PRECEDENT LITERATURE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Preliminary Procedures
Selected participants were purposively selected after serving at least ten years as the senior pastor (or lead) pastor of a church located within a fifty-mile radius of an African American killing by police officers in the twenty-first century. The purpose of interviewing in a phenomenological study is to give the participant the opportunity to describe their experiences and perspectives that they value. Another part of the initial procedures was to establish an expert panel to help fine-tune the research questions and the protocol.
After refinement through an expert panel, I developed and cemented a protocol that formed the schedule for each of the interviews. The interview process took place in two phases: initial and follow-up.14 The first interview took place in person or via video software. In addition, participants were encouraged to speak freely and openly to capture the best data.
14 Due to the research topic and related nature, the interview process was divided into two separate phases to reduce participant fatigue. I made every possible effort to care for the participant as well as to help achieve the reflective steam of the interviewee. Two pilot interviews were conducted to test the interview protocol for discussion flow and adherence to the research objective.
This process helped with the formulation of the wording and sequence of the final questions asked by the study. A research journal was kept throughout the study detailing processes, background information and additional components of the interviews. The purpose of the journal was to contribute to the formulation of "rich, thick descriptions" as described by Creswell.16.
To further ensure the validity and reliability of the study, two pilot interviews were conducted after the development of the interview protocol and schedule. These two interviews were not included in the findings of the overall study, but were conducted as if they were.
Interview Schedule
Data collection was done in two ways: (1) interviews with participants and (2) participants submitted appropriate content (sermons, journal, blog/social media posts, Bible study, and Sunday school curriculum).19 Initial phase of data collection took the form of interviews. As noted above, two-part interviews were conducted in person or via video software (ie, Zoom, Skype, etc.). Open-ended questions were used to encourage each participant to share what they found important and useful.
Member checking helps in the research process as the researcher asks the participants' views on the credibility of the research findings.20 Although it serves as a measure of reliability, it also ensures the accuracy of the interview process. The research insisted on this accuracy and validation strategy as a form of critique for participants to provide critical observations and interpretations for the advancement and accuracy of the research. Essentially, participants could review the research data analysis with the option to provide feedback, change or approve.21 Therefore,.
If the participant did not return a response within ten days, I moved forward with acceptance of research data analysis.
Data Organization
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS
African American Experience
The first theme that emerged from the data was the African American experience, and within this first major theme were three subcategories of the African American experience: streams of consciousness, black identity, and the black church. Overall, five of the participants identified streams of consciousness as a reality of the black experience. The third subcategory within the first major theme of the African American experience was the black church.
Within this subcategory was one important contribution to the African American experience—the history and functioning of the black church. All of the participants presented different perspectives on what the black church means to the black community. The Black Church is a clearing house for our questions and challenges where they can be addressed and negotiated.
But the importance of the black church in the community, when I look around this country has diminished to a serious degree. PP2 asserts that the black church “used to be the center of our community in terms of social justice and events. PP3 agrees that the importance of the black church is about reaching out to the community and publicly addressing any false perceptions of the Church immediately.
And that is probably why the black church has played a much stronger role in the lives of black people than the white church plays in the lives of white people. Although there are differing opinions on the current status of the black church, all participants agree on its overall importance and necessity to the black community. Fourthly, it is of course the black church that must provide the moral and spiritual anchoring and guidance.
So the black church falls short in emphasizing, pushing and interpreting the black people, the necessity of stable families and orphanages. It negates the history of the black church and what it has meant to black people and our liberation to say there is no black church.
Racial Tensions and Reconciliation
PP3 describes racism as "the use of this false construct of race to dominate and in a real sense dehumanize another race for the benefit of another race." PP10 contributes that it is “the consequences of that false definition of race. It is the ideology that supports and falsely justifies offensive policies and actions that advocate the superiority of one group of people with different human characteristics over another.” He sees where I'm from culturally, and why things have certain priorities for me, and he doesn't downplay or downgrade it because it's not a priority to you, or it doesn't mean much to you.
This is the biblical missiological principle - Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the deepest parts of the Earth. If you bypass Jerusalem to reach the outermost parts of the Earth, how does that work. It's about owning and controlling land, it's about being able to educate our children, it's about finding a sector in society that we control.
So reconciliation to me is not Kumbaya, it is not holding hands, it is not a church service together, it is repairing the damage.” Ultimately, PP5 argues that racial reconciliation cannot happen without Christ by stating,. It's not all right as long as I serve in an area where people are poor and walk the streets and I have to feed them because they can't have a job while you serve in an area where you have everything you need and more and you tell me : "We just praise the Lord together." Two out of three pointed to the negative impact it has on the struggling black church.
It is negative, it is part of the reason why the Black, quote/unquote, Black church. Guess where they come back to ask for help when it has to do directly with a racial problem. On the other hand, two participants claim that the choice of the multi-ethnic church is a positive contribution.
I am grateful to have this alternative for those who want to follow an interracial church because they think it is biblical. For those who want their children to be raised in a multiracial context, as opposed to a monoracial context, there is an option for them.
Expectations of African American Pastors
In addition, PP6 argues that the success of the multi-ethnic church has a lot to do with resources and the ability to gather resources at the expense of others. And as a result, our people will go there because of the services they provide and not necessarily for their ability to fully engage them. My blackness tells me that I would vote for a black candidate before I would vote for a white candidate, 85 percent of the time.
My discussions of anything racial have always been in the form of teaching about what we have for our Bible study because I have always believed that Sunday morning is more about spiritual enrichment that speaks more to some of the other weaknesses that they can be recognized by our entire congregation. Abortion, the vast majority of the time, is why the African American community is disappearing. But you know I found out how they called him the one because of his wide nose.
An interesting topic that three of the participants focused on was the importance of discipling the black family. American pastors is leadership beyond the pulpit that looks at the role of African American pastors in which they serve as all things to all people. There was a common expectation about how the participants saw the leadership responsibilities of the African-American pastor expand beyond the pulpit.
I looked for ways that I could help the families of the victim and where there was support that the church could bring to that, both for the family and for this community on the north side where our church is located. But we really didn't see a lot of changes implemented that were things that we thought would be beneficial for us. In fact, I have had to go through most of the situations that have occurred.
Another similarity shared by some participants is their understanding, and in some cases acceptance, of liberation theology and its relationship to serving and uplifting the black community as part of the "responsibility of the African American minister". As part of the liberation, PP4 argues that as part of the black community, we have to do two things in the black community, and whether it's the Christian community or not, let's say the black community.
Advice to Pastors
CONCLUSION
