The Black Church’s Economic Challenge

Introduction

For more than twenty-five years, I served as an assistant pastor before stepping into the role of senior pastor. Those years shaped me, tested me, and humbled me. They gave me a front row seat to both the beauty and the brokenness of the Black church.

This book is not written from a place of judgment. I have failed more times than I care to admit. I have made decisions that did not always reflect the heart of Christ. I have lived through seasons where my priorities were misplaced and my stewardship was weak.

Yet it was in those failures that God taught me lessons I could never have learned in a classroom
or seminary. Pain became my instructor, and humility became my companion.

What you are holding is not a book of condemnation. It is a wakeup call. A call to examine the subjects we often avoid, money, stewardship, consumerism, bankruptcy, and the quiet but powerful ways leadership practices shape the people who trust us. It is an invitation to
confront an uncomfortable truth. While the Black church has been one of the most influential institutions in Black America, it has also been one of the most fragile when it comes to economic sustainability.

I write with both gratitude and grief. Gratitude for the generations before us who built schools, hospitals, businesses, and neighborhoods through faith, discipline, and collective sacrifice. Grief for the ways we have mismanaged resources, normalized financial strain, funded systems that quietly enslave us, and in some cases lost the trust of our own people.

My prayer is that this book opens eyes, stirs honest conversations, and inspires change at the local level. Not global movements. Not celebrity pastors. Not megachurch spectacles.

But faithful, grounded communities of believers who choose to live differently, steward wisely, and lead with integrity. If that work begins in small rooms and humble places, it will still be worth it.