The Black Church
An Outsider's Guide
In the black church, the pastor is always spelled with a capital
“P.” This is not proper grammar, but it's what we do. The
president of the United States is not spelled with a capital “P”
unless we are using “president” as part of his name (“President
Bush”), but in the black tradition, the Pastor (capital “P”) is
the ultimate object of respect. Moreso than even the president
(small “p”). The Pastor is always Pastor Griggs, never “Bob.”
And, more often than not, the Pastor, in the black church, has a
huge formal name, including all middle names and add-ons and
letters of scholarship, Pastor Robert Evans Griggs III, PhD. The
Reverend Dr. Robert Evans Griggs III, Senior Pastor. Many black
churches have adopted the “Senior Pastor” elder-led model, even
when there are, in fact, no “junior” pastors serving under them.
The Pastor should always come first. Associate ministers should
not enter or exit the sanctuary ahead of the Pastor unless
directed to do so by the Pastor. If there is a visiting Pastor,
associates are required to give up their seats for the visiting
Pastor and take a seat in the pulpit only if one is available
after the visiting Pastors have been seated. Unless specifically
asked to do otherwise, associates should, in every way, defer to
first their own Pastor and then to visiting Pastors. Is this an
actual rule? No. But people will notice and complain if this
non-rule is not followed. It undercuts an associate's
credibility if the congregation deems him untrained or impolite,
even if the Pastor(s) themselves do not insist on this protocol
being observed.
The new trend in larger black ministries is to award prominent
pastors the title, “Bishop.” In the New Testament the term
episcopos, which is usually rendered bishop, and presbuteros,
which is rendered elder, are used interchangeably. Prominent
ministers, with thousands of followers, have formed alliances
with one anther and have appointed one another “Bishop” of This
Function or Bishop of That Function, enlarging these ministers'
profiles, even though they are not supervising any district or
group of churches. The Right Reverend Dr. Robert Evans Griggs III. It's all
about ego. It's all about elevating self.
In most white churches, the pastor's (small “p”) name is Bob.
Pastor Bob. Pastor Bob may have a doctorate but he doesn't wear
it on his sleeve. Pastor Bob wears what we wear— comfortable and
modest clothes— and he uses the podium to hold his cappuccino as
he preaches. Bishop Dr. Robert Evans Griggs III has an enormous
wood desk and wears either very expensive suits and lots of
blingage (sparkly jewelry) or an expensive ornate robe with
matching handkerchief with his stripes of office and academia
proudly displayed. Pastor Bob wears a polo shirt and khakis.
In most white churches, the pastor is your friend. You hang out
with him. You go bowling. He's Bob. In most black churches the
Pastor is fairly inaccessible, by appointment only and only
through a gauntlet of the Pastor's inner circle. And he's always
the Pastor. At the bowling alley, you call him Pastor. In the
men's room, you call him Pastor. There is never, ever, a time
when it is appropriate to call a black Pastor “Bob.” It is
simply not done.
If you are visiting a black church and are invited to give
remarks, always recognize the Pastor. Better yet, stick to the
tried and true, “Giving honor to God, who is the head of my
life. To the Pastor [name, or recognize the Chairman of Deacons
if the church has no Pastor], ministers, saints and friends...”
Black churches without pastors are usually administrated by the
chairman of the Deacon Board. The deacons will usually hire an
ordained minister to serve as an interim pastor (small “p')
while they form a pulpit search committee. A pulpit search
committee is usually a highly politicized board of church
members who, typically, invite only people they like and approve
of to sit on the board with them. These people are voted in by
the deacons, so, more often than not, the entire process is
extremely suspect and open to corruption as these committees
routinely conspire against the best interests of the church,
pursuing instead their own agenda.
Interim pastors are dismissed about the same way “associate”
ministers are. Their range of authority is limited and, while
generally respected on some level, no one takes them very
seriously. So much to the point that a great many churches rule
that interim pastors cannot be considered for the permanent job.
In the black church, most pulpit search committees seek out
candidates on the basis of their higher education, with
doctorates being the preferred letter. This misses the point
that the very first and most effective ministers of the Gospel
were fisherman and day laborers who couldn't read. They had no formal education and
no formal training in ministry. The Apostle Paul was a highly
trained rabbi, but his education often worked against him as his
tone often conveyed the legalism he had embraced all his life.
