Visit to Black Church

Preface: I got a little long-winded today so I will include a summary at the bottom in case you don’t want to read the entire column.

Every Sunday morning the parking lot at my complex fills up. Often from my window I observe well-dressed Black people that still believe in wearing their “Sunday best.” For a few months now I’ve been planning on visiting their church. Today I went.

I admit I entered into the service with the approach of a sociologist that happens to teach math, but I can’t help it. It’s what I do. I think to better understand people you have to experience their culture. Today I’m just going to share my thoughts and observations: cultural, religious, and otherwise.

The sidewalks were crowded as I walked the two blocks from my house to the church. Many people were leaving the last service as others were arriving for the later service. As I approached I heard a faint voice, “Is that Mr. Burrill?” I looked up to find two of my students, one current and one former. I briefly chatted with Emmanuel, who I haven’t seen in three years. I’m happy to report he passed both Algebra and Geometry and is currently taking Algebra II as a junior.

I walked in and asked one of the greeters a question and she responded, “Are you a first-timer?” She walked me over to a gentleman who gave me a welcome pack that included a paper to fill out so the pastor could mail me something, some information, and a Starbucks card. By this time it was about 11:14 so I found my way up to a seat. I was surprised at how empty the service was, but by 11:30 all the seats around me had filled up.

I looked around and noticed about five other White people, which was about five more than I expected. It is interesting how I am so often in situations when the ethnicity of the people around me never even enters my mind, but when in a situation where I was in a very small minority I immediately looked around to see if there were others of my skin color.

Microphones lined across the auditorium. Here the members of the choir didn’t stand in rows, but rather in one long line across the entire church with each of them having an individual microphone. Most of the singers were woman ranging in age from young to old. Maybe twenty women and four men stood across with just enough space between them to allow for dancing.

At one point it seemed the worship songs were finally coming to an end and the worship pastor instructed us to give a shout out to the Lord. It sounded more like a hockey game than a church. He then responded to the energy in the room. “Oh! I feel a praise dance comin’ on.” Then the music picked up ad lib style, and everyone just kept dancing. Many people in front of the congregation had sat down, but some of them stood back up to keep the dance going. I watched one woman in front of me grab her back at one point as if she had pulled something, but then worked it out and kept on dancing. The older White guy in the blue shirt in front of me was dancing, and not particularly well, with all his heart and soul. He even got a nod from the pastor later, “I loved watching my brother in the blue shirt.” Even the White guy was a brother here. I was thinking the worship pastor must do midweek endurance workouts, and buy good deodorant to wear that pastor’s garb and maintain his passion and energy.

Finally, at 12:03 (service started at 11:15) the music ceased and the worship pastor told us to open our Bibles. It turned out the guy that I thought was the worship pastor is actually the head pastor. Don’t worry; he had plenty of energy left. Good thing too, because this was already his third service of the day (I don’t know if in the morning he also felt a praise dance coming on.)

The entire service I noticed a huge cultural difference in the way the congregation responded during the sermon. It was totally acceptable, and expected, to call out and respond while the pastor was preaching. Shouting in agreement, saying examples aloud, clapping and cheering were all appropriate reactions. If pastor was about to say something and you could tell where he was going it was okay to finish the sentence with him. If a baby started crying or a cell phone beeped you would barely notice because of all the other noise.

The pastor thanked the first time guests for joining them this morning, and then he told us that we didn’t need to put anything in the offering except our visitor card because, “Today you are our guests, but when you come back next time you’re family.” Wow, I thought that would take at least a few weeks, but one of my sisters did give me a hug this morning so I guess I made it in.

The pastor shared how our witness is demonstrated in “our sharing, our giving, and our worship.” Then for the first time in my life I watched a pastor in the middle of his sermon dance in front of the congregation.

One of the points I noted from this morning is if you want to reach out to someone you must want to get to know them. You have to be willing to build a relationship with them. Also, don’t portray Jesus as mad or sad, because you can exemplify the joy you have in Him when you reach out to others. The New Living Bible translated Luke 5 as saying go become “fishers of people.” Pastor told us to cast out our nets and pull in our coworkers, our friends, and our family, “even the cousins you don’t like.”

I sat there imagining Pastor Parnell M. Lovelace, Jr. teaching a math lesson to the congregation. “After you factor the trinomial you get (x -7) (x-2) = 0.”

“Oh, yeah you do! Hallelujah!”

“And the first answer is x equals SEVEN!” (Seven said by the pastor in unison with 1/3 of the congregation).

“Or x equals TWO.” (This time everyone joined in on saying the “two.”)

“Amen! Woohoo! X is 7 or 2 oh, yeah!”

Every year our Black students have disproportionately high number of referrals. Is it that our Black students are not taught to be respectful? Do they lack guidance? Those may be factors. However, sitting in church today made me think about a vast cultural difference. This was church, and it was expected to shout out, raise your hand when you agree, and if you enthusiastically agree you can stand up, jump around, dance, and shout. I don’t think I could handle running a class like that, but I do want to try it sometime. Amen.

As the pastor spoke of how the church body should be a witness for Christ I thought about how closely this parallels teaching. If you don’t really want to get to know someone then they don’t want to hear you preach to them just so you can fill your monthly witnessing quota. If you don’t want to get to know your students they probably don’t care too much about what you have to say about 2-step equations. Relationships are key. Can I get an “Amen?”

Summary: Today I visited the Black church two blocks from my house. The experience caused me to reflect on cultural differences that could impact how I relate to the Black students in my classroom.