Why Black Blessings?

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28 NASB) Since this scripture is true, why do we need a website for Black Americans as to relates to missions?[i] Shouldn’t we just focus on mobilizing all members of the Body of Christ regardless of their gender, status, or ethnicity and not give so much attention to one subset of the Body? After all, aren’t we—as the Scripture above says—”one in Christ Jesus?”

In 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26, Paul uses the human body as an analogy. Keeping this image in mind, let’s use our imagination and suppose the foot fell asleep. Let’s suppose YOUR foot fell asleep. Can you feel that prickly sensation? Chances are you’d wiggle it a bit, tap it on the ground, or give it a gentle massage until it came back to its fully operational self. The point is that your focus and energy would shift to this part of the body that wasn’t functioning up to its full potential. And, so it is with the Black American segment of the Church as it relates to global missions.

The Black American church has a very rich history. From her painful birth on the plantation to her significant role in the fight for civil rights, there is so much to appreciate. She has produced godly leaders of renown, built families of character, raised faithful followers of Christ, and left an indelible mark on the world. What would we be without her? Yet, when it comes to cross-cultural missions, our beloved Black American church has not become fully operational. Some of this is due to the sins committed against her, and some is because of her own shortcomings and sin. Whatever the case, she hasn’t gained her full range of motion. And this has hampered the overall effectiveness of the Body as it has sought to fulfill the Great Commission.

Let’s put this into perspective. Six of the largest Black American denominations (AME, AME Zion, COGIC, NBCA, NBC USA, Progressive Baptist), have a combined reported membership of over 27 million people. Yet, the total number of Black Americans serving as cross-cultural missionaries is less than 250. That’s two-hundred and fifty in case you thought I missed a few digits. And, many of these missionaries were not sent by churches belonging to the denominations listed above. What are we to do with this objective information? At the very least, shouldn’t it prompt us to ask several “Whys?”

• Why should we care?
• Why Black Americans?
• Why have Black American churches not sent larger numbers of people if research shows Black Americans are more likely to be Protestant and Christian than any other group in the country?

And with billions of people in need of the saving message of Christ and the many forms of blessings he brings, it is urgent that we answer these Why’s and work toward some next steps. In the next few blogs, I hope to address each of these questions. From there, we’ll take a look at a few things we can do to respond.

[i] Missions is simply what Christ-followers do to join Jesus in his larger mission of redeeming people unto himself and advancing his Kingdom purposes. All Christ-followers are called to be engaged in this work in some way or another. This article and the entire website is dedicated toward getting more Black Americans to get involved in cross-cultural missions.