Shepherding in the African American Community - Pastoral Care Conversations: Volume I, #1

By Willie A. Glaster, Jr.

There came a time in my journey that I could not ignore who I was or where I came from.  When I looked into the eyes of a sixty-five-year-old Black deacon who attended my worship service, I wanted to ask -- "does my preaching make any connection with you?"  Did this third-grade un-nurtured boy understand the concept of love, while he lived in the home of a female single parent?  How does the female adolescent respond to her mother's loss of employment?  When did all these thoughts suddenly appear?  

 

With these childhood contextual images etched into my memory, I have chosen to write this book to discuss possible ways of observing African American pastoral care and maybe we can have serious dialogue.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie A. Glaster, Jr.
• Release date: Feb 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224847051

Willie A. Glaster, Jr.

Willie Glaster is a 20-year Air Force Veteran who currently works as a Senior Management Analyst.  He volunteers his time in efforts that support veterans and communities around Fort Worth, Texas.   Both Willie Glaster and his wife Anita are master's degreed,  ordained ministers.  They have been married for 34 years and are empty nesters who reside in Forest Hill, Texas.  They have 3 sons, Gilbert, James, and Everett. 

Book preview

Rev. Willie A. Glaster

Volume I

REVEREND WILLIE A GLASTER

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Other books by Willie A. Glaster, Jr.

Shepherding in the African American Community, Vol. II

A Diamond Journey by William Allan

Poems of Personal Growth and Spirituality:  The Sounds

Of Black Voices

DEDICATION

I am eternally grateful to many people in my life. First is Anita, my wife, who pushed past the daily grind of Social Work for 20 years, to always encourage me.

Next, the faculty team at my seminary, Oblate School of Theology—President, Dr. Charles Woodward, the Professors, and Nuns (for the many red ink marks left on my papers!). It is you who made me write from the heart! I will be forever grateful!!

As always, Pastor Charles Foster Johnson and to my Religion Instructors at Wayland Baptist University.

To the men of Liberty House, from 2015 – 2019, and to the Air Force Basic Trainees, from 2012 – 2014, who participated in the Airmen for Christ program. It was an honor to serve you both as one of your Protestant Religious Education Instructor.

There are many, many others that have made an impact on my life; in fact, this book cannot hold them all!!! I hope that the paths we crossed together will leave an indelible imprint of hope on the fabric of generations to come!!

This Book was adapted from the master thesis by Willie Glaster called:

SHEPHERDING AN EXODUS PEOPLE

PREFACE

Never before in my religious studies have I faced such a task in writing a paper (or book) that concerns the care of my own genetic blood—the African American. Often I have ignored such task because I wanted to finish projects that were assigned.

However, there comes a time in my journey I cannot ignore who I am or where I come from. When I look into the eyes of a sixty-five-year-old Black deacon who attends my worship service, I want to ask—does my preaching make any connection with you?

Does the third-grade un-nurtured boy understand the concept of love, while he lives in the home of a female single parent? How does the adolescent female respond to her mother’s loss of employment? When did this all suddenly appear? With that contextual image etched into my memory, I have chosen to write this book in order to discuss possible ways of observing African American pastoral care and maybe we can have serious dialogue.

On January 21, 2002, I wrote a poem, concerning the death of a local elementary student:

Do I march like everyone else?

Do I sing the Negro hymn— We Shall Overcome yet again?

Do I stand with the multitude?

In harmony, peace and goodwill to all?

Do I seek again to hear the promise of ages past Or do I shout with my lips?

What will you do after the march is over?

After the last person is gone From the same meeting place; What will you do tomorrow?

When I see you on the same corner, Will you turn and look away?

Will you not speak to encourage me?

Who will come to hear me?

What will you say—when the sounds of justice ring For the soul of a five-year old?

CHAPTER ONE - THE CHURCH

William E. B. DuBois, in his study The Negro Church, noted in 1903 that any study of social life, economic cooperation, and education among blacks must begin with the church. In this study, which was presented before the Eighth Atlanta Conference, a resolution mentioned several factors that could be used as model for pastoral care even today: We are passing through that critical period of religious evolution when the low moral and intellectual standard of the curious custom of emotional fervor are no longer attracting the young...We need, then, first the strengthening of ideals of life and living of reverent faith in the ultimate triumph of the hope in human justice and growth...we need this for the sake of the family, the moral standards which need lifting and purifying...The great engine of moral uplift is the Christian church (DuBois 207-208). E.P. Wimberely identifies the need of the church when stating the definition of Black American pastoral care—A contextual response pattern of agape, emphatic care to persons and families in periods of emotional and spiritual crisis (Wimberely 92a). It is a form of ministry that seeks to elicit a response to God’s immanent activity in black people’s lives through caring patterns provided by the social context-relational values, symbols, and methods and patterns of care. The goal of its caring response has been to assist God in liberating persons from the shackles that prevent growth toward relational wholeness in time, body, mind, and in relationship to others, institutions, the environment, and to God (92b).

There are three forms of Black pastoral care that have consisted of the symbolic worldview, the family, and the church as a support system. The symbolic worldview God is intimately related active in the mind of black people The biblical example of this relationship can be found in the Exodus event.

The revival and emphasis on the social-historical significance of the Exodus as a paradigm of human liberation was interpreted by Africans finding themselves enslaved within the households of America. The interpretation of the Exodus event is revealed in the use of spirituals and poetry. The God who had intervened in human history to liberate the Hebrews would also liberate them physically, spiritually, and socially. The related themes in black spirituals reveal frequent reference to Egypt as a place of enslavement and oppression (the South). The Red Sea was the place where God gave the victory to the oppressed. Canaan was the promised land of the North. The Jim Crow law is found in Pharaoh as the symbol of oppression overcome and destroyed. Moses is symbolized the deliverance of a whole people and the opportunity for each person to be free. To some people, liberation theology and pastoral care is seen in Jesus’ ministry of liberating the oppressed as a central theme of his work. Others who have a larger worldview, see the central theme of liberation of the entire Bible, not just that of Exodus (Phelps 289). When the material world is impacted by the spiritual realm, personal and social is the result and conversion takes place. The entire person becomes a relational whole; they are related to the source of human wholeness and growth; their lives are transformed, and the power to grow relationally is released, which is the pastoral care goal.

The next form of Black pastoral care lies within the context of the family.

Edward P. Wimberely’s book, Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Values: A Black Point of View, looks at holism in the family from a Jungian perspective. From this perspective which is based from Carl G. Jung’s analytical psychology work on the self—a conscious, unifying force to personality that provides people with direction and purpose (Rathus 355).

The goal of holistic function of the family is to fulfill each member’s need for intimacy, fulfillment, commitment, growth and development . Wimberely takes the stance that "overemphasis upon parts as opposed to the whole can be seen in the dilemma of the American family today; a dilemma brought about by the increased emphasis on instant gratification and avoidance of pain by married couples and a decrease in emphasis