The Black American Church: Leadership Dispensation and Challenges

By Dr. Khandicia N. Randolph

The purpose of this book seeks to examine the leadership of the Black church through a critical and theoretical lens utilizing historical and anthropological foci to better identify and understand some of the challenges within the paramount institution and its attrition to the Black American community at large and provide appropriate suggestions and generating frameworks for addressing the challenges. The church has always played a pivotal role in Black American culture's identity, development, and progression. Leadership and organizational challenges within the church pervasively matriculate to other Black spaces, historically Black organizations, and a broader societal context. Due to the church's historical and ethnographic context for Blacks in America, many of the challenges faced in the church go unrecognized, unspoken, thus unattended. This manuscript endeavors to identify the challenges, and flaws through research and data, to provide solutions through practical and theoretical implementations to some shortcomings for the betterment of the church and culture. The interconnectedness of culture and religion for Blacks in America established a gargantuan impact factor on the church and its leaders. This manuscript examines the pervading effects of the influence through leadership dispensation. It also explores the understanding of leadership through the lens of Black Christianity, deriving that the foundation of leadership in the Black community was primarily circumscribed by the influence of the church as conglomerate collectivism of almost five hundred years of the history and culture of Africans, African descendants, and members of the African diaspora in what is now America who contributed to the ideal of the Black church. The critical analysis provided is not one of condemnation but likened to a vital performance review through member experiences barred against applicable leadership and organizational development barometers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887311012

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgment

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Interconnectedness of Culture and Religion

Chapter 3: Data Results

Chapter 4: Grasping Leadership

Chapter 5: Organizational Structure

Chapter 6: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Competencies

Chapter 7: Leadership Development Succession

Chapter 8: Communication

Chapter 9: Collaboration

Chapter 10: COVID-19 and Disruptors

Chapter 11: Broader Societal Context

Chapter 12: Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices

Appendix A: Questionnaire Instrument

Appendix B: Data Analysis

Appendix C

Appendix D: Tables from the literature review

Endnotes

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

About the Author

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Khandicia N. Randolph

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

Library of Congress Control Number: TXu 2-323-803

ISBN 979-8-88731-100-5 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88731-102-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88731-101-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to the multifaceted conglomerate of people in my life who ensured I arrived at this moment, never let me dream of anything less than extraordinary greatness, who continuously compelled me to be the best in all that I do, and who have prayed for me, upheld me, encouraged me and challenged me along this road called life, especially along my doctoral journey. This book is dedicated to my ancestors who made a way that I might have the opportunity to achieve and whose sacrifices resulted in this finished work. To my family, utilizing the all-encompassing definition which surpasses biology and legalities, especially my parents and friends who grew weary of listening to my seemingly never ending recitation of material, research, and the process needed to birth this manuscript and who yielded time away from me during the journey to completion, I dedicate this and say thank you.

I dedicate this to every educator in my life who dared to command nothing less than what they envisioned to be my best, in particular, my doctoral chair, who taught me lessons beyond the classroom. I dedicate this to every person wondering if they can—yes, you can! I also dedicate this to those I loved who did not live to see this project to fruition and book format; I carry you with me always. Finally, I dedicate this to the Black Church.

Acknowledgment

I would like to acknowledge hereby that without God, I am nothing, and not a single, solitary syllable in this manuscript would be possible with God. I realize that I proudly stand as a beneficiary of the materialized dreams of an unconquerable people who refused to stop forging ahead, stop fighting, and forgo their rightful inheritance. I acknowledge that I am here by faith, the faith of my ancestors, the faith of those who love me, and the faith of those who never faltered in the belief that I could and propelled me to greatness.

I acknowledge that my intersectionality of faith, academia, and passion is not an accident but was divinely prescribed that I might do great things at the appointed time. Unashamedly I acknowledge that I did not arrive at this moment alone but that it is a complex composition that includes every chapter and season of my life and every person who has influenced and demanded nothing but extreme excellence from me. Finally, I acknowledge that the best is yet to come, and this is just the beginning of manifested greatness!

