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The Black Church focuses on the seven largest black Protestant denominations in the country. The biggest U.S. black organization of any type is the 7.5 million-member National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. Like all Baptist groups, it gives individual congregations complete autonomy. The National Baptist Convention of America and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. are kindred groups. The oldest black denominations are the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, founded after the Revolutionary War by free blacks influenced by John Wesley's revival movement. The closely related Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was formed by freed slaves after the Civil War. The seventh institution is the Church of God in Christ, which, like all Pentecostal groups, emphasizes the experience known as "baptism in the Holy Spirit," manifested by speaking in tongues. When other Protestants and Roman Catholic worshipers are added in, black churchgoers total 24 million.
Black Christianity preaches a gospel of deliverance, the reality of a vivid flesh-and-blood Jesus and the urgency of spiritual rebirth. In that sense, all seven denominations are akin to white Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism. But black belief also insists that social and economic liberation is part of that gospel. No less important than the message has been the messenger. Uniquely, the black church has been the haven for an entire community's most visionary leaders, from Nat Turner, leader of the 1831 slave rebellion, to Oliver Brown, who filed the lawsuit that abolished school desegregation, to former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.
In examining the status of the clergy, The Black Church raises deeply troubling questions. The median age of black pastors in the U.S. has reached a dangerously high 52, which means that fewer young blacks are entering the ministry. Thanks to the civil rights movement, the ministry is no longer the sole redoubt of blacks with leadership aspirations. "We never had black mayors before the last 30 years," remarks Harlem Baptist Pastor Wyatt Tee Walker.
The ministry is also losing out in the economic competition. Only one- quarter of the black pastors in the U.S. have health insurance, a mere 15.7% receive pensions, and salaries are so low that nearly 40% of pastors hold second jobs. Less than one-fifth of pastors hold seminary degrees. The Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, believes lack of formal skills is critical. "You can be 'called,' but 9 times out of 10 today if you are not trained, you are of no use to us," says Butts, who holds a Ph.D. from Drew University in New Jersey.