Download or read book Black Christians Use of Ministers in Times of Distress written by Carol V. Burrell-Jackson and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Biblical Strategies for a Community in Crisis written by Colleen Birchett and published by Urban Ministries Inc. This book was released on 1995-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through inspirational messages and warnings, 11 leading Christian thinkers share with readers the major challenges facing the African American community and its church. Readers are given biblical strategies for facing these challenges. 12 lessons. Leader's Guide also available.

Download or read book Divine Callings written by Richard N. Pitt and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be “called by God” to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry. Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ—both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring—to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as much as a social process as it is a spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling. In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.

Download or read book Self Care written by Dr. Helen Orme and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-04-21 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking the necessary time to minister prayer and forgiveness for oneself is vital: it enables one to remain fresh and vibrant while ministering to others. In addition, it fosters both spiritual and physical wholeness, as well as personal integrity. Taking the necessary time to minister prayer and forgiveness for oneself is vital: it enables one to remain fresh and vibrant while ministering to others. In addition, it fosters both spiritual and physical wholeness, as well as personal integrity. An action the middle-aged African-American woman can take toward self-care is the act of letting go. It is imperative to self-care: an individual cannot receive anything when they are full—full of caring and attending to others as well as unsettled concerns, emotions, or thoughts. The ability to let go is essential to move to a place of wholeness; it creates the space that is needed to receive more. It is impossible to pour more into a full cup, the cup will overflow: letting go of past experiences creates room for the new to emerge. “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isa. 42:9 [KJV]).

Download or read book In Search of Wisdom written by Anne Streaty Wimberly and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide for pastors, church leaders, and all who help African Americans in their search for a meaningful Christian lifestyle. Forming Christians--leading fallen and flawed human beings into the path of discipleship to a crucified and risen Lord--is one of the central, if not the central, tasks of all Christian churches. It is a difficult enough task anywhere, but for African Americans, beset by racial conflict, personal crises, generational separation, and other concerns, it is especially so. African American churches must work particularly hard to counter the messages their members receive from the dominant and often unfriendly culture. This book employs the biblical text and African tradition to draw on the idea of the search for wisdom as a potent way to help African Americans in their pursuit of genuine Christian discipleship. Wisdom in African American tradition is not simply knowledge; rather, it is those insights, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and practices that create and sustain a life of hope and that produce an inherent sense of the worth of one's self. If their members are to engage in the search for wisdom, African American churches must build an intentional ministry of faith formation. Wisdom can be gained, the authors argue, when African Americans listen to the black oral tradition with its proverbial sayings, revered Bible stories, songs, and narratives from the lives of exemplary individuals. The book offers several similar avenues for the search for wisdom, including helpful models of black males mentoring younger black males, as a remedy to the destructive effects that contemporary culture has on this segment of the African American community.

Download or read book She Writes for Him Black Voices of Wisdom written by Cynthia Cavanaugh and published by Romans 8:28. This book was released on with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these turbulent times when the ugly stain of racism is at the forefront of our society, bringing rampant division and mistrust, we desperately need ways to come together. To build bridges of understanding between all in the body of Christ, we bring you twenty-one voices of Black Christian women, authors, ministers, educators, leaders, and mothers. Their powerful life experiences and heartfelt wisdom will shake you, open your eyes, and help you understand your sisters in Christ. From the ways women of color are treated in our society, to raising Black daughters and sons, to how a Black woman can have a white supremacist attitude, to how to respond as Christ would have us, their stories will be a link in bridging the gap between us with love. As a Christian, my response to all the tension, the polarization, and toxic environments currently unfolding in America is to consistently ask the Lord, “How can I best represent you?” . . . Change starts with you and includes repentance, listening, being willing to move out of your comfort zone, and having empathy for someone who doesn’t look like you. —Mercy Lokulutu May this powerful volume be a part of the bridge of love and understanding we need to walk across with our sisters.

Download or read book The Little Black Book written by Shaolin Abrams and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-18 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning, God has called leaders to serve His people. For God, Abraham left his homeland. Moses declined Egypt and its riches. Joshua destroyed Jericho. Elijah confronted King Ahab. Daniel faced the lions; and the James and John forsook their nets. Matthew left his customs booth. And Paul left a life of power and prestige. Despite their trials, these all found the venture satisfying. Paul's account of shipwreck, floggings, danger, and hardship glows with suffused excitement. He was having the time of his life! What if he'd said no to Christ? Telling the Philippians about the things he had given up, Paul declared, "I consider them rubbish." And why? "That I may gain Christ and be found in him" Philippians 3:8-9. We enjoy the same perspective, for through His Cross; Jesus opened not only the door of salvation for all who would accept, but the privilege of service as well. Jew, Greek, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free...all may serve the Lord Christ. Some were apostles. Some, prophets. Some will be evangelists, some pastors and teachers. All are "for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" Ephesians 4:12-13. For the Minister of the Gospel, each day offers a new challenge. The phone rings; we are summoned to the bedside of a dying man. Later in the day, we help arrange a marriage. That evening, we counsel a soul in trouble. No other vocation offers such a wide span of involvement with mankind. Then when we stand to preach, think of it...in our weak and human hands we hold the truth of God, the supreme answer to the souls of man. The ministry of Christ is not a job, not a profession. It is a calling, and the noblest...the most demanding and at times exasperating, but it is surely the most satisfying and rewarding experience human life affords. With Paul, we can truly say, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service" 1Timothy 1:12. Like the Christian life, the ministry of Christ is a relationship between the disciple and his lord. We serve Him; He develops and strengthens us. We must prepare ourselves first, then our sermons. The very fact that we are ministers will work against our spiritual life unless we are careful. We study the Bible, but for a text; we pray, but in front of a group or beside a hospital bed. While attending to these public ministries, our personal devotions may be neglected. Power in preaching comes in direct proportion to time spent in prayer and in the Word. Nothing...not speaking ability nor a forceful personality nor a persuasive manner...can take the place of the Spirit of God, filing and shaping and using the life committed to Him. Are we adequate to the task? Never. We have this treasure in jars of clay, but God accepts and uses our service nonetheless. Paul finally learned to accept his weakness, so "that the power of Christ may dwell in me" 2Corinthians 12:9. If the truth were known, few of us pray enough. We tend to rely too much upon our cleverness in programming and promotion, but not enough upon the power of God through prayer. Sadly, our churches show it. A definite time and place, preferably early in the morning, where one can shut out the world and feed upon the Word, unburden his heart, and commune with the Father will set the tone for the day and for a lifetime. The minister who keeps his appointment with God need have no anxiety about his work. In his daily walk, he will experience the unfolding hand of God bringing new power and effectiveness. He will see his life lifted to a new level he never dreamed possible, a level he could never have attained by himself. Pressed by the crowds, with such a short time to complete His task, Jesus still found time to pray. So must we.