A special thank you to Rev. Dr. Wayne Croft, Bishop J. Drew Sheard, and Dr. Lerone Martin for providing their expertise for the manuscript and to all who participated in the research interview. Without you, this book would not be possible.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The Black American church can be defined in many ways. The largest demographic and traditional lens of defining the Black church is through the major denominations of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church; African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion); Christian Methodist Episcopal; National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; Church of God in Christ (COGIC); National Baptist Convention of America International Inc.; Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc.; Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International; Pentecostal Assemblies of the World; and the Holiness Church. The combined population numbers of these denominations exceed twenty-five million people.¹ However, this number does not account for nondenominational churches that encompass the nuanced collective definition of the Black church. The simplified idea of the Black church traditionally refers to a group of seven historically Black church denominations, including Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal traditions. Each experience itself is diverse and contested, which caused the splintering of various denominations. Yet in nationwide surveys, roughly 80 percent of Black Americans—more than any other group—report their religion remains an essential component of their lives.² It has become more critical than ever to illuminate the Black church’s past and its present to determine effectiveness for the future. The church creates inherent importance and influence, and the responsibility of the Black church matriculates to other spaces. Another way to define this venerable institution is through the forged collective identity of the Black American distinctiveness based on experience, which has been highly influenced and architected by the church.

This manuscript seeks to explore the definition not exclusively based on denominational affiliation or transcription but the collectivism of almost five hundred years of the history and culture of Africans, African descendants, and members of the African diaspora in what is now America who contributed to the ideal of the Black church. The idea for this project was birthed from personal experience and observation of the Black church and a posited connection with other spaces in the Black American community. It was also birthed out of a desire to see the elevation and progression of an institution and people whom society has long tried to repress and oppress. Equally necessary to note is the composition of the Black church is not a singular dimension. The structure and artifacts held within are as much an intangible feeling as they are bricks in buildings and ceremonial traditions.

This text examines the literature regarding the Black American church and the dispensation of leadership and challenges therein, specifically its influence on Black American culture and society overall. There is a wealth of information regarding the history and culture of the Black church; sizably less exists on the understanding of leadership formation, enactment, and development or how the church functions as an organization. This manuscript intends to fill those gaps. This literature review aims to showcase the highlighted information regarding the history of the Black church and the cultural pervasiveness of the institution within the Black community and American society. Substantial literature was found on ways the Black church can collaborate more with the community and other organizations to promote better health and mental health in the community. There is also sufficient information regarding the effects of COVID-19 on the church and community. Still, it lacks in discussing preparation for future disruptors and the integration of pre- and post-COVID-19 needs. We also seek to provide recommendations on this subject.

The effect on the leadership within the community, America, and globally is sufficiently supplanted and proffered by the research found. The underpinning of leadership understanding and formation has also made its way into the current literature, along with the critique of succession challenges and organizational development issues within the church. Nevertheless, there is space to delve deeper into these topics. However, there remains a gap in literature examining church finances, denomination and collaboration, need for knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies, communication, accountability, financial astuteness, goals, strategy, and organizational design. The purpose of the data gathering of this project is to help fill the gaps in the literature to aid in better organizational efficacy. The data used was gathered through interviews with current and past members of Black churches in America. The questions contained therein are a compilation that speaks to the subject matter addressed in the manuscript.

A central theme throughout this manuscript is that the Black church has been a continuous fortress in the moral and spiritual plight of the Black American story, one that houses the pain and hope of past, current, and future generations of people. Although critical analysis of those things loved most and held most dear can be difficult, there is an inherent responsibility to dissect the leadership systems and articulate the challenges for the continued strength, relevance, and influence of the Black church. Thus, the established precedent shall be that when reading the subject matter contained in this book, do so from an organizational purview, not from the church member or family member’s purview or the seat or a scorner or scenic. For example, no reasonable person will stand idly by and watch a family member or friend be mistreated or verbally assaulted. However, society allows for evaluations of employees and organizations as routine practices to determine effectiveness and viability. Consider the information and subject matter critique in the book a performance review. Evaluations and self-assessments in organizations lead to continuous increased quality and organizational improvement.³

