Is The Black Church Driving On E?

By Stephanie and Eric Stradford

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead; and buried. The third day he arose from the dead, he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Church Universal, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.
 
AMWS, May 7, 2012, Virtual --For normal people, responsible operation of a car requires a little common sense. Green light means go. Red light means stop. The brake pedal stops the car. The gas pedal makes it go. The steering wheel makes the car go left or right.

But for many believers in “God” or a “universal spirit,” the E on some gas gauges may not necessarily mean empty.

The Sunday morning sermon pointed a predominantly African American gathering to what might be an apostolic alternative for high gas prices. In one example, the messenger’s gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade left home on E. The seasoned believer’s testimony to a trying day was perhaps evinced by the reality of the return trip late that evening and the same gas gauge, still pointing to E. A similar message in a different place to another predominantly African American gathering touched on the preacher’s pre-Jaguar experience with an old Toyota whose gas gauge often gave cause to pause for analyzing the meaning of E on that gas gauge.

Both messages parse the potential of running out of gas with the possibility of achieving whatever one ”believes I can achieve.” Up to now, “My grace is all you need,” a lesson from the Apostle Paul, has been a mainstay in packaging Christianity for Black folks. But the thin line between faith and reality wears even thinner in an era of greater demand for “substance of things hoped for” in the “evidence of things not seen.”

This year, The African Methodist Episcopal Church, a community of some 2.5 million Christians, convenes its 49th Quadrennial Session of The General Conference, a meeting that has taken place consistently since July 1816. The event celebrates a sustained economy of Free Africans, and an American experience that is second to none. The cost for this event, feeder activities such as the traditional campaigning for bishop and other general offices, and the relocation of re-assigned bishops calls for credence, and maybe some clear water revival as well, on the meaning of “E.”

The Association of Religion Data Archives (THEARDA) reports that nearly half (about 45%) of African Methodists live on a family income of less than $40,000. More than half of American Baptists (about 52%) were in the same boat. Everybody else seemed to do a little better, but we’re not counting other predominantly African American flocks. In the broader view, USAToday reported the median for all Americans dropped to $49,445 in 2010, and has dropped 7% since 2000.

According to USAToday, the share of people living in poverty hit 15.1%, the highest level since 1993, and 2.6 million more people moved into poverty, the most since Census began keeping track in 1959. The bad news is that a Black person in America is still counted as a “minority” instead of an equal. The good news for some African Methodists is the possibility for measuring resiliency as an American value.

That definitive line between physical birth and physical death, establishes an individual’s temporal economy within a world of economic uncertainty. The new data scheduled for release this fall, presents economists and innovators as well as perpetrators of status quo with evidence for fine-tuning the AME Brand.

That brand, in case you hadn’t noticed, features a cross. It symbolizes the endless possibilities for believers in Jesus Christ. It teaches truth through soul-stirring hymns, exuberant preaching, and repetitive recitation. But the AME Brand also displays the anvil, symbolizing a blacksmith’s value within an inequitable American values system, testimony to human spirit in step with God’s will, and an enduring vision of the future.

There’s a weight on that cross suggesting an undervalued capacity for getting things done. Now, for the first time in its history, the measure of the AME Brand can show increased value within that which they say they believe to be “Church Universal.”

Instead of shame and dishonor, you will enjoy a double share of honor.
“You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”  Isaiah 61:7