There are really no qualifications or standards to becoming a minister in the Black Church,
you just have to be "called". Does this have any effect on the quality and accuracy of the
spiritual messages we receive?

Yes !!! You would not get your brand new Mercedes E-20 or whatever finely tuned automobile serviced at PepBoys. You would go to a certified mechanic who ONLY specializes in that type of machine. There are many types of doctors, however if you have a specific problem you go to that type of specialist. If you broke your leg, you would not go see a gynecologist for the proper medical attention. The same should apply to the men and women that are instructing you towards your salvation.
-- Blacks should take back their souls and question their "so-called" religious leaders. Ask them the real questions, like Can you read and write the languages of the scriptures? Did you study the scriptures in their original forms before the translations ?;so that we know that you know what you're talking about ! Have you done any study and research into other religious doctrines to show the differences since everyone says " I'm Right "! or my personal favorite, " You have to Believe in what we say, or you're going to Hell ".
- If people who attend churches, synagogues and masjids could actually question their preachers, etc, they would find out that 99 % of them have no clue what they are talking about. They have done no research, they are only blindly leading the blind. If our people are satisfied in preachers that say " God spoke to me last night ", then they are satisfied in an inferior God. Because most preachers have criminal backgrounds. And if God's best choice to do his works were criminals, thugs, low lifes, etc. etc. then It's time for a new God. Why would I go to a church where I grew up with the pastor, and Know for a fact that he/she has had no training or done research to see if they even know what they're talking about. And Just because you have the title " DR. " in front of your name doesn't mean that you know what you're talking about.
---- Without an intense comparitive study into other religions,practices,ways of life, languages,traveling abroad, seeing the pyramids etc. then your Pastor, Imaam, Sheikh, Guru, Rabbi doesn't know what he / she is talking about , and you should kindly say, STEP DOWN, And get out of the way, because you're not part of the solution, You're part of the Problem. My pastor has. His Name is Dr. Malachi Z. York. He is the author of over 400 books ranging on every topic you can think of. I encourage everyone to search out his books and see for yourself, if you are a sincere seeker of the truth.

Rev. Curtis W. Walker June 13, 2007

Before we talk about ministers and other categories of "religious leaders," we need to talk about why "religion" exists and about what its purpose is. This question NEVER gets raised or dealt with in Sunday School, in Vacation Bible School, during Bible Study, or during Worship Service. In fact, if you ask the average Christian: "Say, Christian, why do human beings need salvation anyway?" you will get a profoundly befuddled and blank stare before anything even remotely resembling a response is offered. And that response, if and when it is uttered, will be nowhere close to a coherent explanation.

The Black Church has taught its congregants that getting and/or having religion is important, yet Black churchgoers are clueless as to what the purpose of religion/faith is.

The Latin root of the word "religion" is the term "religare." The prefix "re" implies to do again, do over, re-do, or repeat. The term "ligare" refers to a "league," "ligament," or some "cord" or "tie" that links, binds, or ties two or more things together.

Thus, the Latin "religare" means to tie, bind, or link back together--to re-link or re-league. The clear implication here is that at some point, there was a bond, link, tie, or strong connection between two things, but that connection/relationship was severed. "Religare" implies reestablishing, restoring, or tying back together that broken relationship. Therefore, the concept of "Religion" came into being because there is a need to tie God and humans back together--to reestablish the relationship that God and human beings shared at some point in history, before an incident broke that relationship in some egregious way.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all of the other faith-traditions have some story or explanation asserting that the blissful and paradisical relationship that God and humans enjoyed at the beginning of human history was tragically severed by a flagrantly criminal and sinful act. For Judaism and Christianity, this historical crime took place in the Garden of Eden, and this criminal misdeed is known as the "Fall of Humanity"--the act by which Adam and Eve lost their status of purity and innocence and subsequently plummetted to the status of sinners. Thus, the purpose of "religion"/"faith" and of all "faith-traditions" is to recover the status Adam and Eve lost--to restore humanity to the relational dynamic that the Original Pair enjoyed before they sinned.

Thus, religion/faith is needed until all humans have been restored to the spiritual state that the first man and first woman enjoyed prior to the Human Fall. Once this status has been universally recovered, the purpose of religion will be achieved, and then all religions/faith-traditions will disappear, because they will no longer be needed.

This is the understanding of religion/faith that the Black Church is failing to intentionally inculcate to Black people. As long as this failure is ongoing, the Black Church will continue to flounder, and the Black Community will never experience the moral and ethical revival for which it is presently crying out.

Human history began with a living Adam, but through his own sinful misdeed, the living Adam became a dead Adam, thus creating the need for a new, or second, living Adam who would take the place of the dead Adam, and who would "re-begin" or "re-start" the human race. This is the purpose of "re-ligion," and this is why St. Paul refers to Christ Jesus as the "Second Adam." The discussion of Jesus' role as the "Second Adam" is the discussion we all need to engage in if we are to have any hope of ever seeing an end to the excrutiating failure of the Black Church.