Since 2019, I have been traveling to Africa with leaders from African American churches. That first trip with Bryan Moss was such a powerful experience that we felt led to create a new ministry, which we now call the Atlantic Bridge Initiative, to connect African American and African churches and leaders for global ministry partnerships. This summer, one group has already spent a couple of weeks in Ghana and Bryan and Jonanthan Morrison will lead another group on a visit to South Africa in August. I cannot begin to list all the joys and benefits I have witnessed God create through this new ministry. However, it may not be obvious to everyone why this kind of ministry matters. Let me try to give a partial explanation of some of the more distinct things we have already learned.

First, though, I should start by stating how important it is that more African American churches engage in global missions. While there have been and continue to be some great global ministries that have come from African American churches (see for example this story about Bill and Mary Curl), these stories have been too rare. Although African Americans make up 12%-13% of the U.S. population and are among the most religiously active people in our country, African Americans account for less that 1% of global missions. This is even more striking when looking at my historic religious fellowship. Roughly half of Churches of Christ are predominantly African American, yet they represent less than 1% of global missions participation.

The primary reason for this sad reality has not been a lack of interest, but rather a lack of resources and opportunity rooted in the discrimination of the U.S. culture. African American churches have historically not had the financial resources, equal educational opportunities, nor global connections needed to be as deeply involved in global ministries as they desired. Add to that the greater needs they must address in their communities, and global ministries have just seemed out of reach until recently, with a few notable exceptions.

Thank God, these sad facts are less true today. While many African American churches still operate with limited financial resources, it is time for the African American churches to begin to engage missions for the good of the gospel and world.

Here are several reasons why this matters:

1. African American churches have unique gifts and strengths the global church needs.

The African American culture is generally more holistic. It does not compartmentalize people and life as much as the predominantly Anglo culture does. That means African Americans worship with their whole body instead of just their minds. Thoughts and emotions are more integrated. The individual and the community are not as separated. The gospel is not as privatized as an individual matter but addresses all of life including social structures and matters of justice. This is more like the way humanity and life are portrayed in scripture and more in line with how the global church experiences life. The tendency of Anglos to compartmentalize life has created endless problems for the global church that needs some balancing out. The unique and compelling worship style and resources of the African American church are life-giving in Africa, as I expect they are in much of the rest of the world. The greater cultural commonalities between African American and majority world cultures creates unique mutual learning and mutual equipping experiences for both sides. In addition, both African American churches and global churches have had to contextualize the gospel for their cultures in ways that Anglo churches and global workers often don’t understand well and sometimes obstruct. They can have productive conversations about dealing with “white people” like me that I can only learn from on the side as I listen.

2. The minimal presence of African Americans in global missions has created a dangerous misperception of the American church and culture in other countries.

Christians in other countries (especially Africa) have often falsely concluded the African American church does not care about them because they have so rarely seen them come. This has been an unaddressed wound. Also, Christians in other countries falsely conclude at times that America is uniformly healthier, richer, and more harmonious than we are, which leads them to idealize us and under-appreciate their own potential. One brother in Ghana said to African Americans who traveled with our group this year, “Your slavery was only 200 years and now you live in luxury.” This is hardly the experience of most African Americans!

I’ve been surprised how little Africans understand the African American experience or the brokenness of the American social fabric. We can be more helpful to our global brothers and sisters when they see us not as an illusory ideal but as fellow sinners and strugglers alongside our global family. We are not the model for them to follow. Only Jesus is. Coming to America would not solve all their problems. They need to look to the Kingdom of Heaven for their models, not the United States of America. This will be more obvious when African Americans become more connected to majority world believers.

3. African American churches need the learning and enrichment that comes only by involvement in global partnerships.

One African American brother said, after going to Africa, “I was 39 years old before I knew what it felt like to be home.” Another said, “For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel Black. I just felt like a human being.” As an Anglo, I can’t understand what it does for African Americans to reconnect to “home.” When people were violently ripped from their homelands, robbed of their culture, history, and language, and oppressed for 400 years, they have countless losses that cannot be cataloged. Visiting their home continent does not fix all these wounds, but it can be a powerful healing experience.

In addition, when African Americans see the passion of African Christians for making disciples, planting churches, and expanding the kingdom, they come home with a clearer vision and more motivation for how they can do the same thing in the United States as well as partner with Africans to support the ministries God has given them.

While this is only a brief overview, and we expect to learn far more of the benefits that will come as African Americans get more engaged in global ministries, we have already seen enough to understand how important it is that we do all we can to expand the connection between African American, African, and other continents in global ministry partnerships. At MRN, we want to do all we can to encourage and support African American leaders and churches to more fully engage in God’s global mission because we have seen what a powerful impact it can have on the world and on the church in our country.

Why African-American Churches Matter in Missions