![]() Of the 79 percent of black Americans who are Christians, 53 percent are in black churches 14 percent, however, are in evangelical churches. I also realized that black Christians were not all in the black church. But I thought that it might be helpful to have a conversation on ways that we may renew her. I grew up in the black church and love her still. There was also the reality of black millennials leaving the church. ![]() ![]() Furthermore, some elements of the Black Lives Matters movement said quite openly that this was not your parents’ civil rights movement. Groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites and radical black nationalist organizations were questioning the ongoing need for the black church. First, there were questions within the black community concerning the continued relevance of the black church. I wanted to speak about black Christians because I noticed a few trends. The questions that would lead to the Call and Response Conference then filled my mind before the election later that year that reconfigured the Christian landscape and left many people of color questioning their place in the church and the culture. I wanted to help our people function and serve the Lord in a culture that was often hostile. They were tragedies in their own right, but they reminded me of why I began the journey that has occupied much of my adult life. Those deaths were not about me, but they were about families who lost loved ones. ![]() I realized that if my scholarship did not touch directly on the concerns of black people, then the long journey to become an academic was meaningless. We were not safe at pools, convenience stores, traffic stops, or playing with toys in our neighborhood. I was knee deep in doctoral studies at that time and might have suggested some obscure element of Pauline theology, but when he called, we were nearing the end of what I now call “The Bloody Summer” when it seemed as if every week there was another story of a black person being killed or mistreated by police and civilians. Had the question been posed a year ago, my reply might have been different. I agreed and when he asked me what issue I wanted to address, I said that I wanted to talk about black Christians. Rozko, who directs the efforts of Missio Alliance, asked me if I was interested in doing a workshop at their upcoming conference in Alexandria, Virginia. ![]()
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