The church has long been a staple in the Black American community. From enslaved through Jim Crow, the civil rights movement until now, the institution of faith, the church, and its leadership have stood resolute in the Black American community. Prentiss states that the influence of religion is so tantamount that the social construction of race is nonexistent without it.⁴ Thus, due to the historical context of Blacks in America, many of the challenges faced in the church go unspoken, hence unattended. The purpose of this manuscript seeks to examine the leadership of the Black church through a critical and theoretical lens utilizing historical and anthropological foci to better identify and understand some of the challenges within the paramount institution and its attrition to the Black American community at large and provide appropriate suggestions for addressing the challenges. The intent of this book is not to serve as a condemnation on the Black church, its leadership, or members, but to bring awareness to the shortcomings that exist, identify them, and craft solutions that will aid the church and other culture-specific organizations, particularly member-based entities through practical implementation based on leadership theory and existing literature.

The church has always played a pivotal role in the identity, development, and progression of Black American culture. Leadership and organizational challenges within the church potentially matriculate to other Black spaces, historically Black organizations, and society, whether by intentional deployment or innate cultural and societal connectivity. Due to the church’s historical context for Blacks in America, many of the challenges faced in the church go unrecognized, unspoken, thus unattended. This manuscript endeavors to identify the challenges, and flaws through research and data, to provide solutions through practical and theoretical implementations to some shortcomings for the betterment of the church and culture. This project will also explore the understanding of leadership through the lens of Black Christianity, deriving the foundation of leadership in the Black community primarily circumscribed by the influence of the church. It furthermore highlights the responsibility of leaders within the Black church to their followers and the community.

The shortcomings identified in this book, in many instances, may be universally applicable to many other culture-centered factions of the global church. Nevertheless, particular attention is given to the Black church as the focal point for this manuscript because of the unique attrition of the church as a direct reflection of cultural inflections. The cultural development of Blacks in America has a direct and matriculating impact on missteps/challenges of leadership in the Black church, which permeates to Black American culture as a whole. Nevertheless, the issues identified can exist cross-culturally and, in many instances, are universally applicable. However, these issues are identified and discussed through a historical, cultural, and ethnographic lens, illuminating culture and race as a preceptor to the Black church’s cohesive experience, utilizing leadership as the nucleus. This macroscopic view of transient leadership draws connections and the permeation and ubiquitous nature of the effect of the leadership within the church and its societal correlation.

The rationale for critically examining the influence and matriculation of leadership within the Black church is explicitly the pronounced qualitative differences between the Black church and the White American and European establishments. The Black church excised and freed itself. The mere idyllic notion of an institution erected that helped forge a definition and experience of what it means to be Black in America demands a unique and independent examination of how its leadership impacts the broader Black American community and American community.

The notion of race has been an evolving constant at the center of Christianity in the United States. Race stems from the complex interplay of human consciousness. For the discussion held within this manuscript, race is defined as a social grouping or form of peoplehood marked by traits perceived to be biologically inherited. Ethnicity is defined as a social grouping or state of peoplehood characterized by traits perceived as culturally inherited. Religion played a significant role in creating race.⁵⁶ More specifically, Christianity was central to the process of racializing people.

Therefore, the postulation exists; there is no Black church without the racializing of Africans in America, resulting in a distinctive cultural anomaly in reference to Christianity, known as the Black church. Race perception is due to physical features that societies become conditioned to identify are different from the consequences of an individual being marked by cultural traits, such as language, diet, dress, or custom.⁷ Racial categories grow out of the complex social dynamics taking place over substantial periods, and both are shaped by particular circumstances that make the creation of social boundaries seem reasonable.⁸ Examining the above definitions in social conditions, we must conclude that the composition of the Black church includes race, ethnicity, and culture derived from both African influences in the Black American experience.

