Leadership in Black Churches

The presented review begins with a description of the current perspective on those attributes and characteristics believed to constitute the effective leader in general.

This description is followed by an examination of the role of vision in church leadership, emphasizing the church leader's role as a visionary. Church leadership preparation in the modern day world is then examined, followed by a discussion of leadership preparation of black church leaders; differences between white and black church leadership preparation are addressed.

The role of church leadership in the community is then explored as well as is the place of lay leaders in the church. The next section of the review looks at the kinds of educational programs and services that are currently being implemented in African-American churches. This examination includes: church-based educational programs: health education programs; vocational/career programs; child-care and childhood education programs; maturational programs; political/advocac

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re on church-based health promotion programs, concluding that: While the literature describing the role of churches, particularly African- American, is limited, the available evidence supports the assertion that many churches are engaged in providing primary prevention, preventive health, and social services to at risk populations. (p. 201). Regarding "risk" factors, it is important to point out here that there are certain diseases for which African-Americans are particularly vulnerable (Sebastian, 1994). As might be expected, most of the health education programs offered in African-American churches are especially geared toward prevention of these diseases. One such program was discussed by McNabb, Cook, Quinn, Karrison and Kerver (1997) who evaluated a church-based health educational program called "Pathways." This program was designed to promote weight loss for urban African-American women who had been tested and found to be at risk for diabetes. The program was administered by trained lay facilitators. In their evaluation of the program, McNabb et al. (1997) found that Pathways participants lost an average of 10.0 lb, while the control group subjects gained an average of 1.9 lb. In addition, waist circumference among
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 7755
Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page)

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