Christian Discipleship and the African-American Church

Biblical Literacy with an Afrocentric Perspective

Solid teaching in Bible study is essential for the spiritual health of any Black church. This teaching must be provided by persons with adequate training in both Bible studies and teaching methods. The Bible is in fact not easy to understand in many places and many ways, and it is an insult to the intelligence of adults to pretend otherwise. However, in teaching the Bible one must steer between the Scylla and Charybdis of inappropriate literalism and the kind of skepticism that damages peopleÆs faith unnecessarily.

Many Christians believe, of course, in taking the Bible quite literally, but this approach must always be tempered with common sense. When Jesus said, ôI am the door,ö he did not mean

. . .
of the motives behind it. A more pastoral view, such as that of Wyatt Tee Walker in his Common Thieves!, is that money, in American society, is simply what is essential for Christians to carry out their duties to one another and to the larger society to which they are called to be witnesses. As the people say, ôPut your money where your mouth is.ö What you truly believe in is what you are willing to support financially. Dr. Walker makes a very strong case for the practice of tithing, as he is well-known for. His book, which is subtitled A Tithing Manual is used for that very purpose in a great many churches. His own congregation in Harlem reputedly has the highest percentage of tithers (71%) among all the African-American Baptist churches. Their experience makes clear that relative poverty need not be a reason why people cannot tithe, although certainly there will always be a few who in fact simply cannot. Jewish and Christian experience alike seems to demonstrate that the discipline of devoting 10 percent of whatever one has to the work of the Lord is salutary beyond measure, calling forth discipleship that people often would not have thought themselves capable of. There are many excellent books that will be resources f
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lincoln Mamiya, Savior Jesus, Powers Beyond, Christians America, Reverend Glover, Marketing Congregations, Scylla Charybdis, Washington DC, Roman Catholics, Black Church, black church, martin luther, martin luther king, luther king, king fellows press, king fellows, fellows press, york martin, luther king fellows, york martin luther, christian stewardship, black churches, social activism, basic understanding, basic understanding christian,
Approximate Word count = 3859
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)