In a recent interview, the senior pastor of The Park Ministries talked about various aspects of the African American church, including his goals as president of the Hampton University Ministers Conference. (File photo: Qcitymetro.com)

In June of this year, Bishop Claude Alexander Jr. of The Park Ministries was elevated to president of the Hampton University Ministers Conference, the world’s largest gathering of interdenominational African-American clergy.

The conference traces its roots to 1914, when several clergy organizations came together at the former Hampton Institute “to address the growing concerns of the African-American church and its relationship to the community,” according to the group’s website.

Ninety-seven years later, the group’s overall mission has not chanced. But during his tenure as president, Alexander said, he would like to see the African American church shift its focus to include parts of the world – especially Africa – where Christianity is growing fastest.

During a recent interview with Qcitymetro.com, Alexander also talked about the growing role of women in ministry, preacher burnout and what he calls the commoditization of religion.

Below is a Q&A based on that interview. Some answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. What role does the Hampton Ministers conference play today, and why is it important?

It remains what it was 97 years ago. It was a response to concerns by different black educational organizations. They engaged 40 pastors about the need to provide academic training for pastors, and so they came together at Hampton University’s Memorial Chapel and began what would become the Hampton University Ministers Conference. It was a way of engaging pastors who might not have had the opportunity to receive formal theological training to be in a setting where they would be engaged with the issues of the day in a setting that was both academically stimulating and spiritually enriching. Ninety-seven years later, that is what we still need. Even though we have a much more educated clergy, there still needs to be an environment where clergy across denominational lines can come together to be academically stimulated as well as spiritually enriched.

Q. What special challenges are unique to our present age?

Certainly the fact that we are in a globalized age. One the one hand, technology gives us a great opportunity to spread the gospel, but at the same time, technology also hinders our efforts at discipleship. With technology, the attention span of people has grown shorter. Our culture has become much more commoditized, and therefore matters of religion are often viewed as commodities, and matters of faith are viewed from the standpoint of being a consumer rather than a disciple. So it’s easy to win people to Christ, but it’s much more difficult to grow them up in Christ. In the West, Christianity is viewed to be on the decline due to secularization, whereas in Asia, in Africa, in India and South America, Christianity is growing rapidly. Whereas in the 20th century, the profile for a Christian throughout the world would have been somebody from the West, the profile for Christianity worldwide now is somebody from Africa.

Q. What do you think has caused that shift?

Again, with the West, Europe and even America, with our egalitarian emphasis, there is the move toward secularization. For example, I’m often asked to do a prayer in public, But at the same time, I’m told don’t say the name of Jesus. So I’m asked to pray, but I cannot end the prayer in my tradition.

Q. So what do you do in situations like that?

Well, personally, I’m accepting fewer invitations to pray. It’s said under the guise of “We don’t want to offend anyone.” But if I’m at a setting and a Muslim is asked to pray, I understand that that Muslim should pray in his or her tradition, and I should be able to respect his or her tradition and not be offended by it. So in many ways, their saying, “Don’t pray in your particular tradition,” does not build up tolerance, because it does not provide the environment where tolerance is necessary.

Q. What goals have you set for your term as president?

My goals have been around, one, understanding that the church is charged by God to be a prophetic presence in the world. We are charged to provide an alternative to the status quo in every area of life. The second is to expose and empower the African American church to see its role in global Christianity. We are a part of a much bigger reality, and there is a contribution that we have to make. There is also much we have to learn. The pendulum of global Christianity has swung southward. It swung to the Southern Hemisphere, with the center of gravity being Africa. If that’s the case, who is better suited to engage that reality than the African American church. And so there is significant opportunity that we have before us. So we must recognize the opportunity, and we must begin to train our clergy and our leadership to be able to see that opportunity. That’s the second thing. I guess the third thing is to recover the sense of the church as being a called people. We are those who have responded to the call of God upon our lives, which is designed to address this notion of people being religious consumers. I’m not a purchaser of a commodity. No, I am a responder to an initiative that God has made toward me in Christ. We are responders to a call of God, rather than God being a responder to a demand that we make upon God. And lastly, my term will end with the centennial. And so being able to celebrate the centennial, 100 years, and being able to reflect what God has done and anticipating what God desires to do.

