African American Pastoral Care Essay

The concept of a new beginning is a repetitive theme that occurs in African American literature, mostly, in the geographical form of The South. Used as a literary landscape, The South is more than a representation of the horrors that African-Americans had endured during the time of slavery. It is there that African-Americans developed a society and culture that was constructed through the struggles of their ancestors and the mechanisms that had developed to survive. The history of their people is embedded throughout the soil of the landscape and it is from there a new future can arise. It also gave them religion and spiritual connections to their ancestors. Negro spirituals—whose original purpose was to guide slaves to freedom and increase

This study keys in on the plight of African American churches with startling statements of their experiences in contrast to other cultures. The study expounds on all of the issues that have meaning such as

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.

Improving yourself is a great thing you could do, but what if you improved your whole community? African Americans have been together for numerous centuries, especially in the 19th century. Joined together, they have created things they never thought they could ever achieve. They improved themselves through communication, different preaching ways, and believing. African Americans had started to believe in God as a way of hope for them through the harsh times of slavery. Later, when they started to gain a higher voice, black leaders took a stand to speak out against slavery. Their Church is one of the things they could look forward to going to every time they were in a bad state of mind. They could go there to preach together as a community. The churches made by African Americans had joined them together to make something more than they ever thought they could achieve.

This book is not just interesting and insightful, it is appealing and practical. Anyabwile personal experience sufficiently encapsulates his message. Reviving the Black Church invites the reader to rethink the place of the bible, leadership, preaching, and discipleship as well as world missions. The two strengths include the value of a bible-centered church which will sustain the life of the church. In addition, how expository

People of African descent in North America tend to view life as a single system, their worship is integrative, holistic, and experiential. Traditionally, it has been inextricably woven into the stuff of their life. Born in slavery, weaned under Jim Crow segregation, and reared in discrimination, African-American worship is inseparably linked with Black life.

African American greeted freedom with mass exodus from white churches, where they had been required to worship when slaves. Some joined the newly established southern branches of all-black northern churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Others formed black versions of the major southern denominations, Baptist and Methodists. (Roark, Johnson, Cohen, et al. Pg. 418)

African American culture contains aspects of both African and European culture at its roots. While there are claims that all traces of African heritage were beaten and stolen through processes of acculturation, I believe that the foundation, as well as a significant portion of practices and behaviors can be found in African culture. Many slaves held on tightly to their African heritage, while a slave culture sought invisibility through assimilating into European American culture. These major influences helped shape modern African American culture. I will use resources provided to me in the form of articles and films to provide evidence of African and European influences in African American culture. First I will explain basic concept of

There was a person who, by mercy, brought him from his native land to America. I agree to the point that since he was saved, there is a God and a Savor. However, I do not agree with where the author said that some view African Americans with a cynical eye. “Some view our sable race with scornful eye. ‘Their color is a diabolic dye.’ “(Par. 1). I believe that the word “some” should be changed to “many” since tons of people give inequality towards the Negros. Quite sad since, in my eyes, equality is for everyone. I do agree to the part where the person said that Christians and black people are going on the angelic train which probably means that God accepts them and gives them grace and fidelity. In the second poem, the person states that he

African Americans and Native Americans approached health and healing in a different manner than what is used today. Both these groups engaged in Alternative Medicine. Alternative Medicine is a way of healing and curing using herbal or holistic methods. Something both African Americans and Native Americans had in common was that the shamans or the healers were usually women.

“What makes our worship uniquely Black is our indomitable and uncanny ability to ‘sing the Lord’s song in a strange land’! (Psalm 137:4)” [“The Liturgy of the Roman rite and African American Worship,” Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, vol 1, 1987]

Primarily a means of escape, the oppressed black community utilizes religion throughout their lives for comfort and hope. For instance, the cotton pickers are among those who use their faith to feel worthy of staying alive. These men and women, described as having drooping minds, limp shoulders, and unyielding fatigue, spend their days laboring in the fields only to return with less cotton than needed.

The Africans came to America with religious beliefs and practices, including the belief in a loving God who had created the universe and was its ultimate Provider. The Africans have faced problems to those tending religious beliefs and practices both the “Middle Passage” and the effects of slavery. The Africans which had survived the “Middle Passage” had a powerful impact on early African spirituality is the African understanding of life. Slaves held on this understanding of life, and the end result was that their worship was restricted to neither time or place (www.ministrymagazine.org.).

Included are the major traditions often thought to be “understood” in the African American Christian Community: “Celebration of Life” or “Homegoing Service.”

Hughes' description of the church and the presence of Christ were meant to illustrate the religious dependence many African Americans embraced during that time. Many African-Americans enjoyed their religious freedoms and depended on religion to see them through the hard times. African-Americans traditionally considered religion important in their everyday lives ("Black American"). In an article entitled "Henry McNeal Turner," the author states