African American Youth
Trained for Presbyterian Leadership
by Bob Millard
The 2001 African American Youth Leadership Development
Conference, held June 19-22 on Nashville’s historic Fisk University
campus, was a grand success, bringing together participants from all
four states in the synod for a weekend of workshops, worship, inspiration,
singing, fellowship, and competition.
Sponsored by The African American Caucus (AAC)
of the Synod of Living Waters, the four-day event drew approximately
150 young people from Black Presbyterian congregations in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, ranging in ages from 6 to 18 years.
Andrea Jeans, a seminary graduate awaiting her
first call, led Bible study workshops for the second straight year.
As always, study for a competition in the Bible Bowl, on the last night
of the conference, was much anticipated. Teams representing each state
vied to see who could give the most correct answers to Bowl questions.
There were no losers, but results of the competition starting with top
score were: Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Different workshops were organized for children
nine and under, and for youth 10 and above. Friday and Saturday workshops
introducing the youth to spiritual, Gospel, and contemporary Christian
music were more than opportunities to sing together. The sessions gave
many of the young persons historical perspective on the traditional
African American Christian song styles of spiritual singing and Gospel
music. That seemed especially appropriate for a conference held at Fisk,
the historically black institute of higher learning that is home to
the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who carried slave-times spirituals to the
crowned heads of Europe as they toured the world to support the struggling
college a decade following the Civil War.
Hearing, singing and learning the history behind
spirituals and Gospel songs was an eye-opening experience for the young
black church and community leaders of tomorrow.
Victor McCarty, 14, of Faith Presbyterian, Jackson,
Mississippi, confessed his generation doesn’t ordinarily listen to the
types of music that are the rich heritage of the African American religious
odyssey in this country.
“I learned a lot about the music,” said McCarty.
“It’s not just about slave times, and if you listen to the lyrics, all
the songs have a little message.”
Mae King, 12, of St. Luke’s Presbyterian in Jackson,
Mississippi, had heard the terms spiritual and Gospel music, but little
more.
“I learned that spiritual and Gospel music are
pretty much the same things,” said King.
African American heritage and history were the
meat and potatoes of training sessions, in keeping with a recognized
need to redouble efforts to solidify African Americans’ place in the
denomination, currently approximately 2% of denominational membership.
As recently as 1998, Rev. Rosalie Potter, associate director for evangelism
and church development in the National Ministries Division of the National
Black Presbyterian Caucus (NBPC), reported 147 of the denomination’s
390 black churches were without ministers, yet many newly graduated
black women ministers could not find pastoral jobs.
In fact, the most commented upon workshop was the
brief, inspiring historical survey of dark-skinned people in Africa
and the United States, taught by Leon Bracey, pastor of Faith Church,
Jackson, Mississippi. Titled “Black, Proud, and Presbyterian.”
“So often, we as African Americans have been taught
we didn’t have a history,” Bracey explained. “I went all the way back
to ancient African kings and proud tribes of people who, when they were
carried to America against their will as slaves, brought a sense of
religion and spirituality with them that relates directly to our current
practices as Black Christians.”
Bracey cited the work of imminent African American
Presbyterian scholar and leader Gayraud S. Wilmore. Bracey’s workshop
was based upon Wilmore’s book, Black and Presbyterian: The Heritage
and the Hope, revised and republished by Curriculum Publishing,
PCUSA, just in time to set the stage for the seminal 31st annual national
meeting of the NBPC in Winston-Salem, NC, in 1998. Members of the NBPC
were urged that year to begin to reclaim their heritage and work cooperatively
to overcome the individual, social and religious challenges facing the
African American community.
Friday night’s banquet and program, presided over
by Natalie Toombs, AAC board treasurer, were a social highpoint of the
four days. Youth speakers representing each of the four states spoke
about their experiences at the conference. A large ‘pick-up’ choir of
young people presented an impressive program of contemporary inspirational
songs.
If there were an overall highpoint to a banquet
so rich in fellowship, witness, music and recognitions for service,
it would be the speech given by Rev. Stephany Darlene Graham, formerly
Associate for African-American Leadership Training and Resource Development
for the Congregational Ministries Division, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
and now stated supply for Shawnee Presbyterian Church in Louisville.
The Rev. Graham preached from the Book of Daniel
on the story of how Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar picked the smartest
and most attractive Hebrew children for leadership training, from among
the population of the conquered Judah. Four of them led the rest to
keep faith with God and their people by refusing to eat ‘unclean’ Babylonian
food. Graham used the story as a powerful example of race and religious
cohesion. The lessons to black youngsters growing up in a culture where
economic success often comes at the cost of racial and cultural identity,
was to “never forget who you are, and whose you are.”
“God needs young leaders who can distinguish between
righteousness and unrighteousness,” Graham said.
Stephany Graham, at left, and Natalie
Toombs
The Conference Youth Choir presented a stirring
concert at Saturday’s banquet.
Wayne Steele, at left, received
an award presented by Bill Jones, at right, for help
with the conference.
