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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