Because religion helped solidify (then) contemporary notions and definitions of race, whiteness, and blackness, it is impossible to explore the experience of being Black in America without consideration of the religious aspect and influence. Undeniably, religion added to the racial divide. According to colonizers, Christians could not be enslaved, asserting Africans were inferior in human and religious purviews.⁹ Christian principles have been the foundations of Black American quest and pursuit of equality since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Writings of Black evangelicals constitute some of the earliest Black American literature.

Enslaved Africans in America identified with the exodus story to the religious views of other religious contentions. All their own a sense of people who secured for themselves a shared history and imagined a better future for their children. The overlapping idealism is illustrated in the Langston Hughes’s poem The Negro Mother.¹⁰ In the American struggle against the dehumanizing effects of racism, the religious imagination served as one of the key sources in constructing the Black American identity.¹¹ Identities are made. They are not static or fixed; thus, the identification of the Black race in America and the Black church remain intertwined and interdependent of one another and crafted and defined solely by the group. Identity is less about essences and more about the consequences of human interaction: the product of our beliefs, choices, and actions as we engage our world. The biblical analogy in the context of the US and the exodus story of the Israelites then produces meaning regarding the conditions of Black Americans that became appeared paradigmatic for the construction of Black identity and politics.¹² The Black church helped form the collective identity of the Black American identity based on experience. In fact, the exodus thought paradigm has been central to most political efforts and Black American history.

The notion of race assignments constructed on cultural antecedents produces the indelible impression and stain the Black church imparts upon the Black community. As will be presented in chapter 2, the construct of religion and faith is so pervasive in Black American culture that there is no understanding of identification of culture without it. Therefore, the responsibility of this manuscript encompasses an inherent responsibility not solely to the Black church but to those who identify with the collective experience of a people. As with many historically Black organizations and institutions in America, the Black church was formed out of necessity. However, the need was not solely due to separation based on racial segregation. Conversely, many White Christian churches initiated the conversion of enslaved Africans to Christians. Nevertheless, there was a convicting desire among freed and enslaved Africans to establish a Christian church that embodied the spirit of who they were as a people.

Enslaved Africans employed various strategies and developed new forms of religious expression to acculturate to their lives on a new continent. The grand legacy of the spoken-word tradition starting in slavery, without a doubt, reached this Christian thought and the Black American church. Many enslaved people underwent the cross-process of creolization, which refers to the assimilation and acculturation of Africans into African Americans.¹³ They were the language of music in the music of language meet to create one grand, in immutable, irresistibly powerful form.¹⁴ By the eighteenth century, enslaved people showed that their religious beliefs could survive the torturous passage and empower resistance. The religious beliefs and practices of enslaved African people clearly influenced the development of Black American history.

Historical and contemporary studies of Black Christianity in America show a correlation and connectivity to African roots and traditions. The traditions, culture, and history of the enslaved Africans never ceased to exist once brought to America. The use of drums and call and response is direct use of Sankofa to the West African traditions. Besides the ritual of song and dance, medicine rituals also helped shape the religious life in Western Central Africa predating enslaved Africans in America. Enslaved in America was explicitly a racial form of enslaved. The racial prescription contrasted traditional forms of enslaved found worldwide, which were not racially biased. Thus, any religious defense of enslaved in America would have to clarify God’s providence in having one race of people bequeathed right of humanity and enslaving another.¹⁵¹⁶ From these confines and shackles, Black Christianity in Black churches was erected.

Gates proffers no pillar of the African American community has been more central to its history, identity, and social justice vision than the Black church.¹⁷ Within Christianity, there are two stories, one of the people defining themselves in the presence of a higher power and the other of their journey for freedom and equality in a land where power itself—and even humanity—for so long was and still is denied to them. These churches make up the oldest institution created and controlled by Black Americans. Since its inception, the church has stood as the foundation of Black religious, political, economic, and social life.

