c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister who has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

(UNDATED) A recent incident in my prison congregation underscores the struggle for relevance currently faced by black churches.

Made up largely of African-American men over age 30, my congregation has had to face repeated disruptions from a small group of Generation Xers who also attend services. Lacking few opportunities to get together, these young black men see the weekly worship service as an occasion for a different kind of fellowship _ to swap information, engage in loud conversations and even exchange drugs on the sly.

My verbal rebukes normally keep such interruptions to a minimum.

However, after service one Sunday, one brother felt sufficiently frustrated to challenge the transgressors _ and was assaulted for his trouble.

It then fell to me to track down the perpetrator of the violence _ and his buddy who was also involved in the disruption _ and bar them both from Sunday services until they apologized to the victim and the congregation.

As I thought about it later, however, I realized that these young brothers were only partly to blame. The larger problem, as many of my colleagues in the African-American church have come to discover, is the church itself.

Jawanza Kunjufu addresses this problem in his book,”`Adam! Where Are You?’ Why Most Black Men Don’t Go to Church”(African American Images).

Kunjufu, an educational consultant and a member of the United Church of Christ, argues that the black church is facing a crisis of historic proportions.

He notes, for example, that in 1940, 80 percent of African-American families regularly worshiped at a Christian church. At the same time, more than 80 percent of black families had both parents living at home.

A half-century later, the number of black churchgoers has been reduced to 40 percent. Of these, only one in four are male. Meanwhile, the number of black fathers living at home has been reduced by more than half.

The future looks equally bleak. A typical African-American church of 390 members contains 77 girls and only 29 boys, according to one study.

For Kunjufu, the issue is clear:”This is the first generation of African- American youth for whom God is not the center of their lives. People without values, people without morals, people who are not saved are dangerous because they are unpredictable and without conscience.” The bitter fruits of this loss of faith are legion, ranging from an increase in family dysfunction to neighborhood lawlessness. Prison construction has become a growth industry in this country and its primary clients are black men.

Why are black men and boys absent from church?

Kunjufu provides 21 reasons, including the dictatorial approach of church leaders, Eurocentric influence on worship, and the lack of Christian role models among black men. However, from my experience, most of the reasons cited are an outgrowth of only two: irrelevance and hypocrisy.

Simply put, the message of the Gospel is often deemed irrelevant to the needs of young blacks primarily because of the hypocrisy of many who proclaim it.

It wasn’t always this way. Historically, the black church has embodied the highest aspirations of the African-American community.

Yet in the wake of the civil rights victories of the 1960s, the church began to change its focus. As inner-city blacks with the means to do so began to move into previously all-white enclaves, they took with them much of the life, vitality and culture of the urban community.

Curiously, many of these blacks have retained their membership in the inner-city churches of their past. Yet a generation later, the black church has typically diverted its resources _ both financial and in-kind _ away from the inner-city neighborhoods in which they are located, choosing instead to spend its money on itself.

This accounts for the fact that many of the most pristine church buildings are located in the poorest urban neighborhoods. Their middle-class members may still attend church in the ‘hood, but they have little or no interaction with those who live there.

It is little wonder that many men become disdainful, even hostile, toward the church. They get neither help nor guidance from the source that is supposed to provide both. And, as Kunjufu notes, they are left asking the question,”Did Jesus die only for the middle class?” The fact is, Jesus spent most of his time with the outcasts of his day. He ate with thieves, comforted widows and saved the life of an adulteress.

I didn’t feel very good about ejecting those two misbehaving brothers from my Sunday morning service at the prison. They are exactly the ones who should be made to feel welcome in the house of God.

Yet, like so many other churches, my congregation made them feel unwanted, further justifying (in their minds, at least) their unruly behavior.

Thankfully, the story does not end there.

At my urging, several members of the congregation publicly repented for their lack of compassion, including the man who was assaulted. Some have begun to talk with the banned men, laying the foundation for future reconciliation with the congregation _ and the Lord.

This must be the approach of the black church. We must repent for the sins committed against our community and, by God’s grace, reclaim the souls we have alienated.

MJP END ATCHISON