Black culture (and most of American culture, for that matter) thrives in hierarchical organizational structures. Therefore the black churches that thrive either have episcopal structures (like black Methodism, COGIC, etc.) or have Baptist-like ecclesiology.

Every conservative Presbyterian denomination should watch this video series on black Presbyterianism and re-think their strategy. Maybe the tears displayed by video will provide some context for why I talk about race so much. You will hear reflections from men and women in my parent’s generation. Very powerful.

I’ve been having some discussions with the pastor of the first black Presbyterian church in America about why black Presbyterianism doesn’t fit well within black culture and it’s been fascinating. In the end, I’ve just accepted the fact that black Presbyterianism will always be extremely small and that’s ok. It’s not a big deal.

Below is what the PC (USA) publishes about it’s racial demographics:

7. WHAT IS THE RACIAL-ETHNIC MAKEUP OF THE CHURCH? HOW DIVERSE ARE WE?
The PC(USA) is mostly White, and therefore, not very diverse. The majority of the church is White (91 percent). Other racial-ethnic groups for which data are collected by the PC(USA) are Asian (3.5 percent), Black or African American (3.4 percent of all members), Hispanic (1.5 percent) and Native American (0.3 percent). (There is also an “other” category, 0.3 percent.)

The race-ethnicity of active ministers is similar. The second largest group, other than those who are White, is Asian (6.9 percent). In addition, 3.6 percent of ministers are Black, 2.4 percent are Hispanic, 0.2 percent are Native American, and 0.6 percent are other. Elders and deacons follow a similar pattern, with deacons being the most likely group to have someone of color (14 percent). About 8.5 percent of elders are people of color.

In the PC(USA) the total number or ministers was 21,235 ministers in 2009 (the most recent data). Of active ministers, approximately 32 percent are female (4,324).
Ok, so the PCA has about 3,645 ministers and about 40 of whom are black (i’m getting confirmation of this, btw). That’s about 1%.

If the PCA had the PC(USA)’s percentage(3.6) of black ministers that would mean the PCA would have about 131 ministers. So the PCA would need about 100 guys in the ordination pipeline to match the percentage of black ministers in the PC(USA). Unless the Reformed seminaries and colleges have a dozen or so guys currently in the theology pipeline (each) we shouldn’t expect massive change soon.

Given the PCA’s very small size, history, and young age it’s probably not doing too badly with the numbers, comparatively speaking. Given the comparison and history I have no reason to think that PCA will be able to better than the PC(USA) in terms of percentages. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but, as they say, “it is what it is.”

For those hoping for a wide-spread explosion of black Presbyterianism among conservatives history gives no reason to expect much. Given the explosion of blacks in “Reformed Baptist” and Sovereign Grace circles if conservative black Presbyterianism were to surpass those trends it would clearly be a special work of the Holy Spirit. May it be so (*and more on that topic tomorrow – Ed)

I guess my central question is why do the conservative Presbyterians (OPC, EPC, PCA, etc.) seem surprised to hear that they probably will never have a lot of blacks? What do they assume about themselves that makes that sound discouraging? What is it about black American culture that is being ignored that should not make this surprising?

There are reasons that the PC(USA) doesn’t have many blacks either and there’s really no reason to think that the conservatives are going to trump those percentages. Briefly here’s why:

(1) Presbyterians tend to be cultural elitists (and turning black folks into cultural elitists in a culture of white privilege is not sustainable) and

(2) black culture (and most of American culture, for that matter) thrives in hierarchical organizational structures. Therefore the black churches that thrive either have episcopal structures (like black Methodism, COGIC, etc.) or have Baptist-like ecclesiology.

Since these are beyond any one person’s capacity to figure out, I’m not sure what else there is to say so I’m officially finished with this subject for a while.

Anthony Bradley is an Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at The King’s College, NYC. This commentary is taken from Bradley’s blog, The Institute and is used with permission of the author.