I never heard the term “church planting” growing up in Black churches. It wasn’t until I got involved in White evangelical circles that I heard the phrase and it took on meaning. This doesn’t imply that African American churches weren’t or aren’t thinking about multiplication. I remember numerous conversations around evangelism and growing the church […]
All Christians are involved in foreign missions. You are either a “goer” or a “sender”. At the inaugural Cross Conference in Louisville, Kentucky on December 27-30, the presenters labored to make the case for missions. They called for hundreds of young men and women to take to the mission field in places around the world. The […]
I am only six months into planting a multi-ethnic church. What a journey! We have yet to begin our regular meetings and already I see a central lesson emerging from my experiences: there’s only one expert and it is not me. Jesus is the only real expert at creating the Christian community we call the […]
Leaving a black church and entering into the world of a predominately white reformed church is a hard transition as a black person. Pride, bitterness and loneliness can consume one in such an environment where you might be challenged, misunderstood and alienated, often times unintentionally. To help prevent this, we must remind others going through […]
This Christmas season will be filled with gift giving, good food, and precious time with family and friends. And while all of these things are wonderful and important, we should keep the purpose of this blessed time of year central in our minds. This is the perfect time for God’s people to spend a few […]
American Christians have a tendency to see their own denomination, local church, association of partner churches, and so on, as “the church.” With this reduction comes a number of blind spots about what the church looks like around the world. [Tweet “American Christians have a tendency to see their own denom, church or network as “the […]
Pastor H.B. Charles Jr. challenges the “office” of Armor Bearer in a recent article. He writes: He picked me up from the airport. We headed straight to the church. I wanted to look over my manuscript once more before I preached. But I took a few minutes to chat with my driver. I asked my […]
by Dr. Anthony Bradley I’m returning to a question I asked last summer but with a slightly different angle. Last summer, I asked what happened to popular Presbyterianism in a world where the Calvinist resurgence is almost entirely Baptist and non-denominational. In the 1980s and 1990s when I was first introduced to Reformed theology three names dominated […]
Since 2002, Jim Ward has been the Director of Music at New City Fellowship, a Reformed, multicultural congregation in Chattanooga Tennessee. Ward is a highly skilled musician with a love for God, a passion for sound theology, and a great respect for the musical expressions of other cultures. Add to that mix the chops to […]
The importance of Fathers When we think of the word “father,” many thoughts flood our minds and many emotions fill our hearts. Some of us have amazing fathers who love us, care for us, provided discipline in our formative years and guidance as we got older. They are excellent models for us, holding together strength […]
Conversation with my wife’s grandmother, Daisy, had been cordial and mostly forgettable…until she started talking about her childhood as a sharecropper. My wife, my son, me and Ms. Daisy had been driving in the car on our way back from Kansas City, Missouri after spending Easter with my in-laws. A surge of wakefulness knocked me […]
Last week, Huffington Post contributor Yvette Carnell published “Why Black Liberals Need to Take Back [The] Black Agenda From The Black Church.” In it, the founder of the Breaking Brown media hub felt she “made the case” that the Black Church had outlived its political usefulness, and should take a back seat to Black liberals […]
How do you respond when you are racially profiled? Maybe this has never happened to you, but it happens to me all the time. The offenders of this kind of racial profiling aren’t racist white police officers. They aren’t white TSA agents looking to find a person with the “right” skin tone to hassle. The […]
by Jemar Tisby A racially and ethnically diverse assembly has always been part of God’s plan for redemption. Amid the excitement about diversity, Christians must remember that there is a biblical basis for it. Here are just a few passages from Scripture that illustrate the multi-ethnic imperative of the Gospel. In the Beginning… After Adam […]
Recently, John Frame’s page on Facebook posted this question; Why are there so few African-Americans and Latinos in the PCA? Or in any Reformed church, for that matter? This is, I think, an important question. The Church of Jesus Christ is to embrace all nations, as God fulfills in Jesus his promise to Abraham (Gen. […]
Many of you have read the Jemar Tisby’s post “African Americans and ‘Big God’ Theology”, but have you heard the sermon that inspired it? Check it out!
