FEATURES
PASTOR PUBLISHES BOOK FOCUSED ON THE BLACK CHURCH’S
ROLE IN SOCIAL CHANGE
RALEIGH,
NC - The
struggles on
the streets
of inner city
America are
not foreign
to Rev.
Dr. Earl C.
Johnson.
He himself
escaped the
lure of the
streets by
the strength of his widowed mother,
and the grace of God.
Johnson, pastor of Martin Street
Baptist Church in Raleigh, North
Carolina, tells the story of his youth
in the syncopated rhythm of a Baptist
minister, his voice rising and falling
as he lets his congregation know that
the saint they see in the pulpit belies
the wayward soul that he used to be
before God and his mother got hold of
him.
A social advocate as well as a spiritual
warrior, it is no wonder that the
streets of Ferguson Missouri, or the
antics of Tom Tillis on Jones Street
often creep into his sermons. Johnson
calls this “prophetic preaching;”
preaching that speaks out against
the appalling social conditions that
exist in communities of color today.
His experiences from the streets of his
hometown in Virginia to the ganginfested communities in
Newark led him to write
and publish his first book,
“Prophetic Speech in a
Non-Prophetic Age”.
ways to
save urban
communities
by addressing
the pathologies
that trap people
into positions
of isolation
and class
warfare. He
believes that
the ‘prophetic
voice’ of many
local churches
has been
silenced and
co-opted while
the people in its
congregations
suffer from
a lack of
leadership
from the
church outside
the spiritual
realm. Johnson
suggests many
black clergy
stand silent on social issues such
as the myths surrounding health
care, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the
mass incarceration of black men and
women. Additionally, he discusses
how the new rise of charter schools
and the decline of public schools affect
urban children.
One of the most compelling questions
Dr. Johnson
raises in
his book is
this: Does
the African
American
church have
a social
agenda for
congregations
that are
suffering from
bad political
policies,
poverty, job
loss, social
engineering,
voter
suppression,
community
violence
and mass
incarceration?
In his book,
Pastor
Johnson
lays out the
challenges
faced by communities from
which urban churches draw their
memberships, and clearly outlines a
path to making life changes in those
communities, both spiritually and
socially. Johnson not only talks about
what is wrong in urban communities,
but discusses how churches can take
leadership in resolving some of these
issues.
In his first book on social
commentary and the
African American church,
Dr. Johnson, who is also
President of the Raleigh/
Wake Citizens Association,
addresses the burning
social issues of our time
and challenges America’s
urban churches.
In his deep-seated analysis,
Dr. Johnson writes about
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SPECTACULAR MAGAZINE | September 2014 | www.spectacularmag.com
In the introduction to his book,
Johnson says:
“This book of sermons on social
preaching is not merely written to
tell what’s wrong with the African
American community, but to give
specific suggestions for what can be
done to correct what is obviously
wrong….If our communities are going
to make a comeback—and they very
well can—then our churches and the
prophetic voices that guide them must
help foster the way....It is a challenge
to urban and suburban pastors, to
all denominational leaders, and to
pastors and ministers alike to respond
to one of the greatest crises in our
time.”
Johnson goes on to say that God
will not tolerate the mistreatment
of his people and that He will hold
accountable those who refuse to
address the most pressing moral and
social issues of our time.
Dr. Johnson, a former print journalist
and instructor, has been involved
in the social gospel movement for
more than 30 years. He was one of
the first voices of the ‘Moral Monday’
Movement in Raleigh and worked
against the resegregation of public
schools. He was jailed along with 945
other Moral Monday protesters in
2013.