Q. You talked about some treating religion as a commodity. Given the high-tech productions we see in some churches today – especially in some so-called mega churches – was this inevitable?

I would say, number one, the commoditization or consumerism preceded technology, or preceded the latest iteration of technology. People began shopping for churches prior to our having screens in churches. Technology, while it gives us the opportunity to communicate in better ways…it also brings in a spirit of consumption, where the parishioner see himself or herself as a customer who makes demands rather than a disciple who is learning the demands of Christ upon himself or herself. That impacts every church at every level, regardless of size. Second to that, the rise of the mega church brought in certain dynamics that have had positive and negative effects. The positive effect is that with the strength of certain churches, they’ve been able to do things programmatically that churches on a smaller scale have not been able to do programmatically. The negative of a so-called mega church would be that at some point, people are attracted to it because they can hide. They can be anonymous and don’t necessarily have to be accountable. They can drop in and drop out. However, those who rail constantly against the so-called mega church have got to understand that Jesus had large crowds, too. Jesus dealt with multitudes. I think we do ourselves a disservice by railing against each other because of size. Are disciples being produced? Is the cause of Christ being advanced? If that is happening, then we must be supportive of it, because in this day and age, it takes every one of us to get the job done.

Q. I’m reading and hearing more about preacher burnout. What’s causing that?

Burnout certainly is a problem. Among the highest rates for insurance are clergy. The reason why is the incredible stress under which clergy operate. In most cases, a pastor has the weight that a counselor would face, has the weight that a CEO of a business would face, has the weight that a … I don’t want to use the word “performer”… but the fact that the primary role of speaking and being engaging such that people will want to come back and hear on a consistent basis, that role is on the pastor. So, whereas as a psychiatrist or a psychologist only bears that one load, or a CEO only bears that one load, or a content provider only bears that singularly, a pastor bears all of those. That’s a lot of weight.

Q. I also hear that fewer men are entering ministry. Is that also true?

I think it’s not so much the fact of fewer men but more women with the rise of denominations accepting women in ministry. Before, what women would do when they felt the call to ministry, they’d get on choirs, they’d get on missionary boards and what have you. But now that more denominations are affirming women in ministry, you’re seeing this massive influx of women going into theological education and filling ministry roles. What you’re also seeing is the diminished number of men in ministry due to the diminished number of men in church, period. So the less number of men you have in a church, which gives the opportunity for them to be engaged to receive a call, that’s going to produce a diminished number of men going into ministry. I would also venture to say that the ministry still is not viewed as highly as other professions. So, if I am a highly skilled person and I can do well in engineering or I can do well in medicine or I can do well in law or I can do well in business, then I’ll pursue that. But there’s another part to that. What we’re also seeing, though, is some people who are entering seminary are doing it as second careers – older men – those who might have said, ‘Ok, I’m going to do my business thing,’ but the call of God never left them, and so they are coming later in life.

Q. What is the conference doing to address the problem of incarceration among black men?

There are several things that we have to do to address that. Number one, we have to address the prison recidivism rate. How do we make sure that those who come out of prison don’t go back in? We do that by way of the prison ministry we offer, by way of training that we help to provide those who are coming out, so that they have an option to crime. And how do we work with businesses who can come inside and build up a relationship with those who are about to come out, so that they feel better about the people that they might hire? And then we must provide wrap-around services to help provide an environment that helps ensure success. That’s one. Two, how can we deal with our young people as it relates to education, as it relates to peer mentoring, so that gangs are less attractive options for them? Part of what we want to do is bring in people who have proven track records in the field to help us think and develop strategies that we can then go back and implement in our congregations.

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