If the Black Church were to disappear, who would miss it?
(Clockwise from top left: wwing, wwing, timeless, MCCAIG, all via Getty Images)
If the Black Church were to disappear, who would miss it?
“If the Black Church were to disappear, who would miss it?”
That’s the overarching question Jaronzie Harris and her team led with as they began a data-driven study of the Black Church in Boston.
The team tried to answer a series of questions: “Who’s in the Church? What are they doing? How’s the Church doing? How many churches do we have? What are these Black Christians even thinking about or talking about? Do they even talk to each other?”
Jaronzie Harris, Director, Black Church Vitality Project. Emmanuel Gospel Center
In partnership with several organizations, Harris’s efforts helped establish the Black Church Vitality Project, an initiative close to her heart as a daughter of the Black Church.
“My love for the Church really comes out of my love for Black people, Black communities,” Harris told the Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Curious City podcast. “Always having that sense of service and a faith centered in hope and love.”
The team’s research found there are about 250 Black churches in Boston facing multiple challenges. To leverage their collective strength, Harris sought to bring some of these churches together to build relationships for the betterment of the community. She gathered almost a dozen Black churches in close proximity to each other in four predominantly Black neighborhoods of Boston.
Together, they looked at the changes taking place in their local communities, how their mission and values might need to change in light of what they’re learning about their neighborhoods, and how their churches can take action.
These topics made for vulnerable conversations. And while not everyone is on the same page, Harris said the desire is there among the churches to work together.
These meetings and discussions between these churches make for a dynamic, relational process that’s transformative in and of itself. It holds up a mirror for the churches to assess themselves in the immediate context of their neighborhoods and the broader culture they live in.
“My love for the church comes from my love for Black people,” Harris said, “so if the Church is not serving the people, then what are we doing?”
For this and more from Harris’s conversation with Caleb McCoy, listen to the Curious City podcast.
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