The African Methodist Church: The Great Awakening Movement

Since the arrival of African Americans in this country blacks have always had differing experiences. Consequently, African-Americans have had to forge a self-identity out of what has been passed on to them as fact about their true selves. History has wrought oppression and subjugation to this particular race of people and as a result, certain institutions were formed in order aid African-Americans, culturally, spiritually and economically. The African-American Church has served of one such institution. From the time of slavery, though outlawed, many slaves found ways to congregate and form their own "churches", away from the one-sided and bias lessons about the bible that they were being taught in the white church. The white ministers and

“Roll, Jordan, Roll”, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Had”, “Go Down, Moses”, and “Wade in the Water” are the titles of only a handful of what were called “Negro Spirituals”, which originated during the reign of slavery in the United States (Frey). Such spirituals used call-and-response, a method of communication that was popular with slaves who brought African traditions to America, and gave way to the gospel music and unique form of preaching characteristic to the Black Church. The history of the Black Church, which began during the slave era, demonstrates the way that African Americans found refuge in Christianity, where the church became the center for African American communities (Baer). Born out of struggle and oppression, the Black Church not only became the focus for the religious practices of African American communities, but also worked to “re-member” the community through rituals such as that of call-and-response, a core element of the Black Church which served as a powerful tool for the African American community in the fight for the exercise of true freedom in America.

Throughout the development of Black Theology and the black church a sensitive topic has risen. Many feel that there is a large amount of sexuality throughout the black church. Four hundreds of years a major discussion raised among people has been the issue of sexuality as well as the black church, furthermore the combined idea of sexuality in the black church. Many theologians as well as philosophers have tried to grasp and place meaning to the connection that exist as well as the problem within sexuality in the black church. Blacks are known as sexual beings so obviously one would assume that there is an association of sexuality in the African church. This idea is even seen in a black church worship experience. In a black worship experience the pastor is seen as a “ministerial Casanova” who sends ambivalent messages to the congregation speaking the ills of adulterous relationships. But then he proceeds to pursue a relationship with one of the congregation members. Many argue that we need to recover erotic uses our black bodies. In the book Sexuality and the Black Church

For almost eight decades, enslaved African-Americans living in the Antebellum South, achieved their freedom in various ways—one being religion—before the demise of the institution of slavery. It was “freedom, rather than slavery, [that] proved the greatest force for conversion among African Americans in the South” (94). Starting with the Great Awakening and continuing long after the abolition of slavery, after decades of debate, scholars conceptualized the importance of religion for enslaved African-Americans as a means of escaping the brutalities of daily life. Overall, Christianity helped enslaved African American resist the degradation

Such unity and self-determination was evidenced in 1801, when Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church published a hymnal by and for African Americans (Costen, 81). Hymns have served black people in their everyday lives and had and have

The element of worship has always been an essential part of the Black American culture. Black Americans “are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole.” 87% of blacks vs. 83% of all Americans affiliated with a religion according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public

In 1816, Richard Allen founded the first African-American led church in the country, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first major religious denomination in the western world that originated because of sociological and not theological differences. It was the first African-American denomination organized and incorporated in the US. The church was established in what was known as the Blacksmith Shop Meeting House. “By 1786 blacks made up about 10 percent of the Methodist church in the United States, and though whites and blacks often worshiped together, blacks enjoyed no real freedom or equality. Segregated seating was typical; the area reserved for blacks was usually called the “Negro Pew” or the “African Corner.”

It can be assumed that Christianity shaped slave culture in several ways such as developing a common bond among slaves. At the some time, it could also be argued that slavery altered Christianity in various ways including the formation of Methodist and Baptist denominations. However, these were not the only manners in which both cultures had an effect on each other. Black converts dramatically increased the number of Christians in the New World. The ideas instilled in slaves by Christianity gave some slaves thoughts of rebellion and influenced African-American music and dance. Not to mention the church was a major supporter of the proslavery argument which conveyed slavery as a positive thing during the

In chapters six and seven, Synan explains the expansion and the influence of the Pentecostal churches in the south of the United States and in the world. According to him, during that time period, the principles of the Azusa Street Revival was still very strong in the United States, which also influenced the growth of the missionary work. The issue of speak in tongues was a major concern in this period (111). In the next chapter, Synan elucidates the main controversies that produced new Pentecostal denominations (166). In chapter nine, the author analyses the historical developments in America and its relation to African-America Pentecostals. He also points out the influence of Parham and Seymour as main founders of modern Pentecostalism (170). Synan describes in details the relationship between the Pentecostals and the American society in chapter ten (208). In the following chapter, the author explains the origins of the Neo-Pentecostal Movement and its major

Long before their contact with whites, Africans were a strongly religious, and deeply spiritual people. During the early history of slavery, the African American spirituality was often seen by whites as a pagan faith. These rituals and dogmas were seen by whites as Voodoo, Hoodoo, Witchcraft, and superstitions. They often commented on these "pagan practices," and fetishes, and were threatened by them. As a result, great effort was put on eradicating these practices, and many were lost within a generation.# Although tremendous efforts was placed on eradicating the “superstitious” religious beliefs of the African slaves, they were not immediately introduced to the religion of white slave masters, Christianity. Many planters resisted the idea of converting slaves to Christianity out of a fear that baptism would change a slave's legal status. The black population was generally untouched by Christianity until the religious revivals of the 1730s and 1740s. The Bible was manipulated to support the institution of slavery and its inhumane practices. Christianity was used to suppress and conform slaves. Slaveholders, priests, and those tied to the Church undermined the beliefs of the millions of African-Americans converts.# White Christianity was used to justify the enslavement of blacks. By the early nineteenth century, slaveholders had adopted the view that Christianity would make slaves more submissive and orderly.

I am a member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, where the culture and worship is built around the motto, “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Human kind Our Family.” This motto fits Christians around the world. However, for the AME church this motto encompasses a great summary of the principles of what our church stands for. Simply put, we worship God on all levels; we love all of God’s people and believe that without God’s love, the world would be lost. It is also our belief and duty to embrace our culture and rely specifically on the history of the church to fulfill our duty to worship God. We wholeheartedly recognize that “the relationship between Christianity and culture is such an important

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) is a “connectional church.” While the connectional dimension of African Methodism defines it over and against congregational churches, the depth of connectionalism in much richer. With strong roots in Wesleyan Methodism, the AME Church has a well-organized structure which literally connects congregations and members worldwide. Through this connectional structure, the AME Church is able to pursue its mission with the resources of all of its churches rather than the spare resources of one. Moreover, the AME Church connection is a robust system of relationships that provide systems of communication and accountability which take shape in the Class Leader System and in the five conferences

This reading application has again uncovered supplementary and important information on the history of the African-American church. It also provided a look into the future of the church. Further study in this area should continue to be fruitful and very

“The objective of this Theology is to address lived experience and human needs Black theology seeks to plumb the black condition in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, so that black community can see that the gospel is commensurate with the achievement of black humanity. It is the affirmation of black humanity that emancipates black people from white racism, thus providing authentic freedom for both white and black people. It affirms the humanity of white people in that it says no to the encroachment of white oppression.” (Pinn 20) Over time and experience the sources of Black Theology became, “African American cultural production, Christian tradition, sacred texts, and African American Cultural production.” (Pinn 28-29) Black Theology has advanced throughout the years. African Americans wanted justification of equality, and over time they

The Methodist church was completely different than anything I was able to imagine. Due to