Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church By Samuel G. Freedman

Sayo Ajiboye
DMin Overture I
May 2007
Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church
By Samuel G. Freedman
373 pages

What does it mean for a Church to live out the gospel on a day by day basis in Inner city America? How is this day by day lived out experience different from the Television presentation of the African American Church visited by politicians in run up to an election or in the wake of an urban uprising? Upon This Rock, is a story of a living community. The servant of that community embodies the story; Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood and St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York presents us with an incarnational context and a rare glimpse into what really happens in an African American community conscientiously doing church in the urban neighborhood. Rev. Youngblood is a visionary leader, a man who works tirelessly to focus his congregation on Christ and fears – rightly that “he will preside over the funeral of that which he gave birth to” if he does not ensure such a focus.

It is also a story about resurrection. Rev Youngblood took over a dying inner-city church in a community that is giving up hope and turns it into a vibrant place of living victories. It is a story about human triumphs and the strong reality of human failures. How is a preacher to deal with the ghosts of indiscretion from his past? How is a preacher to swim against the tide of benchmarking by occupancy count in the pews rather than communal effectiveness? How do we manage people who are bent on controlling us? From what source does our help comes and where do we draw strength? Rev Youngblood grants us insightful glimpses into how church is done in truth, this makes the book read like an epistle.

Community transformation is the focus of the book. Sam Freedman leads us into the heart of a community that takes its redemptive mandate seriously. This however does not wish away the sorrows, the pains, the confusion, the seeming lack of direction. The community seems to own its frailty and rejoice in its weaknesses. This seems to me a living definition of faith. St Paul sought to give life back to a tarnished community; it sought to reach people who are searching in every dead alley but the Way. St Paul and Rev Youngblood presents a powerful case, Christ is still the hope of the world, a commitment to the truth of the word of God and a focus on contextual application is necessary for reclaiming the land as promised by God.

The book tells stories, and uses stories to define theological propositions. Living stories define sermons, direct songs, the people participate in the process, and there is an unwritten antiphonal response. It sounds almost like the Psalmist; there is a resounding “Praise The Lord!” And the people seem to say “for his mercies endures forever” only now it is in form of a loud resounding amen! Rev Youngblood is Eclectic in his choice of reference, he acknowledges contemporary influence of African American preachers and draws from other sources that help him make his point. Hear Rev Youngblood: “To be a preacher is to be a storyteller, scholar, analyst, entertainer, political theorist, and, most ineffably, the anointed of God." Undoubtedly, his congregation will say Amen!

The reality of the middle African American family plays up brilliantly in this book. The challenge of a fractured identity, the desire to use or misuse sexuality, the pain of the absent father, the sorrow of the fatherless son; the society that is bent on cookie cutting people’s personality and defining them by that which may not necessarily be wholesome. These all are highlighted in the book, it makes a sobering reading.

I am a new African American. Whether I return to Africa or not, my children’s root are here. They will marry these struggling boys or give birth to sons that will have to engage with these communal realities. How do we prepare our daughters to walk with our sons? How do we prepare our sons to win over these negativities? I may not identify fully with all that Upon This Rock represents, a large swatch of the book may be outside my experience, I am driven – however to own its realities. The African American Church is not just a Church; it is the emblem of a culture.