Philanthropic Biography

“Just as black religion was the “invisible institution” that helped African Americans survive slavery, the black church was the visible institution that helped hundreds of thousands of migrants adjust to urban life while affirming a set of core values consisting of freedom, justice, equality, and an African heritage” (pg.

Black religion was no longer regarded as exemplary or special. During a time of growing segregation and violence, some black leaders attempted to counter this perspective seen by whites by embracing the romantic racialist notions that “blacks possessed peculiar gifts.” These gifts being directly connected to the importance of black churches in a time of direct exclusion of blacks from other pieces of society.

I chose to do my religious ethnographic study at my home church, Tabernacle Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio on Sunday, May 8, 2016. Tabernacle is an 112-year-old historic Black Baptist church located on the lower Northside of Youngstown surrounded by a mixed income housing development, homeless shelter, Youngstown State University, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. I would say the average age of a Tabernacle member is 55 years old. About 70% of the members at this church are “middle-class” families. Until about five years ago, its membership was almost exclusively middle class. There has seen an influx of membership in working class individuals and students since the arrival of Tabernacle’s young, vibrant pastor, Rev. Christopher McKee, Jr., three years ago. The church is attentive to the needs of this demographic but remains true to its historic Black Baptist church roots. The church previously struggled with this conundrum until it came to the reality that an exclusivist mindset around worship is detrimental to the body of Christ when it did not have a pastor for over three years. The church was dying because no one was welcome to it and it did not have a leader. Though it was difficult, this reassessment was beneficial in making Tabernacle more relevant and welcoming to the community it is blessed to serve.

ii. African Methodist Episcopal Church went from 100,000 to 400,000 in the first decade after

Pastor Fred Dyess had retired after serving as pastor for thirty years and Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans for fourteen years. The Lord called him out of retirement to start a new church. Bro. Fred checked with the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association Director of Missions, David Brown, to learn what areas the association had targeted for a new church and what was needed. He was told that the Louisiana Baptist Convention required a new church to have a sponsoring church. Dr. Roger Dunlap and Macedonia Baptist Church gladly voted to be our sponsoring church. The Louisiana Baptist Convention and the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association each gave Victory a budget supplement of $500 per month decreasing

The economy is the strength of a nation it is the provision to finance an obstacle, however, that money also travels to churches to benefit the people and the building. Tax money is given to the churches to expand, yet money is utilized for personal gain. The "Massachusetts Constitution" implies “such moneys shall never be appropriated to any religious sect,” (Massachusetts, Article 29) churches have requested for money and deceived the people and implicated false information, nonetheless, a church is where God’s home associates and people will be giving money.

Historically in the African American community the church has been a one stop shop: a welcoming spot for newcomers, a refuge for the needy, and a source of guidance for

What area has the African American Church given it highest priority and why? (Chapter 9)

the age of members and church location and size to validate, changes in the church. The census

In more modern times, the Black Church is now facing new issues that challenges its purpose. It faces conflict from the Hip Hop generation- the generation of Blacks born to members of the Hip Hop generation. The problem is now this generation is being ignored by the church, and they are need of help. They need guidance in a world that is giving them hundreds of mixed signals as to what they need in life, which is basically leaving them to raise

This book seeks to encourage the declining and stagnate churches to take the example set by other churches that have had a period of decline yet have managed to pull up their socks and regained their lost growth. Stetzer and Dodson call this book the “comeback Churches’ to give the readers

Blacks can't tell you how the money is spent in the last church they attended and made a donation in any form to that church, but that's okay.

African-American churches have been a safeguard in the black community and a refuge from the outside and the cruel world. In the book written by Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices, (Wright) Richard statement paraphrased, “only within the walls of our churches that we can be totally ourselves, and maintain a sense of our personalities in relation to the total world in which we live.”

In the earlier years, the Churches made by slaves and other Africans grew to be very popular, but now they don't have such a high voice as they had before. "Today, the black church is in crisis, with scholars claiming that it has lost its prophetic and

Pope Francis was encountered with a church experiencing loss of client involvement, reduction in attendance, and in some marketplaces adverse business development. There