Most black churches have no standardized test for ministerial
candidates. If you were to apply for a steno job at the courthouse, they'd give you a typing test. But ministers are accepted
on the basis of their university transcripts and their sermons,
when a large number of these men are often the least spiritual
and, shockingly, the least knowledgeable about spiritual matters.
In most white churches, a minister is a minister is a minister.
Different ministers have different jobs, and some are pastors of
this and pastors of that, but they're all in the same club.
They're all, more or less, treated as equals, the pastor being
the first among equals. In the black church, staff ministers are
usually referred to as “associate” ministers and “associate”
ministers are usually regarded with an almost dismissive
attitude by the congregation because they are not pastors and
because, more often than not, they are not ordained.
Our typical black parishioner could not immediately identify the
origins of this warped view of “associate” ministers, other than
that it is a cultural artifact the Black church has failed to
educate itself out of. The Bible makes absolutely no distinction whatsoever
between an “associate” minister and a pastor other than that the
pastor, obviously, is the under-shepherd who manages the church
and oversees the ministry. There are no “associate” ministers in
the Bible. There are ministers and there are laity. There is no
distinction made between the ministerial station of pastors and
associates. Ministers were ministers, empowered by the Holy
Ghost to proclaim the Gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead,
cast our demons.
The various levels and stations of ministry are
man-made
distinctions. We place an almost numeric value on spiritual
gifts [Eph. 4:11], whereas the Bible only says God gave
different gifts and different anointing to different people. The
Bible does not rate one gift higher than another or one person
higher than another.
In the black church, “associate” ministers are commonly treated
with a dismissive attitude. To many black worshippers, they are a
joke. A pastor wannabe. Poseurs just trying to be somebody. The
black congregation has, in many churches, invented rules— do's
and don'ts— for associates that are in no way scriptural and are
not extrapolated from sound doctrine but from rules of etiquette
the church has developed over time and adopted as unwritten
bylaws.
Many white churches now trend towards casual dress, even for the
pastor as he preaches. Most black churches demand (in the
unwritten rules) that congregants and ministers alike dress like
they're going to a wedding. Casual attire is becoming more
common in the black church, but the practice remains frowned
upon. You are to attend black church on Sunday in the very best
suit you own. The white church is, in great measure, a meeting
place, a place of support and family. The black church is a
place of pageantry. Wash your car before going to a black
church. Shine your shoes before going to a black church.
When most Christians, black or white, see a white man wearing a clerical
collar, they offer him courtesy and respect. When some black
church folk see a black man in a clerical collar, they scoff,
“Humff. Who does he think he is?” Clergy collar is simply not
worn in the black church (other than the Church of God In Christ
denomination). Men (and, God help them, women) seen wearing the
collar are considered poseurs and wannabes. people trying to be
seen.
I wear the clerical collar. I love wearing it. I love what it
means. I love what it represents. I love what it reminds me of.
What I like about the collar is not that it makes me look
important, but that it is simple. It is plain. It is humble. It
gets right to the point. It is a simple smock that diverts
attention from how fancy your suit and tie are. A pastor friend
of mine said he only wears the shirt for special occasions and
treats it with a worshipful deference, to which I politely
disagree. The clerical shirt is a work shirt. It is designed for
everyday use, not to be held in abeyance for special occasions.
It is supposed to get dirty, to be used and reused and
discarded. What I like about the shirt is it tells people Whose
you are. When I am wearing it, nobody has to guess what I am
about. I cannot hide or melt into the crowd the way these
pastors in the loud suits can. Nobody mistakes me for a pimp,
and I can get away with absolutely nothing because, once someone
has seen me, even once, wearing the clerical shirt, I am become a marked
man. They know I am a minister of the Gospel, and my life, my
everyday walk, must now reliably support the simple cloth shirt
I wear on Sunday.
Although I wear the collar to prisons and on communion Sunday, I
make sure to not wear it when I preach because most black
congregations are, sadly, not mature enough to deal with an
“associate” wearing a clerical collar, even though there are no
rules written anywhere (not even in their beloved King James)
about it.
The New International Version of the Bible has a strong foothold
in the white church, as does the New Living Bible, the New
American Standard and other terrific translations. Most white
churches I have visited use a modern translation, though some
used parallel translations, including the King James, to
illuminate passages of scripture.