The church provided a refuge: a place of racial and individual self-affirmation, teaching and learning, of psychological and spiritual sustenance, of prophetic faith; a symbolic space where Black people, enslaved and free, could mature the hope for a better today and a much better tomorrow.¹⁸ The Black church serves both secular and spiritual needs. According to Croft, there is no separation of the sacred and the secular for the Africans and their descendants.¹⁹ Its music and linguistic traditions have permeated popular culture, and the spiritual devotion to the ideas of liberation, equality, redemption, and love has challenged and remade the nation repeatedly.

Today, the Black church continues to animate Black identity for believers and nonbelievers as a spiritual center—a place of worship—and the social center and cultural repository.²⁰ The contextual ideas of the church create links in a chain of cultural continuity that connects Africa to Black America. The Black church has a distinct language, its own symbols, and a peculiar experience all its own. It provides a reprieve from the racist world, a place for Black Americans to come together in the community and advance their aspirations through song, prayer, and shout-out their frustrations. The charge fueled slave rebellions, nurtured and sustained the Underground Railroad, and was the training ground for the orders of the abolitionist movement and ministers as Richard Harvey Cain.²¹ He emerged as a powerful and influential political leader during the Reconstruction era. The Black church powered anti-lynching campaigns, campaigned for boycotts, and formed the infrastructure for the meeting places during the civil rights era. It has served as a social transformation driving engine in America.

The Black church proved as a breeding ground that fostered community bonds in establishing the first local, regional, and then national Black social networks. The presence of the Black church is ubiquitous not only in the Black American society, construction, and culture but American culture and history. The story of religion in African American culture carries us into almost every corner of the Black American experience. The musical stylings of the church have influenced a plethora of Black singers, ranging over a host of genres. Such examples of musical infiltration include Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, The Clark Sisters, Kirk Franklin, Mali Music, Sir the Baptist, Commissioned, Boys II Men, PJ Morton, and many others.

The confluence of gospel music crosses barriers. At the funeral of Aretha Franklin, gospel legends, The Clark Sisters, performed their song Is My Living in Vain. Immediately, members of the crowd stood to their feet. Perhaps most astonishing is the pedigree of people who were in the audience: Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William Barber II, Pres. Bill Clinton, Roland Martin, Tyler Perry, Whoopi Goldberg; giants from the political, spiritual, entertainment and media worlds not only stood in ovation but collectivism. They knew the song. They felt the song. They joined the collective experience. The uncategorized influence of the Black church remains unrivaled. Make no mistake; this influence permeates the leadership world.

Examining the purveyance of the church within the Black community must also be explored from a social construct lens. The Black church is central to the questions raised concerning human intellect and technology, especially regarding the industrial revolution.²² The Black church can be described as the Black religious experience shared by Black people across denominational lines, the continent, and the diaspora. The Black church transcends church buildings and becomes a spiritual experience of those deemed as subhuman and thus enslaved for the enterprise of servitude to White and Western socioeconomic, technological, and cultural expansion.²³ The role of a Black church expresses liberation as central to the articulation of faith and belief in a transcendent God, who is revealed intellectually, politically, and existentially to Black Christians. Such notions embrace the ubiquitous nature of God for Black Christians. Billingsley notes the historically Black church through the lens of the Black preacher: the preacher is the unique personality developed by the African on American soil. A leader, a politician, an orator, a boss, an intriguer, an idealist.²⁴²⁵

Mdingi espouses the role of the Black preacher or theologian in the twenty-first century should be modeled around the preacher who is the idealist, politician, and leader to mold the spiritual and intellectual aspects of believers and context toward an egalitarian conception of freedom rooted in an intervening and community-based God.²⁶ Understanding and identifying what leadership is and assigns an illustration of leadership in the preacher and other church leaders. One might liken the prescription for a leadership theory specific to Black church leadership. The constant role that the notion of the Black church should continue to play, which is a deep commitment to the value of human fragility and the importance of humaneness, should not be replaced by technology. Relegating that technology can be a magnanimous asset or detrimental adversary to leadership dispensation within this unique element.²⁷ The idea of a distinct balance between change and retention of history, culture, and Sankofa within the Black church is one of the subjects explored in this book.

