African American Church Evangelism Institute
The Challenge
4 Challenges Pastors—like YOU—Are Wrestling With Right Now.
You’re not carrying these questions alone. Over forty African American senior pastors already in our cohorts — men and women leading churches just like yours — named these four challenges as the ones keeping them up at night:
We need to update the patterns and practices of ministries in churches to better connect with emerging adults today.
We are facing many shifts in our contexts and demographics that our churches need to better engage.
Many of our churches need to improve our structures and team ministry approaches so our leadership pipelines for future leaders are better developed.
We need to update evangelism models and approaches in our churches to make them more effective for those we are trying to reach.
If you’ve felt it too, you’re not imagining it. Pastors across the country are telling us the same thing: altar calls, membership drives, and outreach campaigns that once brought people to Christ aren’t landing like they used to. Yet, the Gospel hasn’t changed, but our approach to sharing it may need to.
Our soul-winning training hasn’t kept pace. It doesn’t always equip our members to share the Gospel in ways that meet people where they actually are—culturally and spiritually.
We have to be honest about how we communicate—and willing to grow.
These challenges only grew heavier after COVID-19 hit our communities harder than most. Pastors walking this journey with us are clear-eyed: we can’t meet these challenges alone. That’s why our cohorts bring pastors together to strengthen their churches, reach their communities, and build on the legacy they’ve inherited.
We’re not willing to lose that legacy—and you don’t have to face the future alone.
African American churches nationally are facing new challenges. We need culturally adapted methods and approaches for community engagement and evangelism and strengthened strategies and structures for leadership development. I could not be more enthusiastic about the partnership with Wheaton College to work toward these goals.
In these changing and challenging times, the Church needs wise strategies for ministry and mission. The African American Church Evangelism Institute is uniquely poised for this moment, and I am excited to serve this unique partnership helping African American churches and leaders to reach emerging generations with the hope of the Gospel. "
