Four of the nation’s largest African-American Baptist denominations either elected new leaders this year or are in the process of voting on new presidents, and observers say each will have his hands full confronting daunting institutional challenges.
Samuel Tolbert was elected president of the National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc., in June. The Louisiana pastor also is a vice president with the North American Baptist Fellowship.
Members of the Progressive National Baptist Convention elected James Perkins, a Detroit pastor, as their president in August.
And two other groups — the National Baptist Convention USA and the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America — are holding leadership elections during their annual sessions this week.
Each of those elected will face many of the same challenges that seem to be dogging all denominations: proving their relevance to congregations across the nation, said David Goatley, executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention.
They also will be shouldering responsibility unique to leaders of black churches: combating growing experiences of institutional and societal racism as evidenced in recent cases like the police shooting of an unarmed African-American in Ferguson, Mo., he said.
Tolbert, Perkins and the others elected will have to start out by convincing member congregations that their denominations are the best resources for local ministries and global missions, said Goatley, a past NABF president.
And that may be a tough sell. Today, congregations have many other options for partnerships for conducting neighborhood, national and state work. Many are distancing themselves from denominations, he said.
“A generation or more ago [denominations] were not competing — they did not have as many competing interests,” Goatley told ABPnews/Herald. “It used to be that … national denominations and their international mission entities, that was the way people participated in missions around the world.”
That’s changed thanks to developments in communications and travel that enable churches to plan partnerships with other groups. That leaves major African-American denominations with the challenge of demonstrating why they’re the best option.
That will also require some transformation, Goatley added.
“They have to reinvent themselves and demonstrate they add value to a church’s efforts to be engaged in missions around the world.”
And then there’s race.
In a story this week about the annual gathering of the NBC-USA in New Orleans, the city’s Times-Picayune reported a major issue facing the denomination is racism.
“It seems we’re slipping back to the ’60s civil rights era in terms of some of our behaviors as a nation,” convention spokesman Morris Tipton told the newspaper. “With President Obama’s administration, race relations have really reared their ugly heads. I’ve never seen it be this blatant in recent history.”
How blatant has become clear in recent years and reached a boiling point Aug. 9 when a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. That incident led to rioting and — along with incidents like the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida — continues to expose the festering wounds of race in America.
“That's going to be a hot topic” at the NBC-USA meeting, Tipton told the Times-Picayune. “You can’t be a body of believers and say we came to work and not address ills such as what’s going on in Ferguson, Mo. There is no way you can be an effective leader and ignore that issue.”
That’s a challenge that all the denominational leaders will have to take up, Goatley told ABPnews/Herald.
“All of them need to address how they can help resource their churches to address national issues that are demoralizing African-American life,” Goatley said.
In addition to cases such as Ferguson and Trayvon Martin, he added, the four black Baptist groups must lead the way in taking action against the mass incarceration of people of color.
“That is one of the critical issues,” Goatley said. “If they are going to be relevant, they are going to have to take on issues like that.”