Visiting an African Methodist Episcopal

Visiting an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church -- which has congregations in many United States cities -- may be primarily composed of worshipers of color, but the Mission Statement of the AME Church asserts that the agenda is to "…minister to the social, spiritual, and physical development of all people." The AME Church evolved out of the "…spirit of the original Free African Society," which was and is to "…seek out and save the lost, and to serve the needy" (www.ame-Church.com). Moreover, the AME website points to the "Purposes" for which the Church exists: a) "make available God's biblical principles"; b) "spread Christ's liberating gospel"; and c) "provide continuing programs which will enhance the entire social development of all people" (www.ame-Church.com). The AME Church embraces Methodism for that denomination's system of "rules and regulations" (placing the emphasis on a gospel that is "plain and simple") and uses the Episcopal form of church government, with Bishops serving in executive and administrative roles.

Attending an African Methodist Episcopal Church

The service I attended on a recent Sunday morning was very interesting and enlightening. A man in his elderly years greeted me at the top of the steps into the church before I could pass through the open doors. I got a warm handshake and a smile, and "Welcome to our church my friend." I did feel welcomed. As I passed through the foyer I could hear singing and hand clapping which is the way this service begins. Before the actual formal service, the choir walks in step up to the alter and behind the alter to the choir pews, and all along they are singing and clapping hands in a kind of joyous welcome to the worship service.

On this day the song was, "This is the day the Lord hath made, let us be glad and rejoice in it." As the choir sat down they struck up another song, "He's been good to me," with the lead singer (in a wheelchair) singing, "He's been good," and the choir answering, "He's been good," and the lead singer coming back with "He's been good to me…"

This energetic opening to a service is something I haven't experienced in the Lutheran Church services I attended with my parents, but it was easy to get into the flow of the energy and the obvious joy that the congregation expressed as one unit in song and rejoicing. Some of the members of the congregation stood up and sang along with the choir, swaying back and forth and clapping hands perfectly in time with the choir. After the choir finished their opening music, the audience was asked to recite the Apostle's Creed ("I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit…")

The stained glass windows were beautiful. Images of Jesus Christ, of African-Americans, set with many colored class sections around each image. The sanctuary was high ceiling, with wooden beams arching up to the apex of the sanctuary in beautifully matched sections. There were four stained glass windows on each side of the sanctuary and three large stained glass windows in the front of the sanctuary, behind the pulpit and the choir.

The pastor spoke about the right place to find Jesus. He was gesturing dramatically with every point he made. He said if a person is looking for Jesus, that person shouldn't look to the White House in Washington, D.C., and that person shouldn't look in governor's mansions in any state. With he emphasis he made, with each strong point, certain members of the audience said "Amen" loudly, or "Oh Yes Jesus!" -- and some would clap hands together just once with each special phrase he spoke. Some stood up and raised their hands up high. I couldn't understand every word he spoke because his voice rose and fell so quickly and his accent was from the Deep South.

But it was fascinating sitting in a back pew watching, listening, and even clapping my hands when the audience was responding to something dramatic or particularly poignant that he spoke. Some of the women moved their heads back and forth with the rhythm of the pastor's cadence. Some nodded their heads throughout the sermon like they were agreeing.

The pastor quoted from the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 5 verses 1-9. It was a very moving story about how Jesus went to a pool where disabled and downtrodden people were in attendance. One man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, the pastor explained, and several people in the congregation said "Yes Lord!"

And when Jesus saw that invalid lying there and found out that the poor man had been in this condition for a long time, Jesus stopped and asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Then after Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk,' the man stood up and walked on his own. And the congregation broke out in applause. Then the pastor told his church members that if they want to find Jesus, go to a homeless shelter or go to a prison and visit an inmate, and he told a story about a little boy who went to a rich church. Everyone put a hundred dollar bill into the collection plate, but when it was passed to the little boy, he took it and set it on the floor, and then he stood up in it.