The National Black Church Initiative, headed up by Associate Minister, Rev. Anthony Evans of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in DC, has as their goal to bring 10 million Black men back to church over the course of 10 years.
Some degrade this goal saying that 10 million Black men need to be brought to the voting poll or enrolled in college. That kills me. Instead of all that arm chair quarterbacking, get up off your rump and start some movement of your own and MAKE IT WORK.
If this organization follows through with its initiatives, we all will be the better for it. To the nay sayers who think there are loftier goals for Black men as it pertains to civic involvement, if men return to church they will find trips to tour college campuses, voter registration drives, health screenings, mental health counseling, youth/singles/marriage enrichment ministries, anti-recidivism programs, and so much more.
I say bring the men back to church. And yes, their population has dwindled. According to Gallup Poll, African Americans attend church more than any other ethnic group in the U.S., but women’s church attendance still out numbers that of men 65% to 49%, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Some things about our services might have to change and some people might have to be willing to make way for a new crop of leaders but without healthy men, the church is incomplete.
