Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 163

The Black Church and Church Planting World Impact Blog, February, 2015 Rev. Efrem Smith • www.worldimpact.org

The Black Church began with Church Planting and its future will depend on the recovery of this movement of reproduction, empowerment, and mission. Dr. Hank Voss, World Impact’s National Director of Church Planting and I recently met with Elder Oscar Owens, an associate pastor at West Angeles C.O.G.I.C. (Church Of God In Christ) Church. The Church of God in Christ is one of the largest predominately African American denominations. During our visit we began to talk about a commitment to church planting that are the roots of the denomination and the Black Church more broadly. Until this moment, I had never truly reflected deeply on the Black Church and Church Planting. I must admit that I had seen Church Planting as a, mostly White Evangelical endeavor and that I was one of the few African Americans that had sensed a deep call to facilitating church planting movements. I thought a large part of my calling was to bring the spirit and the biblical theology of Church Planting to the Black Church. After my visit with Elder Owens, I realized my calling was more to be one of many voices assisting in helping the Black Church to recover something that is a deep part of its heritage and, an essential part of its future. Some (like me for too long) have been led to believe that the White Church grows through Church Planting and the Black Church through Church Splitting. Not that Church splitting is not a reality in a signifi cant segment of the Black Church and within the history of the White Church as well, but Church Planting is a major part of the Black Church narrative. There would be no Black Church if not for Church Planting. Not only must this heritage of Black Church Planting be recovered for the future Black Church, but also the context of how the first Black Churches were planted can serve as a gift to the whole body of Christ. This Black Church planting gift can inform a more missional approach to all Church Planting Movements. The Black Church in America was birthed in the oppression, affliction, and suffering of slavery. The first Black Churches were planted illegally in the dark woods, away from the eyes and ears of slave owners who questioned if these church planters were even fully human. For Black people these church plants were much more than simply containing elements of worship, discipleship, and witness. These church plants were the organic spiritual communities in which the oppressed found