The Black Church has always stood at the forefront of efforts to effectuate positive change on behalf of Black Americans. The Black Church played a key role in sustaining Black American life through slavery, the Jim Crow Era, and the Civil Rights movement. However, as we welcome 2022, and continue to continue to face the Coronavirus pandemic and racial, political, and economic injustice, what should be the agenda of the Black Church?

Survival/Reinvention

First and foremost, the Black Church, like many other institutions, is struggling with survival. The ongoing pandemic has rendered the “in-person only” model of doing church obsolete, and many have been challenged to transition to virtual and hybrid models of worship. Accordingly, in 2022, the Black Church must continue to re-invent and reimagine itself and to find new and innovative ways to accomplish the church’s core mission of worshipping, making disciples, and ministering to the least, the lost, and the left behind. Our national Black Church conventions and regional and local ministerial alliances should focus on highlighting best practice models to help our churches thrive and especially during the pandemic.

Fighting COVID-19 and Addressing Underlying Health Issues

In addition, in 2022, the Black Church must continue its fight against COVID-19. The Black Church has implemented several key measures to address COVID-19, including serving as testing and vaccination sites, and serving as a trusted messenger about the urgent need for our community to get vaccinated. At the same time, however, Black life expectancy has declined significantly, because COVID-19 has exacerbated struggles with underlying health conditions that Black Americans disproportionately suffer from. These include diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease. In 2022, the Black Church must address these underlying health issues and inequalities. We may do so by encouraging healthier diets and exercise and church-wide health and wellness campaigns and advocating for equity in local, state, and federal health programs. Another major health issue that the church can’t ignore in 2022 is Mental Illness. Black Americans are struggling with mental health and illness due to the trauma associated with the Coronavirus and ongoing racial and economic hostilities. In 2022, the Black Church in 2022 should seek ways to address Mental Illness including partnering with local social service providers, offering sessions with therapists, and working to de-stigmatize mental illness and mental health concerns.

Voting Rights, the 2022 Election and Other Policy Issues

In 2022, the Black Church must also advocate for the U.S. Senate passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill and other voting rights legislation. In the wake of the Trump Administration’s exit and the January 2021 Capital Insurrection, there are widespread attempts to undermine voting rights. Much like the violent insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol nearly one year ago, Republican officials in states across the country have seized on the former president's “Big Lie” about widespread voter fraud and are now enacting anti-democratic legislation. However, we must take action to fight against this. Not only does this include supporting voting rights legislation, but also seeking to get the “Souls to the Polls” in this year’s 2022 election and supporting voter registration and education efforts as the election approaches. We also need to recruit persons from our community to run for federal, state and local office." Other policy issues that the Black Church needs to address in 2022 include: Reparations, Police Reform and Gun Violence, Greening the Church, Fighting Gentrification, Educational Equity, and Closing the Digital Divide.

Clergy Burnout/Health

A final issue that needs to be on the Black Church’s agenda and perhaps at the very top, is the issue of the health of Black Clergy. Black clergy members have not been immune from the “Great Resignation” that is sweeping our nation. Record numbers of clergy members are throwing in the towel. Too many are burnt-out from the stress of doing ministry and the Coronavirus has compounded this problem. In 2022, there needs to be a national effort to support the health and well-being of Black clergy including encouraging Black Churches to embrace the provision of sabbaticals for senior clergy leaders.

I am confident that the Black Church will address these issues and more in 2022 because the church has been and will always be at the forefront of efforts to sustain African American life. I concur with the views of Black Liberation Theologian Joseph Washington who once said: “In the beginning was the black church and the black church was with the black community and the black church was the black community. The black church was in the beginning with the black people; all things were made through the black church, and without the black church was not anything made that was made. In the black church was life, and the life was the light of black people. The black church still shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”