The trend in white churches is multimedia. PowerPoint
presentations now becoming Flash presentations with neat color
and sound. Scriptural texts on-disk and called up onto giant
screens at the click of a mouse. Many black churches are,
thankfully, coming along to this standard, but many are not.
Many are not even considering this standard or consider it
materially out of reach. Most black sanctuaries are simply not
constructed to include this kind of multimedia presentation or
the equipment necessary for it, and those in position to
authorize the acquisition of this equipment and the requisite
modifications to the sanctuary are usually older
people who see it as more radical thinking and an unnecessary
expense.
In the vast majority of black churches in this country, the
Authorized King James Version and only the Authorized King James
Version of the Holy Bible is the accepted standard of scripture.
This thinking is so entrenched that any minister reading a
modern translation tends to lose credibility unless he also
reads the King James, preferably reading the KJV first and then
his modern translation. Black churches are, in large measure,
suspicious of modern translations and the people who espouse
them.
Black congregants, in great measure, do not read any Bible at
all, but have an idea of what the book says and have an idea of
how the language sounds, such that if they can clearly
understand the written word, if the language is too contemporary
such that it loses its mystery and cryptic characteristics, the
word has no value to them. Many black church folk can only take
comfort in the Holy Scripture when it is written in a language
they can barely understand.
Most black congregants believe the KJV is the “official” Bible.
Is the most accurate Bible. Sadly, many believe it is, in fact,
the same Bible the disciples carried with them. It would be
funny if it weren't so terribly sad, the egregious lack of
education in the black church, the slow reform and the
unwillingness to confront the fact that much of what the church
practices is wholly unscriptural, based on poor doctrine, and is
counterintuitive and counterproductive to the cause of Christ.
The truth is, not only is the KJV not, in fact, the most
accurate or reliable translation, but the entire intent of the
KJV was to make the Holy Scripture available to and easily
understood by the common man. The KJV was, in its day, a Bible
written in a common tongue, easily understandable by the common
an. To now cling to the KJV, vesting it with accuracy and
authority without having done any homework on the subject,
without even knowing why we believe it is the most accurate
translation, is entirely misguided. Forcing a cryptic and
difficult to understand language on the common man defeats the KJV's original purpose: to make a Bible Christians can actually
read.
Many white congregants worship in an auditorium. Most black
congregants worship in a sanctuary. Many white churches offer
refreshments in the lobby that you can take with you right into
the worship service. Most black churches actively forbid even
water being brought into the sanctuary. Many white churches are
trending towards multi-purpose rooms, with chairs that can
easily be reconfigured into a variety of floor patterns to
maximize use of their main auditorium. Most black churches
prefer heavy wooden pews bolted to the floor, the sanctuary
having one purpose and one purpose only. Many black churches
spend upwards of a million dollars to add on facilities for
other purposes, while the new trend in many white churches is to
maximize the use of their existing facilities.
Black churches apply a certain level of superstition to their
sanctuary. What should, ideally, be reverence and respect has
escalated to a silly level of superstition, to the point where a
great many black congregants actually believe the sanctuary is
sacred. The communion table is not to be moved or touched and
nothing is to be set upon it. No one who is not ordained can
stand behind the pulpit. This is utter nonsense and is in direct
contravention of scripture [Hebrews 10:19-39]. Still, most black
churches have adopted many of the same sensibilities of archaic
Jewish temple law, where certain areas of the sanctuary are
considered holy and only the high priest may stand here or stand
there or touch this or move that. This behavior makes a liar of
the cross because it says His work was ineffective or is still
not finished. It says the veil has not been split. It says we
ignorant, backward blind people still refuse to see that
Christ's entire purpose is to destroy the barriers between God
and man.
There should be no Holy of Holies in our churches. Call it a
sanctuary if you must, but use the room— it is, after all, just
a room— to glorify God. That means maximizing its use and not
trying to keep it precious and sacred. It means wearing the room
out if you have to, tearing up the pews if you have to— it means
doing whatever it takes to bring men and women to God. But this
would require a refocusing of the black church's purpose, from
ceremonial pageantry to evangelism.
Black churches, even in this day, continue to decorate their
sanctuaries in blood red carpet. Red carpet is a staple of many
churches of many ethnicities, but the Black church is, by and
large, wholly invested in making the sanctuary look as funereal
as possible. A dark, drab, somber place of mourning and sadness.
and, even though they may have redecorated the place last week,
the motif remains strictly 1965.
