I went to a white church for 7 years and never experienced any racism. I’m a black man so let me explain. I’ve been out of church for 4 years. My white best friend for a while now tried to get me back in church. He went to an all-white church. He would always invite me but I wouldn’t go. I would say no but not because it was a white church. I didn’t care about the church experience. I grew up in a black church all my life. I was used to church. I had weeks where we went to church every day for revivals. I’ve slept, ate, and lived church. So when I didn’t want to go it wasn't because I didn’t believe in its need. I just lost my reason for going. I reduced myself to using my feelings instead of my faith to connect to God. When your feelings are wrong then God becomes wrong.
The friend invited me for a while and it didn’t occur to me the whole church was white until I went for the first time. I remember sitting in that all-white church for the first time and not thinking anything about it. I hadn’t been in church for so long I didn’t even consider if people were watching me or if someone thought it was weird for one black guy to be in their midst. I have to admit I have no idea what the preacher preached. It was about Jesus. Here is what did happen. People welcomed me. Over the course of a few years, I got to know everyone in that church. I would visit their homes and meet their extended families. In those 7 years here is something else that did happen. No other black people joined. We had a lot of visitors but none that would stay. To this day one of the most notable things about the church is we are mostly still segregated. Although in the workforce we are largely integrated for whatever reason in church we still seem divided by an invisible rule of race.
I don’t think God wants it this way I just know it is that way and here are a few differences I have noticed in churches that are mostly black and mostly white.
Worship music. It is the most obvious thing. In white churches, most of the music you sing are by white artists. In black churches, most of the music is from a black artist. There is an obvious difference in the sound of the music but the Jesus they sing about is the same. Many people are turned off from going to a church of the opposite race because of this. You will never hear a negro spiritual at a white church because they don’t have any investment in the civil rights of black people. You will never hear of a deep spiritual hymn by a white guy in a black church. Both are spiritually sound and deeply moving but they are based on different experiences with music.
I have to admit this was the hardest part of staying at an all-white church. I could never like the country-leaning style of worship but I could sing the words with freedom because they were based on the gospel. I would grow to like a few of the songs but I never cared for that style of music. By the time I left that church after 7 years, they were singing songs by black artists like kirk franklins “now behold the lamb” and some songs by William McDowell. I never asked them to change this, it just happened organically. I loved it but never required it. One of the greatest songs in all of church history is “amazing grace”. It’s possible to hear that song no matter what church you attend. That song was made by a white artist but done with a tune of a negro spiritual. I’m not sure if that is what makes the song so deeply profound but I know when white and black people come together we are capable of doing things that are gracefully amazing.
White pastor/Black pastor. I have heard some of the greatest preachings in my life at that white church. I can’t remember that first message I heard but I know that over the course of the 7 years I have enjoyed some of the best preachings on Jesus I have ever heard in my life. I know for a fact that I have felt some of the most heart moving and deeply thought-provoking messages about Jesus when I went to an all-black church. I know in both places that God was real and he was for me and I needed to acknowledge Him in my life. The problem we have in the differences is most black people don’t like white preachers but can still listen. White people are rarely seen in churches lead by black men. In the mega-churches that does change but in small black churches there are no white people lining up to hear a message every Sunday. In smaller white churches there are a few black people but mostly none.
I have to admit I can’t speak to the difference of why people would like one or the other but one thing i have noticed is a lot of white pastors have no idea how to preach to black people. It is very easy to sound pro-white in a sermon for a white pastor. I hear it all the time and it is a major turn off when you don’t address the issues that affect the differences in race. Jesus often spoke to the injustice of culture in his day. He never silenced himself on the problems that came from different social backgrounds, economic backgrounds, and racial backgrounds (i.e. the good samaritan. Jews disliked Samaritans at that time.) If the gospel is not good enough to talk about bad things going on in our society affecting black people then your gospel is not real to a lot of black people.
That's why black preachers are alluring because they talk about the issues with a “Christian” nation that has no Christian values in how it treats people. That is not all black preachers but black people understand their own life and there are a lot of issues happening that are not being talked about in different circles. The flip side of this is just as sad. There are many black preachers who don’t have any white people trying to listen to them as leaders. It was one of the main points of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from a Birmingham jail. It’s a disdain within the black community that religious circles act as if God only speaks to white men with beards. Some of the wisest preachers I have ever seen who were black.
I don’t think white people hate hearing black people preach I just think it’s easier for people to listen to someone who looks like them. It’s the same for both cultures. Laws ended segregation in every place except the church. I’m not sure how we have missed this obvious difference in our culture. What is in the hearts of white people that won’t allow them to sit under a black preacher? What’s so strong in the hearts of black people that they can’t stomach the word of God from a white preacher? I have heard both and I can say there are great preachers and there are decent ones that I don’t care to listen to. It’s not a knock on them it’s just preference. But I can say for a fact that I have loved listening to white preachers and black preachers. Race doesn’t decide their gospel. Their ability to convey a thought usually changes how I feel about their message.
The inclusiveness of their message usually draws me. I know black preachers I don’t care to listen to and white ones. Everyone will always have a preference but for now, it’s obvious that most black people listen to black preachers and most white people overwhelmingly listen to only white lead pastors. If I’m honest with myself from an outsider view looking in, I hate how it looks. I don’t think we should force mixing races on churches but It seems to me that most people don’t even care to try to see things from a different perspective. They like the nature of how they grew up and don’t care to change the wheel. This wheel is whats allowing a part of racism to stay in the mix on an unconscious level.
I don’t think you should ever force people to join certain churches as that would end the freedom of the church. But when we use freedom to sit in comfort instead of helping our different-looking brothers we miss the point of freedom. We are free to set others free. We are blessed to bless others. We are made strong to give strength to others. If we keep sitting in the corners of our racial freedoms I’m afraid we are missing the point of salvation. I know its hard as a white person to try to connect to black pastors. I have seen it at black churches before where white people would join with a fire under their belt to connect and love people but over time lose their passion to connect with people that aren’t just like them. I have noticed it time after time of being in an all-white church and watch black people come through and sit for a while but after a few months disappear into the shadows of the corners of the church never to be heard again.
It’s so obvious that America is still segregated and I’m afraid the last place left will be the church. I hate that thought. We as the church should be the leaders in racial integration and race relations in America. It is very possible to consider the gospel and race. I have no answer for how we will get there I just know you can’t fix something until you see the problem. You can’t get better until you see the mistakes. You can’t grow relationships until you understand our differences. I’m not saying that every church should be equally mixed. I am not saying that we are racist until black people go to white churches and white people go to black churches. I am simply saying I was a black man who went to a white church and all I could see is Jesus and the problem of ignoring race differences. There was no problem with the people I went to church with, it was a problem that most black people would never see the beautiful things I saw. It’s a problem that most white people will never experience the deepness of the gospel preaching that happens under a black pastor. I go to a mixed church now and all the problems I listed are still happening because we are human.
The social effects of the gospel are just as powerful as the spiritual ones. If the gospel is real then we should be able to consider race. If the gospel is real then it should change how we see people on every level. If the gospel is real then it should show a change that is visually unbelievable. It should change how men treat women. It should change how rich people treat poor people. It should change how Americans treat Mexicans. It should change how white and black people treat each other. It should change how we see the church but to this day the last leg of segregation is in the church. It looks horrible to me a black man who went to a white church for 7 years and never experienced racism. A whole lot of white people stuff happened...but not racism...we got better, together. May we continue to get better together.
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