. I offer a debt of gratitude to my wife and life partner, Louise, for her encouragement in my writing this book, and to our supportive children. Stephen, Angela and Gregory, and our eight grandchildren: Alexis, Brittany, Jordan, Joshua, Addis, Damian, Evan, and Ava. Warm memories will always rest on the thoughts of my dear aunt and uncle, Herticine and Robert Dozier for their anchoring and incubating the beginning of my professional life in Chicago, Illinois. It is fitting to thank the good people at the United States Department of State for the opportunity to travel the world, while learning about distant cultures and religions. To the inmates at the Alexandria, Virginia Adult Detention Center, my gratitude is extended for them allowing me to be instrumental in their rediscovery of the positive benefits of God-given life.

INTRODUCTION

The term black church or African American church is to be interpreted as Christian churches that were established for Christian worship, teaching and interpreting the gospel to African American congregations. The African American Church was formed before 1800. After the abolition of slavery, freed African Americans continued to establish separate congregations and church facilities that was more in keeping with their African culture. The American practice of racial segregation has been the prime enhancer of segregated churches. The African American church has a history of being the center of the African American community for all religious, political, and social needs. It is seen as the major resource for addressing racial inequities impeding social progress between the white and black communities.

For many African American Christians who have found the core of their religious teachings and enhancements in the African American church, it has been a ground swell of spiritual enlightenment in Christian growth. Many lives have received their early nurturing and developent found in Bible teaching churches or many venues of religious assembly. At one time African American churches were at the center of African American community life, where adverse matters of life were addressed and properly resolved. However, during those times of spiritual influence, the church was experienced as a sacred place where the family of God came together for Christian instructions, worshipful praise, and celebration for what the Holy Spirit had done in their lives.

As an African American man, during my early childhood I was introduced to the church and its ministerial programs that served as the very foundation of my socio-religious journey. My participation in Sunday school, Baptist Young Peoples Union (BYPU) regular Sunday Worship, and Bible School provided me with a foundational understanding of Christianity. In 1959 I relocated from New Orleans, Louisiana to Chicago, Illinois to begin my professional career. As the Baptist Covenant prescribed, I joined a local Baptist Church to be in the company of fellow Baptist Christian believers. Shortly after I relocated I underwent major cardiac surgery at Michael Reese Hospital. During my five- week stay in the hospital, where much of my stay was in intensive care, I was visited on a regular basis by a Catholic Priest who referred to me as his son. We built a warm and caring relationship while I was recuperating. Unfortunately, my Baptist pastor never took the time to visit me, and from the relationship with the caring priest, I developed a kinship with the Catholic church, and eventually became an active member.

I was fortunate enough to have some knowledge of the Catholic church, as I reflected on my undergraduate studies at Xavier University of Louisiana where I studied the Catholic doctrine and liturgy for three years, and later entered catechism that involved oral instruction from the Catholic church, and was eventually baptized as a member of Saint Dorothy’s Catholic Parish in Chicago, Illinois. My life has always been laden with some aspect of religious life, thought and practice. Between 1959 and 1967, I was employed by the Chicago Public Schools System as a teacher and the American Friends Service Committee, AFSC, the social arm of the Quaker Faith, where I learned more about peace and humanitarian service. The AFSC is an organization that includes people of various faiths who practice love, peace, and fellowship throughout the world.

My attempt is to establish a foundation for my constant striving to understand the Christian community of faith, and its commitment to kingdom building here on earth. Many of today’s churches, have come to substitute the frivolities of the world for spirituality. We need to put forth a society that espouses righteousness, justice, mercy, and love in order to create the beloved community. We also need those who profess to have been called to the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ to emulate His life, while negating self- righteousness and greed. I have never before come to such grave disappointment in so many of the African American churches, as we experience it during these critical times This book is intended to emphasize the current need for understanding or purpose in the order of divine creation, and to negate the hypocritical practices of many so-called Christian churches, while encouraging the basic tenets of the church founded upon Simon Peter by Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18). There appears to be an undue amount of emphasis and adoration placed on the alleged church leaders and their gifts of leadership than the true purpose of service to a disavowed world. Secular musical entertainment has replaced the great hymns of the church, and is given to fever pitched emotions. Church conventions, conferences and clerical gatherings have dedicated themselves to times of political, social, and financial interest.

While there is no intent to desecrate the Christian church by some perceived puritanical notion, this book is written to reintroduce an ecclesiastical renaissance to the core of our faith belief system. If we, as Christians, would dare hold true to the precepts of the Christian gospel, what an improved world we would find ourselves in. During the years I practiced as a devout Catholic, I found myself continuing the search for spiritual contentment, eventually I left the Catholic Church to explore my true calling in the Protestant church, I sought to resolve the need to be a Christian leader, and study to be an ordained Baptist Minister. I was ordained in 1984.

As a practicing ordained minister of the gospel, according to Jesus Christ, I continue to many of our Christian churches desecrating the faith by the practice of hip hop musical entertainment, popular world oratory, financial be concerned about abuse, homosexuality, the worship of self-made religious leaders who have created a new worldly gospel, and the reordering of Christian worship services that conform to the world.

The most impressive impetus in coming to my decision to answer God’s call to this great work of Christian Ministry was my close association with the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I shall always treasure, in my memory, the many times that I cut my classes to accompany him on various local trips, during the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This particular period was not very safe for him to be alone which gives reason for my presence with him. During our time together he taught me the true meaning of agape love, and the affect it has on the unloved and forgotten part of creation. It was his demonstration of righteous living that compelled me to find my place in service to the disavowed and disallowed. Service to the oppressed and disenfranchised is the understanding of our true purpose in answering God’s call to the least of humanity. We learned what true service through compassion meant when the Good Samaritan answered the needs of the ailing Jewish traveler on the road to Jericho (Luke 10:33-34). The story recounts the traveler on a journey to Jericho, but fell into the hands of some robbers who beat and robbed him. A priest passed him and did not stop to assist, and then a Levite passed, stopped, but also offered no assistance. A Samaritan man, who was at odds with the Jews, made a decision of mercy and stopped to help the traveler. As his thought was not what would happen to him in stopping to assist the man, but what will happen to the man if he did not stop and help.

In the poetic penmanship of James Russell Lowell, he wrote: Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne-Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. Lowell reminds us that, even, in our days of