African American Church Experience Paper

Music is an inseparable element of Black life and therefore Black worship. The Black Church understands worship to be a communal act of adoration towards God that may involve praise or petition via song, dance, music (use of instruments), recitation, meditation, chanting, and or prayer (Mason, 2016). According to James Cone, Black music is unity music because it unites…the hope and despair;…and it moves the people towards the direction of total liberation; and confronts the individual with the truth of black existence and affirms that black being is possible only in the communal context (p. 5). It is with this understanding that black people worship through music and without this understanding worship and music are diluted. J. Wendell Mapson articulated this idea in his book, The Ministry of Music in the Black Church, when he noted that purpose of worship is forfeited when singing music that has no relationship to everyday life, and the worshipper becomes disconnected from the way music and worship have historically served blacks (41). In this same vain, James Cone asserted that Black music is theological because it reveals how God moves people towards unity and self-determination.

On Sunday, September 24, I visited Champion Forest Baptist Church to observe one of their classes. This class consisted of 3 to 4 year olds. Their overall goal for the program was to honor parents and respect others according to the bible in which they follow. They want children to learn manners and since they are within the church, they use the bible as a reference. I was told that the children learn best by having short lessons and interactive activities. By the end of the year, they would like for the children to apply what they have learned all together into their daily lives, for example, praying and manners. As for discipline, they have a verbal warning first. If the actions continue, they take them away from activities. Lastly, they call the parents.

What I found disappointing about the surveys provided was that there seem to be no means to verify the information collected. The questions asked in the survey were subjective. If I were to contact a church and ask if they offer outreach, the majority will say yes. When asked what type of outreach the answers would be similar. Do you offer services to youth? Yes, most churches have youth ministries. Do you offer any form of education based programs? This would fall under Sunday school and Bible Study, both staples in most churches. Do you have prison outreach? Again, churches offer this ministry, which typically amounts to several members going to a local prison and praying with prisoners. If the questions were more in-depth the survey

Name of the person you spoke with on the pastoral staff: Pastor Dodridge and Steve Layton

The black church is not dead. Reviewing Eddie Glaude's and Joshua Lazard's article on the state of the black church as a noun an institution. Glaude states, the black church is dead, while Lazard rebuttal that the black church is very much alive. after reading Lazard's article I seem to identify with the reasons Lazard claimed the black church is not dead , writing responses for every bold statement made by Glaude's in his article the black church is dead. Lazard response to Glaude's statemets about the black church branches, and the presence in the black community.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was a popular meeting place for rights (people who use action and strong words to support or oppose something) in Birmingham, Alabama. Like many other churches during the 1960's, it gave a safe place for African Americans to crowd together and worship. That sense of safety was shattered on the morning of September 15th, 1963 when a few members of the Ku Klux Klan planted nineteen sticks of dynamite in the basement of the church, killing four innocent girls (Bracks 289). Some would argue the truly awful act directly sped up (a process) the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it showed the world no place was safe from the tension caused by the (the right to vote, to free speech, to fair and equal

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

These are the issue that the modern African American pastor must address currently. His/Her preaching must speak true, authentic words for the oppressed, the down-trodden, the deprived, the captives, the poor, the rich, the illiterate, as well as to the intellect. Presently, the hostile moment of worldliness is a belief that life is to be realized at any cost to self. Thus, here lies the Christian paradox: through the Gospel we have to see Jesus as a truth relevant to humanity’s need to rise higher. The Gospel is to be preached to all. It is a Gospel to save the humanity of African American people but the gospel is beneficial for all. Therefore, the African American preacher’s message must have within its content something more than that which causes the people to enter in a foot-patting, hand-clapping, highly emotional, ecstatic worldly experience, but also a content which serves to balance the life of God’s people on earth.

This is what happened today: A lot of familiars arrived to see Mia but Adam has still not arrived. Kim a friend of Mia arrive with his mother who never let her to drive long distances, Kim’s mother is very emotional, they are Jewish, at summers Kim goes to a summer camp this summer camp is very boring and she calls that camp as Torah Whore.

Richard Allen started the African Methodist-Episcopal church in a response to the treatment of black congregants in white churches (Gates, 2014). For instance, Richard Allen was invited to preach at a white church, but he noticed that the Black congregants were unable to sit in the same pews with the White congregants (Gates, 2014). As a result of this Allen with some friends staged Americas first sit in by going into a White church and sitting in the “white” congregants pews to pray (Gates, 2014). The white preachers approached Allen and his friends and told them that they could not sit and that area and that they needed to leave the church (Gates, 2014). On account of this Allen started the African American Episcopal Church in Philadelphia,

In the African American community, a major component of our history is the institution of religion. It has been with us since our time in Africa, and it still affects us today. The sad realization is many African Americans today never learned the history to understand how much religion affected us, so people of the current generation did not appreciate its importance. Now, there is a social conflict between generations of Blacks in regards to how they see religion. In this paper, I plan to show how religion has molded the African American community into what it is today, and how African Americans’ perspective of religion is changing in the community.

The Holy Bible authorities people to be evangelists for Jesus Christ, and they will impart their beliefs on others, therefore knowing the doctrine of Jesus Christ is important.

While the United States offered a perceived, unconditional blanket of freedom to many Europeans, the political conditions within neither favored nor welcomed the overwhelming numbers of immigrants it would experience between 1840 and 1860. America was, figuratively, in its infancy; having enjoyed independence from England for a little over half-a-century. While the United States had reveled in an existence free from outside influence, which was appealing to those who sought protection under this blanket, it was close to tearing itself apart from within: With slavery and discrimination, as relative to existence and expansion, at the core.

Black Americans groups are extremely diverse in a number of ways. Black Americans groups include people areas and this diversity affects their behavior in different racial backgrounds (American Indian, Black, and White) and includes people of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Spanish, and Central or South American origin. Each of these different cultural groups share a common language and some cores values that result in their being classified together, yet another group also carries its own unique culture, traditions and perspective. People from these different groups also have different immigration histories that further contribute to the diversity within the African group.

As one enters Black Forest Christian Fellowship’s building, a school auditorium, the first thing he would notice was the talking. Groups of people are gathered throughout the building, conversing animatedly; they are mostly white and young. No one sits alone. Floor-to-ceiling windows fill the auditorium with welcoming light as slides flash on the screen announcing events coming up during the next month: mostly fellowship picnics and guest speakers. The worship band quietly gathers onstage, and the worship leader, a tall man in his fifties, plays a few notes on the baby grand piano. Everyone moves to their seats like clockwork, still whispering amongst themselves. One of the church’s pastors greets everyone with prayer and announcements,