For Blacks, Worship Calls for Commotion Along With the Devotion

The most segregated hour of the week is 11 a.m. Sunday.

--Tom Skinner, Christian social activist

When Father George A. Stallings Jr. started his independent congregation in Washington, D.C., as a means of making a statement about racial insensitivity in the Catholic Church, his action was not at all unlike Martin Luther’s in 1517.

While Luther’s protest was largely theological, Stallings’ conflict is primarily cultural. In his words, he established an independent African-American Catholic congregation because he felt the Catholic Church “is not responsive to cultural needs.”

The headlines surrounding Stallings’ action are there because his protest is an unusual occurence in the Catholic Church. New Protestant churches are formed weekly out of splits, clashes of culture, theology or personality.

Stallings’ “clash of culture” underscores the historical desire among African-American Christians to wed their creeds with their needs. Personal values shaped at home from emotion, music, pride and “mother wit” conflict with the traditional formalism of Western Catholicism. There grows an innate desire to be as emotional, as musical, as proud in worship as at mother’s dinner table.

Because of the nature of the Protestant church, such conflicts are more readily solved by going around the corner and starting a new church.

That’s why in every major city you will find, for example, a St. John Baptist Church and a Greater St. John Baptist Church, or a Mt. Zion Baptist Church and a Little Zion Baptist Church. Those splits have come primarily because of clashes other than culture. Conflict between the church and Stallings manifests itself primarily as a cultural conflict. The evidence for this is his abandonment of traditional Catholic vestments for more traditional African garb; the emphasis on a more traditional black choir style of music, and a most distinctively social agenda for the church.

If the church is perceived as resistant to “cultural distinctions,” its message becomes hollow and the world becomes resistant. Actually, the Catholic Church has proven itself flexible over the last 400 years. In fact, some might argue it has been too flexible. Even the prayers to the saints came about through adjustment for cultures who worshiped many lesser gods before getting through to the great God. Vestments have been changed and adjusted according to the surrounding culture and community.

Theologically the church also tends to change, but oh, so slowly. The congregation led by Stallings invokes the spirits of preeminent black heroes as the Catholic Church does of “canonized saints.” “But,” the church might remonstrate, “you can’t do that. You have to go through the process before you become a saint. That takes time.”

“Yes,” the black Catholic may say. “It takes time.” And, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We can’t wait.”

Should the church speed up the theological process to meet the needs of the current culture? May I ask somewhat tongue in cheek, “Is there a need for some form of spiritual affirmative action?” As an evangelical, I would tend to say those heroes or saints should be appreciated, not invoked. I have some kinship with Stallings culturally, though very little theologically.

The African-American worship experience has been an atypical adventure since slave days. There are 68,000 African-American churches stretching from coast to coast and every church is different. Each thrives on, and is proud of, its independence and uniqueness. Rarely can they fit into a mold of any kind; the one sure thing they have in common is an old rugged cross, the God/man Jesus and a wistful eye toward toward that “great-gettin’-up-mornin’ ” when all of God’s children rise from the dead.

More than 72% of all African-Americans claim membership in a church. More than 75% belong to Baptist or Pentecostal churches, which are by their ecclesiastical natures independent, self-governed and self-determined.

While the African-American church has organized for civil rights and political activities, it has more often agonized over “lost” souls. The African-American church in general has never lost its spiritual emphasis. It has simply integrated that emphasis with its political, social and community concerns.

It is not the sermon alone that distinguishes the African-American worship experience. As in most American churches, many African-American churches survive the boredom of poor preaching every Sunday. African-American churches are slow to die from poor preaching because there is compensation in other parts of the service. For example, the announcements are a way of keeping pace with the life of the community within and without the church; and the ambience is a very real way to “keep in touch” in a world where cultures resist the idea of totally “melting” into the pot. The call of the minister and response of the congregation is an important part of that worship experience. Ministers who don’t have the patience or rhythm for the call “can’t preach.” And the congregation without a response is a “cold church.” Often the sermon climaxes at a high level of inspiration with the minister in high-pitched “call” and the congregation in a fervor-filled response with some involved in what we call a “shout.” That may mean a happy dance in the aisle for a few people. Or an amen-filled waving of the arms for a few more.

As African-American churches have grown in their appreciation for the Bible clearly taught, there has been less emphasis on commotion and more emphasis on devotion. But there has been no great desire to imitate the major white worship styles. From the African-American worship experience, most white churches appear to be cold and perfunctory.

Yet there’s been an appreciation for good preaching and teaching no matter what the color of the teacher; there is a disproportionate number of African-Americans among the followers of radio/TV teachers and preachers and religious leaders.

In this next decade it will not be how high you jump but how you walk when you come down. The integration of our styles of worship and our neighborhoods will result in the further integration of our churches. The universal church must prepare for this change and welcome it. Our own neighborhoods, cities and regions are our first mission field.

The church where I serve as senior pastor began as a small, exclusively black Baptist church. Our neighborhood changed right before our eyes and so did we. Our congregation is still predominantly African-American, yet, in the congregation of 8,000, there are Latino, Indian, white and Asian members. The situation for Father Stallings illustrates a typical church dilemma: how to deal with the clash of cultures and the test of theologies and at the same time maintain the biblical message. If the universal church is to be prepared for the 21st Century, it must prepare to adjust its methods without polluting its message.