Download or read book Going Global Beyond the Boundaries written by Carl Ellis, Jr. and published by Urban Ministries Inc. This book was released on 2010 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history of the spiritual foundation laid by the pre-20th century African-American forefathers within global missions. It also explores how African-Americans must build upon that foundation today and diligently work to fulfill the mandate of Lord Jesus Christ.

Download or read book Ministry for Social Crisis written by Forrest E. Harris and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Martin Luther King and published by HarperOne. This book was released on 2025-01-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality.

Download or read book Another Day s Journey written by Robert Michael Franklin and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Franklin's book urges direct engagement by African American and other churches with America's mounting social problems and details programs for children, elders, and economic action.

Download or read book The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching written by Kenyatta R. Gilbert and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching is a constructive effort to examine the historical contributions of African American preaching, the challenges it faces today, and how it might become a renewed source of healing and strength for at-risk communities and churches. --from publisher description

Download or read book Spiritual Care in an Age of BlackLivesMatter written by Danielle J. Buhuro and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 is the day that changed America. A Republican business mogul and reality television host who once proclaimed that if women didn't accept the intimate advancements of men, then men were could simply grab these women by a particularly sensitive extremity below their stomachs, snatched the electoral collegiate vote and since then has worked tirelessly on reversing President Barack Obama's progressive policies and pushing immigration legislation backwards. This vital resource guide incorporates the basic understandings of spiritual care with the current social, emotional, existential and spiritual needs of African Americans simply surviving in Trump's violent America. It's one-of-a-kind, offering specific spiritual care strategies and interventions for African Americans dealing with particular physical, social and emotional health challenges in the midst of rising statistics of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia leading to violence in the United States. Intended for anyone in academia or the helping professions, this comprehensive work benefits those seeking to provide spiritual care to African American hospital patients, counseling clients, church congregants and parishioners, military veterans, or returning service members. The contributors to this anthology are experts in their respective fields who offer a new, refreshing, and energizing perspective on important issues impacting African Americans.

Download or read book The Black Church written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. “Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again “Engaging. . . . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and The Black Box, and one of our most important voices on the African American experience, comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America. For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues. In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion. But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.

Download or read book A Time to Speak written by Marvin Andrew McMickle and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Time to Speak, organized around the themes found in Ecclesiastes 3, addresses and dismantles some of the arguments rooted in a less than thorough analysis of the Bible that have been used to prevent many black pastors and worshippers in black churches from getting involved with people who are either infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS." "McMickle implores black pastors and their worshippers to include ministry programs like the one begun in 1999 by his church, Antioch Baptist Church, that are designed to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community. These ministries can include testing, prevention education, and spiritual guidance and support. McMickle insists that a biblically based argument must be set forth that provides both the motivation and the methodology for the black church's involvement. He endeavors to provide that motivation and offers suggestions on methodologies that have already been implemented in locations across the country."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Fight for Your Pastor written by Peter Orr and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical Ways to Support and Care for Your Pastor Do you pray for your pastors? Do you encourage them? Do you have realistic expectations for them? The office of pastor is simultaneously a rewarding and draining position. Pastors today have immense pressure on their shoulders and they need the support of their congregations. Peter Orr has written Fight for Your Pastor as an exhortation for church members to stand behind their pastors through the difficulties of ministry. Orr specifies ways in which congregations can be intentional in caring for church leaders, including prayer, encouragement, generosity, and forgiveness. Featuring stories from current pastors about their struggles, this book is perfect for thoughtful church members eager to understand the weight of their pastors' positions and support leaders in their important ministry. For Thoughtful Christians: Specifically those wanting to know more about their pastors and how to care for them Current: Features insight from pastors about their personal experiences in ministry Applicable: Gives practical examples of how to love and care for pastors, including specific prayers for church leaders and the best ways to encourage them

Download or read book The Black Church in the African American Experience written by C. Eric Lincoln and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1990-11-07 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. In The Black Church in the African American Experience, based on a ten-year study, is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and the first major field study on the subject since the 1930s. Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black Church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary black culture. In examining both the internal structure of the Church and the reactions of the Church to external, societal changes, the authors provide important insights into the Church’s relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music. Among other topics, Lincoln and Mamiya discuss the attitude of the clergy toward women pastors, the reaction of the Church to the civil rights movement, the attempts of the Church to involve young people, the impact of the black consciousness movement and Black Liberation Theology and clergy, and trends that will define the Black Church well into the next century. This study is complete with a comprehensive bibliography of literature on the black experience in religion. Funding for the ten-year survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.