During an active worship service, particularly during the
sermon, you may upon occasion see a black church member exiting
the sanctuary while holding a single finger aloft. This is a
commonly-accepted sign of respect offered to the pulpit,
excuse me for walking during this sacred time. What it
actually is is a throwback to plantation days where a Negro
would require his owner's permission to leave the building. The
number of fingers held aloft would indicate what bodily function
he/she would do in the outhouse-- Number One or Number Two. The
raised finger gesture serves absolutely no purpose, but walking
during the sermon is considered extremely rude if not
sacrilegious, and that single finger is the establish etiquette
for doing so.
White churches have ushers and hospitality crews to assist the
congregation. These are usually nice people wearing Century
21-style real estate blazers with little Secret Service ear
pieces in their ears. In the black church, the Usher Board is a
paramilitary group who execute, for reasons I will never
understand, drill team moves in great displays of pomp and
circumstance. To this date, most ushers in black churches
communicate via a sign language developed, I would imagine, in
the south but that is now a universal language most any black
usher in most any back church in most any state of the union can
read from across the room.
These people are the Baptist Marines. They take their work very
seriously, and they maintain order and assist the worshippers
during service. In most black churches I've been involved with,
I have been the most impressed by the ushers' ministry, while
often being the least impressed by the music ministry. It's
almost like the music and ushers ministries are polar opposites,
with the most scrupulously dedicated and spiritual people being
on the Usher Board and, sadly, often the least spiritual people
gravitating towards the music ministries. Ushers are almost
always invisible. At the most they are seen and not heard. The
Usher Board usually requires the most humility, while the music
ministry often becomes a platform for unchecked egos.
Black Church Folk routinely speak in the King James. “We are
gathered on tonight to hear what thus sayeth the
Lord.” The most popular and successful black preachers have
southern accents, even if they are not from the south. I am not
from the south, but when I preach to a black congregation, I am
expected to have a southern dialect. The absence of a southern
dialect, “Yet annnd still, y’all better c’mon!” can be
received by Church Folk as inexperience. If you do not drop your
“g’s” you can be considered a rookie. If there is no musical
intonation to your cadence (or, if you have no cadence at all),
you can be considered an Oreo (i.e. black on the outside, white
on the inside). Preachers who do not engage the traditional ebb
and flow of the call-and-response traditions of black churches
(or, worse, who get tangled up in it like the clumsy kid trying
out double-dutch jump rope) are tolerated but usually not asked
back. In the black church, you don’t need to run around asking
people how you did. They’ll tell you by not telling you. In a
black church, a distinct lack of “amen”s is like a Nielsen
rating: you’re not doing well. If you’ve engaged the crowd,
you’ll know it. Pros not only engage the crowd but create a
literally interactive experience by encouraging the crowd to
preach along with them. Rookies: if you do not currently have a
southern cadence, start developing one. Or convert to
Presbyterian.
Black preachers are expected to have both substance and poetry,
a kind of lyrical flair. A dash of teaching—let them learn
something they didn’t know before or show them a verse or
passage in a way they’ve not seen it. This is foundational
speaking that is your launch pad for what these folks really
came for. To my experience, black congregations are customarily
disappointed to see a white face in the pulpit because white
preachers are usually lecturers whose sermons are likely
technically better than typical black church sermons, but whose
delivery bores black congregations to slumber. Black Baptists
want and expect a certain level of sarcasm and swagger, a kind
of angry, violent rhetoric, while most white preachers project
an almost professorial neutrality. Preachers are supposed to be
neutral—not my words but God's words. But our black tradition is
definitely personality-driven, the pastoral voice tinged with
arrogance.
There is absolutely no finger snapping (called, more often than not, “finger popping”) allowed in the sanctuary. It is considered worldly, and it is simply not done. This is hysterically stupid, but we're stuck with it. I dare anybody to show me in the Bible where snapping your fingers is a sin, but if you do it in the sanctuary you are likely to be warned, if not escorted out.
Many black churches do not allow women to wear pants in the sanctuary. We are, thankfully, trending away from this as well, but if you are an outsider visiting a black church, and you are a woman, please consider wearing a dress. Most black churches will tolerate you, but it's just that. Especially on Sunday, wear a dress.
Many black churches will not allow a woman in the pulpit. We are, thankfully, trending away from that as well. But a woman planning to come into the pulpit on a Sunday had better be sure she is wearing a dress.
