{"id":51239,"date":"2015-08-16T23:19:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T23:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/site\/2017\/2\/1985\/rns_black_churches_bucking_the_trend_of_decline\/"},"modified":"2015-08-16T23:19:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T23:19:42","slug":"rns_black_churches_bucking_the_trend_of_decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=51239","title":{"rendered":"(RNS) Black churches bucking the trend of decline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are numerous reasons why some black churches retain their members, but, most prominently, the church has played a historic role in black life that has fostered a continuing strong black Protestant identity. Members and visitors at Alfred Street say the church\u2019s holistic ministry \u201d\u201d the preaching, the singing and the community outreach \u201d\u201d are what draw them in and keep them there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think black churches have always been very pivotal in social movements and outreach,\u201d\u009d said Kelli Slater, 20, a Howard University student from Mississippi who was visiting Alfred Street at the invitation of her older sister. \u201cI think black churches do a whole lot more than religion.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2015\/08\/13\/black-churches-bucking-trend-decline\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are numerous reasons why some black churches retain their members, but, most prominently, the church has played a historic role in black life that has fostered a continuing strong black Protestant identity. Members and visitors at Alfred Street say<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=51239\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,39,50,209,184,120,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-life-church-life","category-culture-watch","category-international-news-commentary","category-americau-s-a","category-parish-ministry","category-racerace-relations","category-religion-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}