• Different generations in this church• Repeat after me, “My experiences are

different than yours, and we praise the same awesome God!”

• Today, let’s get on the same page

Education

EXCEPT FOR GOD

Psalm 150 (KJV)• 1Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise

him in the firmament of his power. • 2Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to

his excellent greatness. • 3Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him

with the psaltery and harp. • 4Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him

with stringed instruments and organs. • 5Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon

the high sounding cymbals. • 6Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.

Praise ye the LORD.

Two Minute Discussions• One person answer this and then the other

answer this (ONE MINUTE EACH)• When you first participated in church what were

some of the traditional practices of the church?• Examples, how people dressed, instruments that

were played, songs that were sung, length of church service, gender of the leaders in the church, why did you come to church?

• SHARE SOME OF WHAT YOU DISCUSSED

TWO MINUTE DISCUSSION

• What denomination did you grow up in?• Talk about some of their practices in the

choir?• Practices such as how the music was played,

how it was learned, etc.?

God’s Glory and man’s honorPsalm 8 (KJV)

• 1O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

• 2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

• 3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

• 4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

• 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

• 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

• 7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; • 8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the

paths of the seas. • 9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Genderism

• There was a time when….• When you see images like you in positive

positions it can impact how you see yourself• Church was a place we came to help one

another- Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, • Negro Spirituals, hymns, were developed

Quotes from The Negro Church in America/The Black Church Since

Frazier• Being captured in Africa and enslaved, stripped us of our social heritage• Not until 1840 did the number of females equal the number of males in

the slave population in the US• Slaves were broken in when they were imported (change of name, dress,

language)• Christianity provided a new basis of social cohesion• It should be noted that the missionaries concentrated their efforts on the

children because of the difficulty to convert the adult Africans • Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc.• To some, Negroes took to Baptists and Methodists more because the

ministers in these sects were not as educated like those in the Anglican church. The leaders knew how to give fiery messages of hope and a prospect of escape from their worldly riches

Familiar hymn• My God is a Rock in a weary land

My God is a rock in a weary landShelter in the time of storm

• “Therefore, think about when we started learning about the Bible. When Negro preachers started they needed to posses some knowledge of the Bible. Knowledge of the sacred scriptures had to be combined with an ability to speak and communicate his special knowledge to the slaves. The slave preacher also had to be able to sing (pg 24).”

• When you get a chance look up Richard Allen & Absalom Jones organized the Free African Society

Church impacted

• Social control • Economic cooperation- churches bonded to

build the community • Education• Politics

TWO MINUTE DISCUSSION

• When you come to church on Sundays what is on your mind when you enter the doors?

• Next question why are you in the choir?

BEFORE WE CAME HERE

Spread of Christianity started here

Saint Mark the Evangelist

The spread of Christianity throughout Egypt and Northern Africa, during the first five centuries was rapid and intense, despite the prevalence of false teachings, persecutions and martyrdom. Some religious scholars believe that Christianity was introduced to Africans by way of the Egyptian city of Alexandria (http://www.allaboutreligion.org/history-

of-christianity-in-africa-faq.htm).

At the start of the seventh century, the Coptic Church had established itself as the national church and had penetrated every region of the country. Although Christianity began in North Africa several centuries before its introduction in Egypt, the church in North Africa did not grow as quickly because the North African church used the Latin language in its services and literature, rather than the language of the people. (http://www.allaboutreligion.org/histo

ry-of-christianity-in-africa-faq.htm)

How did Africans Worshipfrom Black Religion and Black

Radicalism• African Traditional Religions (ATR)• These religions have no sacred scriptures, single founder,

central temple or sanctuary, schools of prophets, etc. They are family and clan centered religions, pragmatic in their relation to and effect upon the totality of daily existence, and firmly ecological and anthropocentric in their ontology

• Simply put pertain to affairs of community, putting everything in terms of human experiences and values.

• We worshipped God for everything (NATURE).

1st Visit of Christianity to Africa•African Christianity took root in Egypt and spread throughout Africa to Ethiopia, Nubia•Some would argue that Judaism is almost indigenous to ancient Africa as African Traditional Religion (ATR) (Genesis 46:1). Descents of Jacob’s family into Egypt.•Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon (I Kings 10:1-13). A son born Menelik became the 1st Emperor of Ethiopia2nd Visit of Christianity came with Columbus “Era of Frustration”3rd Visit of Christianity came from our African American Brothers and Sisters that were freed “era of hospitable reception given to the faith between 1787 and 1893”.

• We had Christianity before Slavery• We served God in different ways• We recognized God’s magnificence, power, omnipresence • “African religions know nothing of a rigid demarcation between

the natural and the supernatural. All of life is permeated with forces or powers in some relationship to human weal or woe” (Wilmore, pg,37).

• “Some think African worship animals and nature as gods. This is a misunderstanding. The living, pulsating environment in which humans subsist and through which we are related to the spirits of natural things and the ancestors, but preeminently with a SUMPREME BEING- GOD ABOVE ALL GODS” (Wilmore, pg 38).

• Church service in Africa• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jltbQNyo

Ig&NR=1

Church service

• Church service in America• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XU-0BoL

eis&p=26F499DB86A2B963&playnext=1&index=27

HymnsWhat a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpbvPtSr8gs •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v9GdkrqPoQ&feature=related •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJg5Op5W7yw&feature=related amazing grace MJ

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOGbOsctpI Rev. Jacob Parker•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUeQugabYoA Canton Jones Fix It

What’s different?

• Time• Method• Holistically it wasn’t different• What does your preference have to do with

helping others get to God• If the church is evolving then what are we

doing? Church can only go where we go. God can move however God chooses to move.

God Never dies, therefore, I cannot die.

Symbol of God’s omnipresence and the perpetual existence of man’s spirit

REFERNCES• Frazier, E. F & Lincoln, C. E. 1974. The Negro

Church in America; The Black Church Since Frazier. New York: Schocken Books.

• Wilmore, G. S. 2006. Black Religion and BlackRadicalism. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books

• Adinkra Symbols. Retrieved from http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra/nyawu.htm

• The Apostle Mark Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_the_Evangelist