African Church

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in Black communities. Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 Black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline Black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary Black culture.

The last time I spoke was eight years ago when my best friend tried to kill me. I never dreamed my silence would break with a scream. Being sent to Chapel Crest after my new stepfather deemed me a heathen seemed like a blessing compared to staying with him and my mom. I was a mute demon in his eyes, and when the rod didn’t beat the evil out of me, he prayed Chapel Crest could. I envisioned the religious academy would become my sanctuary. I was wrong. So very wrong. Chapel Crest was an asylum moonlighting as a religious school.

In Jezebel Unhinged Tamura Lomax traces the use of the jezebel trope in the Black church and in Black popular culture, showing how it is pivotal to reinforcing men's cultural and institutional power to discipline and define Black girlhood and womanhood. Drawing on writing by medieval thinkers and travelers, Enlightenment theories of race, the commodification of women's bodies under slavery, and the work of Tyler Perry and Bishop T. D. Jakes, Lomax shows how Black women are written into religious and cultural history as sites of sexual deviation.

This audiobook focuses on the history of the early African Church from the upper room at Pentecost to the rise of Islam. Its content is a subset of the research in the book Surveying Christianity's African Roots. Herein are cross-references to chapters in the research book, as well as additional details about the contributions, sacrifices and faith of indigenous African Christian men, women and teenagers.

The emotional equivalent of a Category Six hurricane is raging through the small Southern town of Barksdale in the form of a rumor that a provocative African American newcomer might be of supernatural origin.

A “captivating and engaging” (Booklist) memoir by Nicole Walters, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants who became a self-made multi-millionaire by showing others how to recognize their own strengths—and her own harrowing journey to the discover that she was worthy all along of the life of...

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.

An investigative reporter tells the harrowing story of three unsolved civil rights era murders and how he reopened these cold cases, ultimately bringing Klansmen to justice, decades after they'd gotten away with murder. “For almost two decades, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell doggedly...

She’s a preacher’s daughter, a runaway bride and now the (not quite) qualified nanny for a sexy tattoo artist with a beautiful daughter—and a dirty mouth. What’s a bad boy to do with a woman like her? Everything… Aaliyah Montgomery isn’t just ditching her wedding. She’s also...

Have you ever been in that "chapter of your life", where everything that could possibly go wrong does, so you just wanted to curse God and die, or questioned if God even really exists? What would you do if you simply wanted to live the blessed life of a devoted Christian, to excel in school, make your family proud, find true love and live happily ever after, yet everything comes crashing down when evil interrupts.

Tressie faithfully prayed every night that God would send her a thug. It wasn't long before her prayers were answered and she met a handsome ex-convict named Payce Boyd. Payce is a fine roughneck and everything Tressie ever imagined and more. That is until Tressie experiences firsthand the reality of being a thug's girl. Seeking solace and comfort in the sanctuary, Tressie soon learns valuable lessons and shocking truths about herself and others.

Eva spends much of her life torn between the man she had and the man she has. On paper they both look like ideal husband material. But looks, as we all know, can be bought, faked, or photoshopped. Everyone around Eva seems to keep shoveling lies to bury their secrets. As Eva starts to dig for the truth, she realizes it's impossible to stay clean, especially while playing in someone else's dirt.

Before Jamaal’s seventeenth birthday, he’s appointed as his preacher uncle’s designated driver and unwilling personal confidant. Behind the fine outfits and hats, behind the harmonious singing and delicious cooking, Jamaal is exposed to crazy aunties, sexy church sisters, corrupt pastors, and predator deacons. A good kid who just wants time to finish his homework and kiss a nice girl his own age, Jamaal is dragged through the strange world of the Black church. You best pray for him.— An offensive dark comedy by the author of BLM-PD and Monuments: A Deadly Day at Jefferson Park.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Christians in Africa numbered approximately nine million—by the end, that number had grown to more than 380 million. As the number of Christians continues to grow, African pastors are often overwhelmed and in desperate need of guidance. Drawing from 3 decades of pastoral experience in Zambia, Conrad Mbewe has written a comprehensive handbook specifically for African pastors and church leaders.

The Church Mafia is a thought-provoking and tell-all audiobook inspired by the life of Makhado Sinthumule Ramabulana, who took a courageous step to reveal how God saved him from secret and occult societies. He explores themes of his life in the ministry, commercialisation of the gospel, lessons learnt from countries he travelled to in an effort to gain powers, and detail of the occult operation. After listening to the Church Mafia, you will begin to understand that most operations in churches today are influenced by secret societies.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African-American experience, a powerful new history of the Black church in America as the Black community's abiding rock and its fortress. The companion book to the upcoming PBS series. For...

America has become a beautiful mosaic filled with many colors and ethnicities—but does your church reflect this change? Are you longing to be a cross-cultural leader who can guide the church into a multicolored world for the sake of the gospel? If so, Building a Multiethnic Church will give...

This against-all-odds autobiography of gospel legend Kirk Franklin takes you through the life and trials of one of the most influential and bestselling artists in the music industry. From his difficult childhood on the poor side of town to his rise as a multiple Grammy-winning artist, Kirk...