I have been in the pastorate for twenty-two years. Though I am only forty-two, I think that I have enough years of experience to offer some feeble advice for freshmen pastors. In a season where millennials find the church irrelevant it is so important that we assist them in rediscovering the need for faith and living within an authentic community. This is best done when we work to build relationships. This means work more on building believers and not on building your brand.

Yesterday I sat at lunch with a colleague who has been serving a congregation faithfully for the past seven years. The church is engaged in the ministry of social justice and transforming the community it which it serves from a sight of poverty and struggling individuals into a an oasis of hope. He is doing great work. Our conversation at lunch transitioned to discussion on the number of young pastors who are resigning or have been voted out by the congregation within their f

Organized politically and spiritually, black churches were not only given to the teachings of Christianity but they were faithfully relied upon to address the specific issues that affected their members. For many African-American Christians, regardless of their denominational differences, Black Churches have always represented their religion, community, and home. Scholars have repeatedly asserted that Black history and Black church history overlap enough to be virtually ident

The black church or African American church has historically been the bedrock of the communities in which it existed. To understand this fact it is important to understand the emergence of the African American church. By 1810 the slave trade to the United States had come to an end and the slave population began to increase naturally, giving rise to an increasingly large native-born population of African Americans. With fewer migrants who had experienced Africa personally, the