Crisis in the Village
Crisis in the Village
Chapter One: Churches~ A Crisis of Mission
A Critique
Presented to
Dr. Joseph L. Jones
Johnson C. Smith University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for LS 235
By
Malcolm-Ryan Brown
June 11th, 2010
Robert M. Franklin in his adoring and avid book Crisis in the Village presents in first-person advice and constructive criticism as he identifies issues within the African-American church. Black churches face a "mission crisis" as they struggle to serve their upwardly mobile and/or established middle class "paying customers" alongside the poorest of the poor. Dr. Franklin wrote this controversial book with great scholarship as a means to awakening the state of Black American; however the question of the missions of the black church have been discussed, debated, and denied by theologians for years. Summary
Robert M. Franklin states that the purpose of his book is not simply to state facts, but to raise an urgent set of questions whose answers will put our feet in motion to solve the crisis. In chapter two “A Crisis of Mission” Franklin sets the stage for his readers for what the crisis is in the church. The Reverend Henry Lyons became the president of the largest denomination in the Untied States of America.
Although the disgrace Lyons served a modest-sized congregation rather than a mega church, his drive for personal wealth accumulation as president of the National Baptist Convention symbolized a new threat to the integrity of black clergy culture. A serious student of any discipline would appreciate Dr. Franklin’s keen scholarship in his writings. Case in point is when Franklin shares with his readers what everyone should know about black churches.
According to Franklin there are at least fifteen facts that we should know about the black church which are too exhausted to write in a paper of this format. Franklin in a brief synopsis of the aforementioned fifteen facts basically states that the black
Chapter One: Churches~ A Crisis of Mission
A Critique
Presented to
Dr. Joseph L. Jones
Johnson C. Smith University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for LS 235
By
Malcolm-Ryan Brown
June 11th, 2010
Robert M. Franklin in his adoring and avid book Crisis in the Village presents in first-person advice and constructive criticism as he identifies issues within the African-American church. Black churches face a "mission crisis" as they struggle to serve their upwardly mobile and/or established middle class "paying customers" alongside the poorest of the poor. Dr. Franklin wrote this controversial book with great scholarship as a means to awakening the state of Black American; however the question of the missions of the black church have been discussed, debated, and denied by theologians for years. Summary
Robert M. Franklin states that the purpose of his book is not simply to state facts, but to raise an urgent set of questions whose answers will put our feet in motion to solve the crisis. In chapter two “A Crisis of Mission” Franklin sets the stage for his readers for what the crisis is in the church. The Reverend Henry Lyons became the president of the largest denomination in the Untied States of America.
Although the disgrace Lyons served a modest-sized congregation rather than a mega church, his drive for personal wealth accumulation as president of the National Baptist Convention symbolized a new threat to the integrity of black clergy culture. A serious student of any discipline would appreciate Dr. Franklin’s keen scholarship in his writings. Case in point is when Franklin shares with his readers what everyone should know about black churches.
According to Franklin there are at least fifteen facts that we should know about the black church which are too exhausted to write in a paper of this format. Franklin in a brief synopsis of the aforementioned fifteen facts basically states that the black