{"id":65037,"date":"2017-11-03T07:30:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T11:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=65037"},"modified":"2017-11-03T07:45:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T11:45:49","slug":"tgc-how-the-countrys-largest-white-presbyterian-church-became-multiethnic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=65037","title":{"rendered":"(TGC) How America\u2019s Largest White Presbyterian Church Became Multiethnic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within 20 years, Hope was the largest church in Memphis, regularly drawing 7,000 worshipers each weekend. But in a city that was nearly\u00a060 percent<\/a>\u00a0black, less than 1 percent of them were African American.<\/p>\n

At first, Hope reflected its neighborhood. The city to Hope\u2019s south\u2014Germantown\u2014was\u00a093 percent<\/a>\u00a0white in 2000, and 90 percent white in 2010. But its county\u2014Shelby\u2014fell from\u00a047 percent<\/a>\u00a0white in 2000 to 41 percent white in 2010. And Cordova, the small suburb where Hope sits, dropped from nearly all white in 1988 to 68 percent white in 2010.<\/p>\n

So Strickland and Morris set out to do what had never successfully been done before\u2014to convert a white megachurch into a multiracial congregation.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n

Today, one out of five people who attends Hope is black. Of the 106 staff, 18 are nonwhite\u2014including the senior pastor. The congregation sings hymns, contemporary Christian, and black gospel. Members work in predominantly black, underresourced neighborhoods in north Memphis together through Hope\u2019s\u00a0community development corporation<\/a>. They attend biannual three-day urban plunges and regularly spend eight weeks eating dinner with someone of another ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

How the Country\u2019s Largest White Presbyterian Church Became Multiethnic #religion<\/a> #usa<\/a> #parishministry<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/ZqPzWyifs4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n