Not All Praise New Focus in Black Churches

BALTIMORE —  Like a sea of humanity, nearly 20,000 swaying and singing worshipers packed the Baltimore Convention Center, transforming the exhibition hall into a tent revival.

The organ pumped, an electric bass drove the gospel beat and a massed choir raised its voices in praise. The churchgoers rose as one, hands clapping, arms raised, some jumping up and down in an ecstatic dance of the Holy Spirit.

The recent national convention of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship attracted Baptists, Methodists and others who a decade ago would have worshiped in the confines of their own denominations. It was a sign that a once-renegade movement in the African American church called neo-Pentecostalism--which combines a powerful mix of spirit-filled worship and a philosophy of black empowerment--has come of age.

Once confined to storefront sanctuaries and a handful of Pentecostal denominations, it has been increasingly embraced by the elite black churches of Baptists and Methodists. It is reviving congregations and creating mega-churches.

“Our pastor is truly anointed,” Mashawn Phillips, 34, said of the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church in West Baltimore, which has grown from nothing to more than 2,500 members in two years. “I’ve done a 360-[degree] turnaround with things that went on in my life, and it’s all because of his teaching and preaching.”

Scholars who study the black church consider neo-Pentecostalism and the rise of the black mega-church the most significant trends in decades.

A conservative estimate is that one-third of mainline black churches--Baptist and Methodist--have embraced neo-Pentecostalism; that’s about 5 million people. Perhaps more significant is that nearly all the black mega-churches (those with more than 2,000 members) are neo-Pentecostal.

But the success of neo-Pentecostalism has prompted debate about the nature and mission of the black church.

Longtime heroes of the civil rights movement express grave concerns that church-based social activism is being cast aside by the new emphasis on entertaining worship services, which they deride as “shake and bake,” and by the creation of a cult of celebrity preachers.

“If we’re going to survive in this country, the only way is through church activism that identifies with the poor,” said the Rev. Vernon Dobson, pastor for more than 30 years of Union Baptist Church in West Baltimore, which has a century-old tradition of civil rights activism.

“My fear is that somebody will get the wrong message and see church as celebrating rather than serving,” Dobson said. “Never shout any higher than you can serve. Shout all you want. But let it be measured by your service.”

Neo-Pentecostal services have many variations, but three important elements are characteristic: professionally performed music that will bring a congregation to its feet; dynamic and inspiring preaching; and a sense of freedom in the congregation to respond as the spirit moves--shouting, clapping, dancing, speaking in tongues, healing and a sort of swoon known as being “slain in the spirit.”

“Miracles still happen,” said Barbara Wiley, an elementary school principal who attends a Full Gospel church in Erie, Pa. “People are being healed; people are being delivered from oppression, drug abuse, sickness--all by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

The roots of neo-Pentecostalism lie in the Pentecostal movement that formed early in the last century, introduced to the world on a large scale by the Azusa Street Revival, an interracial, headline-grabbing religious phenomenon that began in 1906 in Los Angeles.

For most of the last century, Pentecostalism was limited to a handful of denominations, such as the mostly white Assemblies of God and the principally black Church of God in Christ, as well as smaller storefront churches of the urban black underclass.

But the more influential churches of the black middle class and elites demurred, clinging to a more restrained style of worship closer to that of the traditional European churches.

Pentecostalism began creeping into mainline Protestant and Catholic churches in the 1960s under a movement that described itself as “Charismatic.” About that time, John Bryant, a young black man who grew up in West Baltimore’s Bethel AME Church, became intrigued by the possibilities of “spirited” worship. After a stint in the Peace Corps in Africa and as a minister in Cambridge, Mass., Bryant came home, where he took over the Bethel pulpit and established it as a catalyst for black neo-Pentecostalism.

“I began to minister and preach a combination of a spiritual emphasis with a call to minister to the whole person, to speak on issues of justice, liberation and empowerment,” Bryant said.

The people responded, and the congregation grew to 6,500 by the time he was elected bishop in 1988.

Similar mega-church stories can be told in Los Angeles. One of them, Faithful Central Bible Church, grew from 200 members to 10,000 in two decades under the leadership of Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer--a size so grand the church two years ago purchased the Forum for its services.

A national survey shows that fewer than 10% of black churches can be considered activist congregations, frequently lobbying public officials or participating in political advocacy.

“We seem to find there is a small cohort of activist churches at the forefront of public policy where African American churches have been involved,” said the Rev. R. Drew Smith of Morehouse College in Atlanta, director of a long-term study of black churches.

Neo-Pentecostal pastors say their activism lies closer to home. Using biblical imagery, they say the generation of civil rights activists that had the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as their Moses was led from the spiritual slavery of segregation and Jim Crow laws. But this generation, they maintain, has entered into the promised land.

“These are ministers who wish to close the gap between the two kingdoms [of man and God] and establish God’s kingdom to the best of their ability here on Earth,” said Robert L. Franklin, president of Atlanta’s Inter-Denominational Theological Center, a consortium of six predominantly black seminaries. “The best antidote to poverty is not to be a poor person.”

It comes down to a difference in philosophy and strategy. The social-activist minister wants to transform the legal and economic systems that keep poor people in poverty. The neo-Pentecostal minister would rather transform the person.

That theological vision is expressed in the community development corporations set up by the neo-Pentecostal churches, which offer a spectrum of social services and projects. The nonprofit agencies run community outreach centers, offer alcohol and drug counseling, and operate soup kitchens, clothing banks and job-training programs. Others are building housing and helping members start small businesses that provide jobs for their communities.

Neo-Pentecostal ministers say they are neither social workers nor social agitators, but simply Christians.

“I think the frustration [the civil rights ministers] feel is we are not making as many placards, we’re not holding as many rallies,” said the Rev. Dennis V. Proctor, pastor of Pennsylvania Avenue AME Zion Church in West Baltimore. “But on the other hand, we’re having many more revivals and teaching sessions and seminars, trying to equip our people to be family, to have sanctity of family, have respect and reverence for the house of God and the people of God. And the balance is absolutely necessary.”