A different look at the black church

I made it the early Easter morning service today. The dance ministry presented an amazing depiction of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The mass choir sang "Don't cry, he is not dead. He has risen" while an angel comforted Mary and the other mourners. Despite the words of the song, the experience was so moving that I don't think there was a dry eye in the sanctuary.

But it didn't take long to realize that we weren't crying because Christ was dead, we were crying because of the incredible and excruciating price he chose to pay so that we could live. Our tears were tears of awe, humility, gratitude and praise. We cried because knowing that we believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we also know that anything is possible. And no matter what we're going through, we were reminded today that God can and will bring us through.

During the service, we were also blessed with a selection from a nationally-renowned Christian musician, Angella Christie, who's reached the top of Billboard's Christian instrumental music chart. She played an incredible arrangement of "Great is Thy Faithfulness." I couldn't find the video on youtube, but I did find a very old video of her highly stylized arrangement of another old school gospel favorite, "By and By."

There's been so much discussion and apprehension about what goes on in "the black" church over the past few weeks because of the video clips of Oback Barama's paster, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Certainly, there are as many different experiences within black churches as there are within white churches, but it seems that a very one-sided, and atypical, portrait of black churches has dominated the airwaves of late. So, in my pursuit of balance and authenticity, I offer this video, though it's old, as a view into my black church experience. While we clearly don't have a famous musician join us each Sunday, and the hair styles and fashions have changed, this is what goes on at my church every week.