"Lift Every Voice and Sing": Church-hunting While Black

Christian Souljah

#17: Abdullah, Justine, and Andres are back for season 2! In this episode, Abdullah and Justine discuss what Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) should be on the lookout for when choosing a church.

These are our suggestions of what to look for in a church if you are BIPOC. Much of this works for everyone but there are certain considerations for marginalized groups.

Justine’s list

1. The leadership - I am a strong believer that the culture and the DNA of the church, and any institution for that matter, flows from top to bottom. First and foremost, it is beneficial to have a leadership team that represents a myriad of perspectives. To this end, I believe that having gender, ethnicity, age, socio-economic diversity on a church’s leadership team can help the whole team see things that would otherwise be overlooked.
2. Solidarity - It’s also helpful to have a leadership team and parishioners that are able to empathize with the heartbreak, the fatigue, the disappointment, and hopelessness that is so often tied to the Black experience in America. Jemar Tisby posted something on his FB page that’s stuck with me - “You know you’re in solidarity with the oppressed when you start to experience what they experience. The persecution, the marginalization, and even the oppression they endure”. When people have been transformed to this extent, injustice is no longer a “them” issue. It’s no longer something that BIPOC experiences. It’s no longer something that women or the differently-abled or the poor experience. It’s something we’re all experiencing together.
3. Courage - MLK once said: “All too many religious leaders have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.” Courageous Christianity stands against any person, policy, system, perspective, and practice that takes away from the glory of God that is reflected in humanity. Is your church willing to have tough conversations about injustice? Are your leaders and parishioners bold enough to condemn racism and division from the pulpit? Or are they silent and therefore complicit with systems that dehumanize the oppressed?
4. Worship - Is the worship inclusive? Is the worship pulled from a myriad of cultures, styles, writers, and voices? What is the makeup of the worship team? Are people free to be fully expressive during worship? Or is there an undertone that white contemporary worship styles are the ideal?
5. Do you feel seen? Do you feel heard? Do you feel safe? Do you feel like you are an equal part of the church family? Or is there a feeling that BIPOC are being included just because it’s the right and cool thing to do?
6. If you have children, you probably want to make sure that the children’s program is using content and curricula that are inclusive.
7. View on missions
8. View on cross-racial adoptions
9. Community involvement

Abdullah’s List

1. Is the church leadership ethnically and generationally diverse?
2. You need the wisdom of ethnic diversity and the wisdom of older people in the faith.
3. Talk to the elders to see where they stand on issues of justice, inclusion, and the Gospel. If there are elders of color, talk to them specifically about their experience in the church. If elders are unapproachable or give the impression that meeting with you is an inconvenience, this may mean that it is not a healthy environment.
4. Is it an evangelical church? Given the state of evangelicalism in the United States, there has to be serious before a Black person joins an evangelical church.
5. Do the sermon illustrations give tacit acceptance to white as normal, or are they more reflective of the diversity of God’s people?
6. Do they reflect a middle-class or upper-middle-class experience?
7. Are they overly spiritual at the expense of the here and now?
8. Are they welcoming to marginalized people (mentally ill, BIPOC, differently able, LGBTQIA+?
9. What does the relationship between the pastor and his wife seem to be like?
10. What is the music like? Do they play diverse styles of music regardless of the presence or absence of diversity in the congregation?
11. Talk to people and ask them if the church has grown, stayed the same, or shrank in the last few years. Ask several people. Ask them if:
12. If the church has stayed the same or shrank, it could be a sign that body life isn’t in a healthy place. It could be because people are leaving if the pastor is teaching about controversial things that make people uncomfortable.
13. Ask them if there have been sermons about the political and social unrest going on in the country. If there have been sermons, what has been the fallout or the result?
14. I’d also ask them specifically if they have discussed the killing of Black people in the streets from the pulpit and what was the fallout?
15. Ask what is the culture of relationships and discipleship? Are people intimately involved in people's lives for the sake of true Christian sanctification, fellowship, and community, or are folks just sitting playing nice while they are silently judging each other.

Helpful Links:

1. Lift Every Voice and Sing

2. Prophetic Lament by Dr. Soong Chan Rah

3. Letter from a Birmingham Jail

4. Black Fatigue by Mary-Frances Winters

5. Amazing Grace Origin told by Wintley Phipps

6. Economic Inequalities in Raising Support for Missions

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Andres' Twitter @Andres_Amador