Racial church

Great post... :thumbsup:

 

A few years ago I was asked to be one of the preachers at a funeral for a black neighbor . She and her husband were such sweet people and I enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity.

 

Black Church, Asian Church, and overseas.

 

I checked off "routinely attend a church where I am a minority" even though it is not true any longer, because I was for 20 years the white pastor of a majority black congregation. And yet it was not a "black church" in the sense of its cultural expectations or worship style being those commonly associated with black churches.

In recent months I have had the privilege of preaching, with translation, at a Burmese church and at a church composed of French-speaking Africans.

 

What a privilege... :thumbs:

Is my green showing? :laugh:

 

I regret to say that I have not had the privilege to attend many Churches outside that of where I am now. I do have an old high school friend that is the Mayor of Palatka, FL and the also the Pastor of Mt Tabor First Baptist Church and would like to go hear a full sermon from him some day soon. However being the Assoc Pastor of a Church for the past, near to, 20 years I do not get the opportunity to visit any others. I have been in services where the congregation was mixed and the preachers are of different race but never been in a building that was a designated "Black Church."

 

Considering I am a missionary in Latin America and I preach every week in Spanish. Yeah I have been in a hispanic church.

But it is not outside of America. Its outside of the United States. The people here will tell you emphatically that they are americans too. And they are right- their south americans.

 

BTW you may want to call it an ethnic church not racial since there is no such thing as biological race. Just a thought.

 

One Sunday last summer, I had the opportunity to visit New City Fellowship in St. Louis, MO (www.newcity.org). It is probably the most integrated church (race, ethnicity, socioeconomic) I've ever attended. It was a wonderful experience.

We have a Korean congregation that uses our facilities each Sunday afternoon. However, I've never attended any of the services -- don't think I would understand very much.

Our own church is probably 30-40% non-Anglo, including members who are Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, Chinese, Trinidians, American blacks, Brazilians, etc.

 

Black churches, several times. Have spoken and sung.

Baptist churches in Romania. Sang in 10-15 of them during a mission trip.

A Gypsy Church in Romania. Sang, my pastor preached.

An Anglican Church in London, in March of this year. They're "low" church, that is, non-liturgical. Could have easily been mistaken for a Baptist church except for the collar on the preacher.

 

Well said.

Ed

 

I have had the privilege to preach to a Mexican congregation (via an interpretor). That was quite an experience, especially the song service where I was asked to play the keyboard. I had to wait until the song leader started and then find the key he was in and try to recognize the song by the tune. Luckily, I play solely by ear.

Also, we have a COEBA (Conference on Evangelizing Black America) church nearby that we fellowship with regularly.