We’ve learned a lot in five years.

Five years ago we made 47 phone calls and sent out at least as many letters followed by a second mailing of demo discs with this website on them—recognizing the fact most black churches here have no Internet connection. We received about eight callbacks. So we went door-to-door, visiting these churches and attempting to speak with the pastors. About 95% of black pastors here avoided us or simply blew us off. The bottom line seemed to be money, the first question always “how much?” Everyone seemed to think we were out to line our pockets and scam the church. But, we’d made absolutely no mention of money. We were charging absolutely nothing. We had a comprehensive and painstakingly detailed community calendar, laying out events for every black church in town so everyone could see, at a glance, what events were being planned and could, therefore, coordinate community events so we weren’t always competing with one another. Most pastors never saw that calendar because, at the time, in 2002, most pastors here had never seen the Internet.

We later discovered most churches had thrown our mailings out without even having opened them, one secretary telling us it was because the mailing was too professional-looking, so they assumed they were junk mail—after all, nobody around here could package something so professionally. Again, the bottom line was money. They looked at what we were offering, and all they saw was money. We never asked anyone for a dime.

The moderator of a local district association of churches talked to his pastors about the new ColoradoPraise.Net, and asked us to make color print outs of the entire site so he could show it to the pastors—none of whom had an Internet connection. We spent most of a day and $38 at a local Kinkos creating screenshots of the website and printing them out for the moderator, who subsequently began avoiding us and later said the district had declined our offer and refused to reimburse our expense for the printouts or even return the printouts themselves.

This was the overall quality of the knuckleheaded response to our attempts to get black churches here wired up on the Internet. In retrospect, we realize most black pastors felt threatened by this new PraiseNet, mainly because it involved the Internet—something they did not understand but intrinsically knew to be bad and/or evil. Most black pastors here do not, or at least did not at the time, know how to use a computer or even type. Most have unbearably bad handwriting and very poor writing skills—which is one likely reason virtually none have contributed even one article to the site in five years. Another likely and sadder reason is that most of these men have no vision and, therefore, have nothing to say.

The emergence of this ministry magnified both their inadequacies as leaders in the 21st century and their shameful contentment to simply make the doughnuts every week—most pastors here being satisfied to simply run in circles doing nothing, moving toward no goal, not growing, not evolving. In a world now dominated by MySpace and FaceBook, these churches are at a literal standstill, their congregations shrinking as more and more black churchgoers make the move to progressive white churches.

We were attacked and ridiculed and dismissed as money-grubbers out to fleece the churches here, even though we’d not asked one church for one dime for anything. It was all hand-waiving dismissal and childish paranoia, a reflection of their own corrupt values. They assume we’re out to line our pockets because that’s what they’ve been doing. They assume everyone lies because that’s what they’ve been doing. All of which is a tragic echo of another group of pious religious leaders who rejected a free offer they didn’t understand.

And, so it was with crippling naiveté that this ministry was birthed five years ago, we, like so many first-time parents, knowing nothing about childrearing. The goal was simple: to wire up the black churches here so we’re all working together and fellowshipping together. Five years later, the churches here are just as divided, the main difference being there are even more of them. At least a dozen more people woke up one morning and decided they’d been called to pastor—which, here, seems to mean to walk in circles while lining their pockets—with even fewer worshippers in the pews.

And we’ve learned our lesson.

Over the past five years, this ministry has seen exponential growth. If we were a black church, we’d be ten times the size of the largest black church in Colorado Springs. We count, as friends here, churches in two dozen states and abroad. But we have virtually no support whatsoever here at home.

What we’ve learned in 200 weeks is, in the 21st century, the back church in America faces a great many challenges. Our dedication to our churches seems to be wavering even as the influence of our churches seems to be shrinking. We come from a strong tradition, a fine tradition, a heritage bought and paid for by shed blood. Taking that rich heritage for granted is simply shameful. If somebody beat up your momma while she was trying to get you a quart of milk, you’d be ready to shoot somebody. Well, somebody *did* beat up your momma. And your father. And his father. And, rather than honor that sacrifice, we’ve allowed the black church to become but a shadow of its former glory, a Tyler Perry parody. Aunt Esther and Madea.

Church: somebody died so that you could sit in that pew. Somebody suffered so those doors could be open. Somebody bled so you could have the privilege of singing songs to Zion. The least you could do is *want* to do more—to be more—than just an impotent echo of a glorious time.

We face tremendous challenges ahead of us. Challenges which can and will knock down the vast majority of our churches—our play churches, our phony churches, our going-through-the-motions churches. And that’s what we’ve learned in 200 weeks: that God is calling us out of our slumber. Calling us to true worship, true praise. To a true dedication of our lives, of our resources and not merely lip service. The fake black church, the prepackaged, plastic black church pimping Offer #1326 on the Word Network, will not stand in these perilous times. The end of this Dispensation of Grace is upon us, and God’s wrath, God’s judgment will no longer be held back by God’s grace.

It’s time to line up. To man up. To stop wallowing in the form of godliness while denying the power thereof.

As strange as it seems, had we known any of this, we’d have never built the thing in the first place. Maybe that’s why God allows us our wilderness experience. Why He allows us disappointment. Why He allows us to fail. For, even in our failure, God’s purpose for us can be discovered. We are strengthened, we are prepared for a journey quite different from the one we’d embarked upon.

Once we’ve learned our lesson.

Thank you, Pastor Promise Lee and the Relevant Word Ministries family, for your early and enthusiastic support of this ministry, and for being God’s vessel for securing primary funding to launch this effort. Thank you, member churches of The Net, an association of predominately white evangelical churches, who so graciously partnered with us in the launch of this effort. Thank you, Bishop L.A. Wilkerson and the Agapé Christian Family of Churches for your timely friendship and enthusiastic support of this work Thank you, Bishop Frank Elijah Johnson, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Colorado, Church of God In Christ, Inc., Pastor Roland P. Joyner and the New Covenant COGIC family.

For all of our friends and family, we humbly thank you for your prayers, for your support, for visiting with us these past 200 weeks. We welcome your input and invite you to continue with us, to learn lessons with us, through the next 200.

Christopher J. Priest
Editor