“83 Things”
Every now and then God raises up someone with a courageous voice to say some things that many people are whispering about in the pews, but will not say publicly for fear of being spiritually black-listed. Well, I believe God has raised up such a person in Milan Ford. In writing this book, he had the courage to tackle the “sacred traditions” of the Black Church which may prevent people from entering into an intimate relationship with Jesus. Here is my brief review of an insightful book.
The Title is clever and is a superb attention-grabber. It aroused my curiosity and begged me to say: “I wonder if the thing I wish the Black Church would stop doing, made the cut.” Holding up your index finger when you’re leaving worship service didn’t make the cut. I was pretty salty for a minute about that. Lol!
83 Things I Wish the Black Church Would Stop Doing is an easy read. I believe this is the case because Milan, a man who knows culture, composed short, yet insightful chapters with culturally relevant and chapter appropriate images. I still can’t get “Heel Fear” out of my mind. Moreover, Milan flat out knows how to write. His choice of words, conversational and humorous style and tone, engaged my mind and ear. I read it in one sitting, but will return to it to gain further insight. Though all of the aforementioned reasons made it easy to read, don’t mistake easy reading for a pedestrian critique of the Black Church. Here is the thought that kept churning in my mind: “Milan is attempting to remove obstacles of tradition so the Black Church can continue to accomplish Jesus’ mission.” Therefore, this book is missional in nature. Any time your church or organization becomes serious about and razor, laser-focused on accomplishing its mission, it will have to deconstruct sacred cows, traditions and cultural mores. In a non-judgmental but encouraging manner, Milan gently attempted to deconstruct many Black Church traditions and even the phrase itself, and point us in the direction of reaching unreached, disillusioned people for Jesus.
Whether or not you agree with all of the 83 things he named (I had a few questions on a few), you will close the book with a new resolve to remove obstacles which prevent people from seeing Jesus. You will close the book asking: “What do we need to do to re-image our church, Sunday School, and youth ministry, so that lost people will not be distracted from seeing the real Jesus and the real church.
In no particular order, my favorite chapters include, but are not limited to these:
Heel Fear
The Color Purple
Hello . . . Visitor Identification
Mission Paragraphs
Generation P
Christmas Worship Service
Watch Night
Devil Love
Athletic Ministry
Numerology
The “Black Church” Phrase (This chapter points us back to the title and drives home the point of the book. In my opinion, the chapter is worth the purchase of the book)
I enjoyed reading 83 Things I Wish the Black Church Would Stop Doing, and I am fairly certain you will enjoy it and learn something as well. It will challenge you tear down religious and even cultural walls, and encourage you to define the church as Jesus defined it.
I only wish the chapters were printed in color. I believe that would have given more richness to the images Milan chose to use. This probably had more to do with resources than the actual plan for the book.
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Tags: Black Church, Book Review, Church, Evangelism, Missional
December 17th, 2009 at 6:44 am
wow. i am TRULY humbled by this.
this is just awesome!!
December 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
You kinda know my story already.
Before I came to Trinity, all I knew was the black church. I thought that's how everyone rolled, and white churches worshiped how I saw on TV. Stiff, boring, etc. But then, when I moved to Michigan, I was invited to Trinity. We went, and not only is it majority white, but also, it's humongous. Coming from the South, I didn't feel "home," so I went "church shopping" and took the fam with me. I don't know who made this list: http://www.msu.edu/~jfccm/2002DirectoryofChurches…
but I took a few names down and away we went. We saw everything from a church that was dead (black female lead pastor–unheard of to me–and a congregation of six); to a church where they not only spoke in tongues, but they sang in tongues too, and handed out bible tracts for their explanation (because we know the Word says that there's supposed to be an interpreter); to a church with a Ph.D. pastor (who really isn't a Ph.D., we've learned recently) who gave a seminary lecture for a sermon, and in the last ten minutes of service, he went on his "black pastor riff," I suppose to give the congregation that they went to church instead of a Biblical exegesis conference; to a church where we went for four weeks and the pastor never gave a sermon.
So after about six months of "church shopping," we ended back at Trinity, where we have been for three years since. When God wants to have his way, he gets it!
We're doing a little traveling back South for Christmas, and we want to attend church, but we're concerned. Not just about things like childcare (because I have yet to go to a "black church" where the childcare was more than one room and one "supervisor" if there was any childcare at all), but also the rigor of a "black church." The visitor identification, the whole get-up-and-show-everyone-that-you're-putting-money-in-the-offering, the "Sunday best" dress code, the ostentatious "come to Christ" membership invitation at the end of service, the obnoxiously long prayer, the *conviction* sermons telling me about all my sins and what I need to stop doing. All of these things I looked for and desired in my church, but now that I've seen different, I know better.
I'll check this book out.
I don't know what Marvin is getting at with that list when he says Christmas Worship Service. Does he mean Christmas Day, or the skits that they put on? I agree (again) with visitor identification, and maybe mission paragraphs (we have the internet now…save paper and ink and keep that out the bulletin). Can't say I agree with Watch Night. Now none of the black churches *I* went to did that, but being a history buff (especially on slavery), I respect what that means to the black church. I also understanding how it can be polarizing and problematic to potential white congregational members, but I find Watch Night far more productive and God-focused (those people prayed harder than we can ever imagine) than "black history month" ever could be.