Any institution, person, or group of people who hold such a significant impartation in the lives of people and the identity of culture must engage in evaluative forms of self and organizational development. It is highly improbable from a corporate purview that an organization dating back to 1790 looks or operates the same as it did 230 years ago. While the entity’s mission, vision, and values may remain constant, how they are enacted and effectuated must change over time. Additionally, the look, sounds, and even intangible feelings metamorphose over time to reflect the metamorphosis of the people and the church itself. One of the strengths of the Black church is the deep structures and steel posts that erected and sustained it. But these same deep structures that have kept it anchored through a multitude of changes and challenges sometimes hinder its growth and transformation.

The deeply rooted posts that substantiate the Black church’s weight also made it resistant and sometimes adverse to change.²⁸ The organizational culture of the Black church is like that of none other. Understanding the cultural pervasiveness of the Black church in Black and American society is essential in understanding how leadership dispensation within the church affects the broader community. Yet before comprehensively tackling this initial and predicating notion, it is noteworthy to examine the fundamental diverging definitions and conceptualizations of culture. Swidler defines culture as symbolic vehicles of meaning, including beliefs, ritual practices, art forms, and ceremonies, as well as informal cultural practices, such as language, gossip, stories, and rituals of daily life (p. 273).²⁹ The definition is a departure from an understanding of culture that emphasizes how ideas shape group worldviews and behavior,³⁰ or one in which a collective consciousness helps establish group dynamics.³¹ It also dissents from Schein’s definition of culture as a shared learning experience of organization members where the previously mentioned components of culture are considered artifacts.³²

The previous, more rudimentary definition of culture as a shared way of life has also been supplanted by conceptualizations that position culture as the mediator between social symbols, meaning, and experience. According to Swidler, culture consists of socially constructed symbols and activities that define and establish and reinforce expected behavior, accepted, and normalized among group members.³³ Based on cultural theory, a cultural repertoire or tool kit reflects rituals, stories, symbols, and beliefs used to negotiate a place in society. Swidler posits that the components of culture are not the mechanisms by which we explain results, but more appropriately, they are the means to processes that bring about desired results.³⁴ Furthermore, culture is expected to provide the impetus and meaning for such functions and undergird resource mobilization.

Via culture, persons can identify issues and challenges, make sense of them, and formulate strategies to address them. If, as Swidler contends, culture provides the materials from which individuals and groups construct strategies of action (p. 280),³⁵ one should be able not only to identify those cultural components most effective in developing strategies but, ideally, quantify them. Although the terminology may differ, Swidler’s argument parallels other scholars who have established linkages between cultural components and behavioral patterns in general. Because of the contributing nature of human behavior exchanges between leaders and followers to comprehend leadership,³⁶ we must understand the cultural elements of the Black church to understand its leadership.

Another important aspect of cultural analysis centers on how culture is framed (i.e., purposely arranged, produced, and presented) to effect community action.³⁷ Applying Benford specifically to Black church dynamics, framing can be implemented to encourage advocates regarding the severity and urgency of social problems that affect the Black community and their efficacy and propriety as potential change agents.³⁸ Symbolic framing utilization identifies culture as process and product, crucial for sustaining organizations and members who face uncertainty, circumstances beyond their control, and paradoxes.

Swidler’s central theoretical framework asserts that culture provides the materials from which we construct action strategies.³⁹ These strategies, plans, movements, and other relevant happenings dictate the embodiment of leadership systems. Black church culture is a conduit between commonly held beliefs, rituals, and experiences among African descendants and Black Americans and subsequent processes. It plans to address pressing social problems, thus implementing the multidimensional facet of Black church leadership.

Contemporary church leaders use the Bible to liberate the poor, expanding to non-church members. Barnes’s research shows of the 1,863 Black congregations sampled, more than 90 percent are involved in community service as broadly defined here.⁴⁰ A similar percentage sponsors youth programs; three-fourths of the churches support food pantries and voter registration drives; at least 40 percent are involved in substance abuse or social-issues programs.⁴¹ The data shows continuing evidence of the overlap of leadership stemming from the Black church. The overlapping nature of leadership adds a new dimension to the definition and concept of culture and exploring and evaluating it.

