Ohio Independent Baptist, June/July 1938

HE AMERICAN NEGRO A Mission Field by Merlin F. Ager - Rodney E. Wyse T h fo llowing article is the result of a survey mad(., a11wnr:: th e pastors of ntff Oh io A ssociation of R egular Baptist Churches . Th e results received are most in tere ting. In this day when the question of Th e American N e{?rO is so much /}(>fo re 11 , it would do W(> // to know t/1(> thinking o f our m en and their ch11rches . MERLIN F. AGER Associate Prof. and Chairman, Div. of Education and Psychology, Cedarville Col– lege; B. A. , Cedarville College, 1960; M.51. , Univ. of Wisconsin , 1962; Ph.D., Ohio State Univ., 1967; 4th year of teach– ing at Cedarville College ; Deacon , Grace Baptist Church, London, Ohio. One o f the mo t eriou a nd difficult diilemmas facing contemporary Chri tianity i ,the race issue. The mass media are con tautly bombarcling us w,iith portrayals of our oc<iety' concern with racial discrimination, oivil right , white backlash, and black power. The news is replete witih accouruts of marches, demon traitions, civiil di obedience, riots, and other alleged expressions of dis– content with the racial ta.tu quo. What i the Christian to think? Whait hould be the Christian tance relatlive :to thi s very enious dilemma confronting our society? Is the reconciliation of rthe Cro the solution? An aff.irmative response till ,leaves unan wered the question of specific implement ation of the "Great Cornmi sion" iand its iapplicafion 1to the American Negro. In any event, implistic solution to the broader problem of national race relations are not easily found. Thorough cliscussion and .analy is would require exten– sive re earch and scholarship not pos ible in a hriief article. The author recognaze the .Jimitaitions of even ,a cur ory look at this dilemma. There are, however, ome basic re– sponsibilities the Chri tian has to ,all men. Mark 16: 15 provides the Biblical imperative of "Go ye into a,1,1 the world and preach the go pel to every creature." This comrnis ion includes people of all races. It has been aid fuat t he American Negro represents one o f the greatest unreached missiion fields in ithe wodd. Al though careful documentation of rthis 'Statement will nOlt be presented here, even casual observaJtion of currenrt eveillts confirms the tremendous piritual need of Negro America. Illegitimacy, fatherJess homes, drunkenness, dope addiction, and ,the resulitant unhappiness, ialthough not uniquely a race problem, certainly plagues American Negro famiLies to an unpropo:rtionate extent. I t is becau e of the authors' concern .£or ,the racial dilemma ( and bheir fee}ing ,that only if men are properly related to Jesus Chri t can ,they relate rto one another ) that the subject o f reaching the American Negro for Chri t is di scussed. This article has a twofold purpose. It is an attempt, first, to analyze partially ,the extent it:o which a selected group of Regular Baptist churches is attempting to reach the American Negro and, second, to 14 JUNE-JULY, 1968 RODNEY E. WYSE Assoc. Prof. of Business Administra tion , Central State Univ ., Wilberforce, Ohio; B.A ., Wheaton College, 1954; M.B.A ., University of Arizona, 1961 ; Candidate for Ph . D., Ohio State University; 1961-1967, member of Bus iness Faculty, Cedarville College; Deacon , Blessed Hope Baptist Church, Springfield, Ohio. sugges,t po ible ways in which t:hi s e ffort mi ght he further intensified . FINDINGS Following the racial di turbances of la t ummer, the author u,bmitted a questionnaire to 146 pas.tor of Regular Bap,ti t Churches in Ohio of which 75 were re– ·turned. (The author a sumed the pa tors' respon es would reflect to ,a great degree the attitudes o.f the mem– ber of their oongregation. This may or may no,t be true, but to follow any other urvey teohnique would have been too cost.ly. ) Parts of the questionnaire are here ,reproduced with the re ult , given in term of percent age of respon– dents. J. In what type oif community 1. your church located ? rural - 18% urban - 48% suburban - 34% 2. What is the population of the city m which church is located? under 9,999 33 % 10,000-24,999 30% 25,000-99,999 23 % 100,000-499,999 9% over 500,000 4% 3. What i the percentage of non-white populaition in the area of your ohurch',s outreach? none 31 % under 10% 51 % 11 % to 20% 11 % 21 % to 30% 3% 31 % to 40% 0 41 % rto 50% 2% 51 % to 60% 0 61 % to 70% 0 71 % ,to 80% 3% 81 % to 90% 0 91 % to 100% 0 4 . Do you have non-white membe~s in your church? Yes - 13%, No - 87% THE OH 10 INDEPENDENT BAPTISl