I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support in regard to this past Wednesday’s State of Black Baltimore Roundtable at Coppin. The room was packed with people from all walks of life…Believers, Academics, Activists, Radio Personalities and more! I was awe-struck by the people who I was blessed to be sharing the panel with. Judge Kenneth Johnson is a legend! Jake Oliver from the Afro is the consummate activists and Patricia Jessamy was very articulate and clear on where she stood on the issues. For those of you who couldn’t make it; the gist of my sharing went like this:
The Black Church in Baltimore has some major problems which are threatening its relevancy and necessity in the Black community. We have large ministries that for whatever reason don’t expend large amounts of resources to address our large societal ills. In Baltimore, we have a model of ministry that contributes to our own eventual destruction. How can you be a pastor or ministry in the Baltimore Metro area and not address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the open drug market, the high levels of crime, and the deplorable environment that we have placed our youth in? We need a new paradigm for ministry. This new paradigm would not be filled with conferences, DVD’s, new Bishops every month, TV ministries, and book sales. This new paradigm would align itself with the passage of scripture that Jesus read in the synagogue. In Luke 4:18 you’ll find:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The scripture starts off by saying that Jesus went to the synagogue that day as was his custom. He stood up to read and it says that he FOUND the place in the scroll of Isaiah that said that passage above. He FOUND that place….meaning he overlooked other places, he skipped by some passages just to find this scripture. In his reading he purposed to identify 4 groups of people:
1. The Poor
2. The Prisoners
3. The Blind
4. The Oppressed
I have one question for you Black Church of Baltimore. How much of an emphasis does your ministry have on serving the needs of the poor, imprisoned, blind, and oppressed? We have a grave problem – a dangerous disconnect between what is written and what is lived – what is preached and what is practiced. While there are a few “shining stars” in the darkness of this perverse form of Christianity that we employ; the truth is we need major reform in how we do ministry and how we understand ourselves as Believers. Until then we’ll keep on having church while our communities crumble around us.
Minister Heber III,
I went to the Faith In Action Website and found your discussion to be thought provoking for the Body of Christ or church. Yes, there is a major disconnect between what we say we BELIEVE verses how we BE-LIVING. We believe that we can do anything and continue to please God so we continue to BE-LIVING any kind of way because our belief is in our heads but not in our practical living. Our ancestors BELIEVED that they could not do anything without God so they continued BE-LIVING in song, action, and words as if God was there very present help in time of trouble. Now we BELIEVE and BE-LIVING as if we can’t do anything without money – now our songs, actions, and words are all about prosperity and get rich. Don’t get me wrong – I believe God wants us to prosper – but I think we are more in to the hand of God than the HEART of God. More into the POWER OF GOD than getting into the PRESENCE OF GOD. As someone has stated, we are more into the gifts than the GIVER OF THE GIFTS.
THAT’S MY TWO CENTS…..BE BLESSED AND STAY ENCOURAGED!
There was a young man attwnding our church with his parents and siblings. They left about 5years ago. Later on the father passed away from cancer. the mother has her own business.This young man came back one particular night during service, testified that “he was trying to get off of drugs,he had been sleeping on the streets for about a week, ect”. The Pastor, and brothers in the church reached out and ministered to him.He came back a couple of times, I saw him one time pulling up into Giant’s when it was on Menlo Drive.The brother looked like he was looking for a fix. He really touched my spirit that day. I went to look for him, I wanted just to encourage his soul. I talked to one of the ministers about seeing this brother in the parking lot. Apparently this brother did not really want the spiritual help that the pastor,ministers,and brother was trying to give him.
God does not want us to be ignorant of Satan’s divices. I can not reach out to people who just want to be users, being a single parent It takes all of my resources to take care of my home and make sure things are running in order, and not about to get turned off.I have to keep my child in check, how can I reach out and neglect my real responsibility,
( my home and child). I know of an young lady with two son’s today that is reaching out to a drug addict, trying to minister to this young lady. She moved her into her home,and have neglected her real duty to her children. Now one son is in some kind of psychiatric institution( she could not deal with his disobedient behavior) the other is a little femine. She leaves that 13 year old home alone with the drug addict, when she has to run errands such as pick up medication for young lady. The bible says charity begins at home. I know I have to raise my child first keep him on the right track, it is hard raising a male child, that is my ministry.–>
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