The Black Church

Written By: Troy Harris

How do you value your religion? Is it important to you? Do you feel at one with it? What about your church? Your pastor? Your church friends? How religious are you? How spiritual are you?

I wouldn't consider myself to be extremely religious, but I AM spiritual. No doubt about it. In church yesterday, for the first time in a while, I experienced a nice and spiritually rewarding feeling. Listening to the songs from the choir, I realized that no matter the religious denomination that one chooses to follow or associate themselves with, there is one God that is present in all true worship, faith, and everything thing else in life. As these thoughts graced my mind I could do nothing but smile.

My church has recently been changing a lot of things (pastors, buildings, service structure etc.) while I've been away at school for the past couple of years and most of them disturb me and reveal some of the impurities in Black society. One of the most shocking things to me was our new pastor and his ways. Though I have never doubted his faith and his desire to lead others to God and Christ, I often wonder if he is sending the right message to the congregation. One of the first things he changed was the church service program handout from a more simple and inviting one to an almost intimidating and boastful one that resembled a mini magazine more so than a program. Among other things, the church has become much more commercial and is looking more like something you see on TV than the cozy haven that I, and many others, grew up in.

Secondly, I noticed the direction of our church was moving more towards a business-minded atmosphere. Along with an organizational chart that included positions like Executive Assistant and CFO, there was a video that showed pictures of many beautiful buildings that were envisioned for the church. All of the pictures were found online and were not actually drawings or blueprints for what they planned on really doing with OUR money. As expected, the church greeted each picture with thunderous applause as if they were to just appear out of nowhere seemingly not realizing that it would be their money that was really bringing these changes. Don't get me wrong, I love change, and upgrading equipment and buildings is all well and good, but the way it was proposed might have been a bit off-base.

Then came the sermon...

(Keep in mind that the "Offering" section of the program had also been moved from before to after the sermon while I was gone.) He then went on to center the entire scripture passage from the Bible and the sermon around his main motive, which was to get money for the new plans he had for our church. The sermon seemed to captivate everyone in the room, which was great, but towards the end it changed. He made an apply placed analogy comparing a car's dead battery to our church and the jumper cables to our church's money. Basically saying we need a "jump start" which, in this case, was money to build and change things that probably don't need building or changing. Then, we went directly into offering for TWO separate funds with motivational music playing from the choir, increasing morale with perfect timing. Isn't church about being spiritually healed? Becoming closer to God, the ruler of all things?

I think that most Black churches have ventured from their original purpose. We place a lot of emphasis on how good our church looks, or what we wear, or what the pastor is wearing. For example, the transitive property, in its most primitive form, states that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. Simple. Well, the church has fell victim to this in a most consuming manner. People who go to church attend so that they can become closer to God. Naturally, the preacher is assumed to be the closest to God, so they emulate his/her mannerisms, habits, and ways with hopes of divinity in mind. Most, but not all, preachers often over emphasize how good they look and the type of car they drive, which subsequently trickles down to those who frequent the church. So, with a top-down effect, those who truly try and become closer to God subconsciously, in my opinion, are driven to focus on how good they, their car, and their church look. Now, unfortunately, the Black church, just like most other things in this world, are transforming to a money hungry environment, not conducive to optimal worship and praise. He finished the sermon off with an envelope in each hand asking for two separate donations with his last words being "Give. Give. Give.", which were also the last words of the church program and in all caps.

I just don't agree with everything that is going on in churches as of now. The more and more we become concerned with money, appearance, and TV time, the further we are from being the best we can be in God. Some of church is really church, and other parts are just a person or group of people who feel the need to take advantage of the psychological shackles placed on the congregation and exploit it for their benefit.

Next time you go to church, sit and really make a conscious effort to filter out the excess and focus more on the true reason that you're there. It can be hard, but at the end of the day, thats what you're there for. The meat & potatoes... nothing else.