Curated by It’s That Part™ — Originally published by Faith and Proverbs on .
Even today as we celebrate Juneteenth, the United States is grappling with what it means to preserve and accurately portray African American history. Through an executive order, President Trump has identified certain museums in Washington, DC, as “revisionist movements.” Some exhibits named represent transgender activism. But the order also targets the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where cherished historical artifacts that relate to actual historical events have been removed.
Admittedly, historical curiosity hasn’t been a fervent preoccupation for Americans. In 2019, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation reported that only 27 percent of surveyed Americans younger than 45 demonstrated a basic understanding of American history. Our negligence makes attempts to suppress or rewrite history even more injurious. These circumstances should lead us to ask, When a government fails at maintaining the historical witness of its citizens, what responsibility does the Bible give to the church? In a society that’s strangely ambivalent toward preserving accurate history, we can be intentional purveyors of it. In doing so, the church—particularly black churches—can be both a prophetic witness to broader society and a benefit to its members.
God, the Divine Historian
In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher contemplates life’s complexities. Ultimately, he concludes that life without faith in God is vanity (12:13). As he ruminates on the essence of existence, he casts God as the divine historian who executes righteous judgment based on his impeccable accounting of past actions and events (3:15). In other words, God’s perfect knowledge of history informs his interactions with his creation.
In a society that’s strangely ambivalent toward preserving accurate history, we can be intentional purveyors of it.
This truth should awaken us to the profound importance of knowing, diligently studying, and carefully preserving history. It should also remind us that seeking to maintain an accurate accounting of history reflects God’s posture toward bygone eras and events.
Wherever history is suppressed, contorted, or misrepresented, our ability to wisely navigate the present is hindered. Wherever history is skewed or truncated, our ability to effectively prepare for the future is obstructed. By contrast, God is honored when his image-bearers reflect his care and concern for accurate history.
Preserve for Apologetics, Dignity, and Honor
While preserving history is critical for all Christians, it’s of special concern for black churches because of our unique history. Due to the indignity and injustice of the transatlantic slave trade, most black people in America can’t trace their family history back to their country of origin. We’ve been deprived of family remembrance, and this gap in the historical narrative has made many African Americans susceptible to the false narratives spun by identity cults like the Hebrew Israelites and the Nuwaubians. When true black history is preserved, taught, and learned, it helps black churches apologetically.
It can also help us dignify and esteem one another. After all, when black congregations gather for worship each Sunday, parishioners are surrounded by living history. Church members from various generations converge to pray, worship, and fellowship together. But while faces may be recognized and names known, the most experienced congregants’s testimonies often go unheard.
When true black history is preserved, taught, and learned, it helps black churches apologetically.
Recently, a member of my church told me of a powerful memory her elderly mother had conveyed to her. This older woman had grown up in rural Alabama, and she recounted the role of her local church during the civil rights movement. She described her church as the place that kept her community informed about developments within the movement—where the next meeting would be held, which merchants to support, and so on. She chronicled how her rural church served as a place of inspiration, information, and mobilization for the community. This story is a striking account of the synergy between the black community and the black church during the freedom struggle. Unlike a museum exhibit, this account can’t be dislodged or revised.
Seek the Past
What if black churches interviewed willing parishioners from older generations? What if their recollections were compiled into a memoir or video presentation for the congregation? This wouldn’t only honor the most mature within the congregation; it’d also retell our collective history. Compiling the stories of those we most need to learn from into a book or video presentation allows their stories to be referenced, studied, and passed down to future generations.
How else can we seek the past?
- Leaders in black churches need to learn history themselves. Books, podcasts, and websites can help with this effort. Studying history must be a practice and preoccupation for those tasked with shaping others’ lives.
- If your church has unused space, consider creating a museum. Use an empty wing of the building to hang pictures, display artifacts, and exhibit stories. It doesn’t have to be fancy or exhaustive; just make it a presentable way of celebrating your past.
- Consider holding quarterly black history quiz competitions where church youth can compete and win prizes. Include other churches within your network. At the end of the year, host a black history bowl where youth from various churches compete against one another.
- Highlight historic black figures and events in your worship gatherings. Many examples of black resilience and struggle can be used to illustrate parallel expressions in the Scriptures. Make those connections frequently, not just during Black History Month.
- Create a black history or black church history section in your church library. Consider offering rewards for youth who complete reports on library books.
- Create a congregational book club and ensure the group reads books about black history regularly.
With Ecclesiastes 3:15, we need to allow the witness of the generation after Joshua to motivate us in this effort. Judges 2:10 tells us that because of their spiritual and historical forgetfulness, Israel was swept into cyclical periods of hardship and bondage. Had they remembered God and their history, they would’ve avoided these cycles of oppression. Though they were divine image-bearers and God’s precious people, their amnesia led to their subjugation and harsh abuse.
Spiritual forgetfulness can lead to circumstances that deface the imago Dei. The black church has affirmed and defended human dignity throughout its history. It must take up this mantle again by preserving history for God’s glory and the sake of future generations.
For truth in every fact, visit itsthatpart.com.
Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/black-churches-history/
