Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It...
Sunday mornings used to mean something special to me. But I now face them with dread, with a bittersweet sorrow that tugs at my heart and a headache-inducing tension that makes me reach for the Advil. I am torn between my desire to play hooky from church and my Pentecostal indoctrination that Sunday is the Lord's day, a day of worship when real men are supposed to lead their families into the house of God.
From there John W. Fountain explains why he and thousands of other black men no longer attend church. You can read the full article here. At one point brother Fountain says ‘Somewhere along the way, for us, for me, the church -- the collective of black churches of the Christian faith, regardless of denomination -- lost its meaning, its relevance. It seems to have no discernible message for what ails the 21st-century black male soul‘.
While many might argue the necessity of reform within the black church the absence of thousands if not tens of thousands of black men give evidence that something might be amiss. I stand firmly in the camp of those who believe that the church is in need of reform. Is reform necessary because the African-American expression of God’s church is in much worse shape than other cultural expressions of the church? No, not really. Reform is necessary because the church in all places and at all times is under attack by the enemy. These attacks focus squarely on our twin purposes of worship and witness. Thus the black expression of God’s church needs reform because both our witness and worship has been seriously compromised. It is my contention that without meaningful reform the black church may further slide into confusion, lose our saltiness and cease to provide any discernable biblical witness to black people.
From my point of view reform begins with the churches original mission and mandate. Genesis (yes Genesis for that’s where God’s people originate) records the main mission of God’s people which in a nutshell is to fill the earth with godliness in all aspects. Though the mission may have been nuanced as God’s people grew and developed it was this mission that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ committed to His disciples as recorded in Matthew 28. Knowing, understanding and carrying out our mission is critical if the church is to prevent itself from being captured and altered to carry out the mission of another country or cultural/ethnic group. From its beginning the church existed to promote the agenda of its shepherd, king, high priest and savior and not the narrow interest of nationalist Israel or imperialistic Rome. From our perspective it’s crucial that we remember that the church today does not exist to promote the agenda of black America nor the overall hegemony of the country of America.
Thus while brother Fountain is onto something when he declares that the church has lost itself the prescription is not to adopt an agenda and mission that centers itself on promoting the interests of black people. In Christ, God has graciously brought us to Himself, empowered us with His Spirit and nourished us with His word so that we who were once lost might declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Our mission should we choose to accept it is to take the glorious gospel of God’s grace found in Christ alone to all people including black folks so that they too might turn from their sin, believe in Jesus Christ and through training and teaching become a transformed people and culture.
For Christ, His Church and The Truth
Pastor Lance