I’m not a black man, but I am very concerned about my black church…

When I was a young man, near the age of fourteen, I met my first black church during an inner-city missions trip.
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You see, the black church had been left on her own before. She’s a survivor in Abba’s Graceland. She knows that after the mountain top come valleys of growth. She has lived God’s promise that His mercies are new every morning.

She’s the one who told me that in the midst of the greatest suffering, you’ll find the great peace and joy – knowing that Jesus walks with you every step of the way. There was no better example of God’s grace, forgiveness and the joy of Jesus’ redemptive work in my youthful eyes.

Today, many are concerned that the black church has been removed from her excellence by a different ‘means’. There is a growing concern that the trappings of the ‘prosperity philosophy’ has enticed the black church to sway from her missional mode, into a missional crisis.

Dr. Robert M. Franklin, author of newly released “Crisis in the Valley”, states that the achievements of the African American community are losing ground, especially among church leaders who have shifted more focus onto individual achievement.
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What Dr. Franklin is referencing is the lost achievement of missions. Franklin states, “I am convinced that the single greatest threat to the historical legacy and core values of the contemporary black church tradition is posed by what is known as the ‘prosperity gospel’ movement.”

The black church has always had at her core the active missions of the kingdom. Franklin is concerned that the black church has become hostile to marginalized people, those who are poor, homeless, HIV/AIDS infected, homosexual and even immigrants, have been left behind in the new wave of individualism and prosperity.
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At a time when the country is seeing a revival of missional purpose, to have the black church’s eyes focused on a philosophy of wealth, economic position and individual materialism is a crisis within the village, a crisis for all of us who admire the true essence of God’s blessed black church.

A church that relates to the hurting, the marginalized to reach them with the tangible touch of Jesus’ love. A church history that has been built upon faith in the midst of suffering and true survival in a righteous relationship with Jesus Himself.
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15) And He said to them, ?Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one?s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.?