Considering Swidler, Benford, and Schein’s definition and theoretical construct of culture,⁴² the best approach for this manuscript is to combine all three definitions and frameworks to garner a truly comprehensive understanding of the impact of culture in the Black church and its leadership. Thus, culture consists of socially constructed symbols, activities, beliefs, dispositions, and communication that define, establish, and reinforce expected behaviors accepted and normalized among group members that structure and prescribe their strategies, actions, responsibilities, and priorities. These are formulated as a product of shared and collective experiences. The above definition provides the most comprehensive application of culture and its imputing force in the Black church, providing a better understanding of the pervasiveness of the Black church in Black American culture. Regardless of the definition used to define the corporate culture of the Black church, it is agreeable that it is a conglomeration of cultural inflections and experiences not specific to one denomination, geographic area, or a single set of traditions. Its composition exists of a polylithic construction of the cultural components.

Yet how does one examine the leadership construct, effectiveness, challenges, execution, and systems without a framework that encompasses the peculiar nature and composition of the Black church and preacher? The Black church was and remains an American cultural phenomenon and anomaly from inception. The interconnection and intersection of culture, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and necessity created an institution that cannot be singularly examined. It is insufficient and irresponsible to impose a lone leadership theory, framework, or construct on an entity that curtails, for some, the sum of the Black American experience. Throughout the book, various leadership theories, such as charismatic leadership, which is quite popular in the church, leader-member exchange theory, transactional, transformational, and servant leadership theories, will all be applied to the corporate archetypes used throughout the Black church. Conceivably, one of the most applicable frameworks and theories to use when examining the leadership dispensation in the Black church is the full range leadership development theory model as presented by Sosik and Jung.⁴³

Accentuated by the notion leadership is a comprehensive entity reliant on many factors and a dynamic and complex system, the full range leadership development theory approaches leadership from a comprehensively interrogative lens. The framework considers the attributes (antecedents) of leaders and followers, each continuum, the impact of internal and external system factors, and the development of all parties involved within the leadership system. Therefore, as we delve into the tenants of leadership and organizational development and effectiveness, let it be done from a comprehensive interrogative understanding the Black church is a unique amalgamation of faith, morality, politics, social justice, economic equality, health disparity advocate, educational pilar and subsidy, community, culture, race, and ethnicity that transcends time and serves as the chief cornerstone to an ostracized people. Each person, antecedent, time frame, and situation must be understood from the individual, contributing, and collective system contexts to understand leadership in its comprehensive definition and execution.

So then, the question remains, what is leadership dispensation in the Black church? What does it look like, feel like? How does it differ from leadership in other places and spaces? What makes it different, more challenging, and more impactful? Perhaps more prudent to this body of literature is what makes it so unique and such a conundrum to dedicate this particular writing to the subject matter? The following chapters are devoted to exploring various leadership and organizational development aspects of the Black church, highlighting the role the past inflicts upon the present and deriving an understanding of the aptitude necessary for the future. Recall that this manuscript is intended to provide a critical analysis of leadership dispensation within this vast yet particular space of the Black church and its relevance and permeation into other spaces in Black and American culture. It is not lost or is this author naive enough to discount that opposition and diverging opinions come with critical analysis and criticism. Thus, as you prepare to read this book, do so through the theoretical lens of leadership and organizational development, not simply as a critique.

Put away your blinders and your bias, positive or negative. The only bias that should be implored while reading this manuscript is the preference and predisposition toward leadership and organizational development and effectiveness. Cloak yourself to understand that the Black church is more than just the cornerstone of the Black American culture as though that was somehow insufficient on its own. It serves as a leadership compass just as it does a moral compass. The time has come to examine it through the navigation system of leadership efficacy and organizational effectiveness and operations. But before the commencement of this task, let’s explore the definition and construct of leadership and organizational astuteness and structure.

Leadership is