My Analysis of Black Church Community

What I learned from my experience observing and interviewing within the black church community is that at black churches, the members don’t really care all that much about what race you are or what class you belong to. At black churches, they are welcoming and accepting of everyone who walks through their doors. The picture to the left is displayed on the home page of Consolidated’s website and it enables visitors to their site know that all guests are more than welcome at their church. I discovered first hand that they indeed are welcoming of guests. I was one of the only white people in the audience, yet I was not treated any differently or looked down upon. I sat next to a black family and they were very polite. When the preacher asked everybody to shake hands with the people around them, everyone around me came up, introduced themselves, shook my hand and said “God bless you.”  I anticipated that they would react to me like white blood cells react to a virus. Fortunately, my experience proved my anticipation to be false, and the issue of race was never an issue at all.

One of the common themes I noticed throughout the interview and research was that there is a strong sense of family between the church members. They are not biologically related, but they are still a close-knit group and they support one another. As Jeffery S. Levin states in the abstract of The Role of the Black Church in Community Medicine that “Historically, the black church has been the preserver and the perpetuator of the black ethos, the radix from which its defining values and norms have been generated, and the autonomous social institution that has provided order and meaning to the black experience in the United States” (Levin, 1984). In my interview with Mo Overstreet, my resident adviser who has always attended a black church and currently attends Consolidated Baptist Church, he reiterated Levin’s point, repeatedly mentioning how he is who he is today because of his upbringing in the black church community (M. Overstreet, personal communication, November 12, 2012). What I found is that being a member of a black church is more than a religious experience or preference; it provides a sense of family and helps form identities and instill values that last a lifetime.

I also noticed that they connect better with people who come from similar backgrounds or are going through similar stages of life, regardless of race. In my interview with Mo, he talked about how he feels more comfortable worshiping in front of people who are just like him. The picture above shows Mo singing in his church’s choir, something he feels comfortable doing because of the similarities he shares with his fellow choir members.  He remarked that he finds it easier to express himself spiritually at a black church than he can at a white church because he can better relate to the members of a black church and doesn’t have to fear that they will judge him (M. Overstreet, personal communication, November 12, 2012). From what I can tell, black churches are referred to as black churches only because of the similarities the members share.