Reading For Power In The Black Church

A historic African American Church full of people working in ministries that are each doing whatever they want to do based on a colonial understanding of Christianity is a church that is not living up to its greatest potential.

We can maximize our impact, glorify God, and serve the Black community by sharing a commitment to African-centered Christian ideals and working in greater harmony together rather than lead our respective ministries in silos - separated from one another.

I am redoubling my efforts to pastor Pleasant Hope in such a way that we radiate in unity a liberative, womanist, and Black Christian Nationalist ethic and praxis. We do not have the luxury to be ambivalent about who God is calling our church to be specifically when the Adversary and spiritual wickedness in high places is working overtime in the business of our systemic oppression.

I encourage every member and ministry of Pleasant Hope to prioritize the reading of these books in your ministry meetings, informal fellowships and personal devotion. Establish reading clubs with other Pleasant Hope members, and purpose to incorporate the reading of these books into your regularly scheduled ministry meetings.

If you do, more and more we'll be able to say in unison - "We are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian!"

[Note: When purchasing these books, please consider buying them from Black-owned or more socially conscious bookstores like Everyone's Place, Mahogany Books, HalfPrice Books, Biblio, Social Justice Books or other options like the ones listed on this page.]

Children and/or Youth Ministry Leaders

SBA The Reawakening of the African Mind by Asa G. Hilliard
Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children by Amos Wilson
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris
Warrior Method: A Parents Guide to rearing Healthy Black Boys by Ray Winbush
A is for Africa, S is for Sovereignty by Baoku Duduyemi
Revolutionary Pedagogy: Primers for Teachers of Black Children by Molefi Asante
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Kill Them Before They Grow: Misdiagnosis of African American boys in American Classrooms by Michael Porter
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child by Amos Wilson

Women's Ministry/Deaconess

The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teachings in the Ways of Relationships by Sobonfu Some'
Just A Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women's Relationships in the Bible by Renita Weems
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Sacred Woman: A Guide To Healing The Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit
Just a Sister Away: Understanding the timeless connection between Women of today and Women in the Bible by Renita Weems
Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God by Renita Weems
Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective by Kelly Brown Douglas
What's Love Got To Do With It? Love, Power, Sex & God by Frank Thomas
The Red Tent: A Novel by Anita Diamant
We Should All Be Feminist by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizations in the 70's and 80's
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For: Inner Light In A Time of Darkness by Alice Walker

Men's Ministry/Deacons

The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teachings in the Ways of Relationships by Sobonfu Some'
Adam Where Are You? Why Most Black Men Don't Go To Church by Jawanza Kunjufu
Message to the Black Man in America by Elijah Muhammad
New Black Man by Mark Anthony Neal
We Real Cool: Black Men & Masculinity by bell hooks
Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective by Kelly Brown Douglas
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Love Is An Inside Job by Romal Tune
The Complete Poems of Paul Lawrence Dunbar
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Africa & Christianity

Whose Religion Is Christianity: The Gospel beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh
West African Christianity: The Religious Impact by Lamin Sanneh
African and the Bible by Edwin Yamauchi
A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present by Elizabeth Isichei
Christianity in Independent Africa edited by Edward Fashole-Luke, et. al
The Lord's Prayer Through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity by Michael Joseph Brown
How Africa Shaped The Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity by Thomas C. Oden
The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition by Thomas C. Oden
Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering A North African Tradition by Thomas C. Oden

Personal Spiritual Growth

Know Thyself by Na'im Akbar
Breaking The Chains of Psychological Slavery by Na'im Akbar
The Community of Self by Na'im Akbar
Light from Ancient Africa by Na'im Akbar
Let The Circle Be Unbroken: Implications of African Spirituality by Marimba Ani
Afrikan-Centered Consciousness Versus The New World Order by Amos Wilson
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life
The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Some'
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
Disciplines of the Spirit by Howard Thurman
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

Christian Education

Black Christian Nationalism: New Directions For The Black Church by Albert Cleage
What Color Was Jesus? by William Mosley
Africentric Christianity: A Theological Appraisal for Ministry by J. Deotis Roberts
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and The Throne by Wilda Gafney
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
Africans Who Shaped Our Faith by Jeremiah Wright
Must God Remain Greek? Afro-Cultures and God-Talk by Robert Hood
Theology Brewed in an African Pot by Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator
Katie's Cannon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community by Katie Cannon
God of the Oppressed by James Cone
Dancing With God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective by Karen Baker-Fletcher
Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology by Pamela Lightsey
Africentric Christianity: A Theological Appraisal for Ministry by J. Deotis Roberts
Pragmatic Spirituality: The Christian Faith Through An Africentric Lens by Gayraud Wilmore
Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt by Maulena Karenga
The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How they have been Corrupted by Obery Hendricks
The Apocrypha: Including Books from the Ethiopic Bible by Joseph Lumpkin

Trustee Ministry/Financial Stewards

PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Claud Anderson
Black Labor White Wealth: The Search for Power and Economic Justice by Claud Anderson
The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics by Ched Myers
Black Economics: Solutions for Economic and Community Empowerment by Jawanza Kunjufu
Church Administration in the Black Perspective by Floyd Massey, Jr.
The Spook Who Sat By The Door by Same Greenlee

Health/Kitchen Ministry