The "A" Word

I had a very long conversation (3 hours) with a pastor friend of mine tonight. We spent a few moments catching up with each other before he began inquiring about my ministry and upcoming banquet. He was excited to hear about all of the great things God was doing in and through Stand for Truth Ministries, but wanted to leave me with a bit of sound advice: “Drop the “A” word.” He went on to suggest that “if you want to effectively reach the “black” church you are going to have to eliminate the term from your vocabulary.” So what’s the “A” word? It’s the word Apologetics.

Now as a disclaimer let me say that while it might be the case that other races face the same challenges when presenting apologetics, our discussion is about me as an African American Apologist and the difficulties I face in presenting Apologetics in the “Black” church.

"Use the word at home and no where else.” After all, he remarks, “at the end of the day, no one goes to heaven by apologetics.” He offered several reasons in support of his point. First, the vast majority of black pastors are insecure and may feel intimidated by having someone like me speak or teach at their church. In his experience, many black pastors find Apologetics to be divisive, undermines their authority and may bring into question their ability to “hear from God.” How you might ask? Well if the pastor as the “head, father, or prophet” of that house (the Church), is unable to elaborate on or reiterate the points of discussion that the apologist brings up, he might find this challenging to his ability to "hear from God" or reveal a lack of knowledge on his part in a particular area or study. He felt that the result of this may cause some to feel like they may lose members and as a result, money.

Secondly, he suggest to me that “no one knows about apologetics and no one cares . . . It’s just not of interest to them.” He went on to say that what people are concerned about today are “real life challenges” such as “gas prices, the fact that my babies are hungry, or that my family member is on drugs, or the fact that I’m about to lose my home.” He wanted me to realize that no one but me was interested in that stuff; it was just a passion of mine. “People don’t care about that stuff Hayes, as long as you are not teaching heresy, love Jesus, teach people to live better, and preach truth, that’s all that matters because (the last point) at the end of the day you don’t need apologetics to get to heaven." I remember a leader once expressing somewhat of the same idea to me when I told him what I was going to school for. He said, "you will be like a car driving in the snow . . . sure your wheels are spinning, but you ain't going anywhere."

Before I give my thoughts, I would really like to hear from you (especially Pastors and Leaders)