The Negro Church and the Adult Education Phases of Its Program

Abstract

The Negro Church is largely adultcentered. The adult education phases of its program are largely Bible-centered. The design for living is based upon religious experience which is more or less church experience. The Bible-centered curriculum of the adult education program of the average Protestant Church among Negroes may be attributed to the nature of its leadership and of its theology. On the whole, the Protestant Church among Negroes, excluding the distinctly liturgical communions, is evangelical in its emphasis and fundamental in its theology. Salvation becomes the shibboleth and the soul becomes the primary objective. Transmissive biblical knowledge and effective techniques for soul-winning become ends in religious training. Metropolitan churches in our large industrial cities may develop a liberal program of adult education, but in many instances it is the result of community pressure, membership competition, 'and necessity. Churches follow social and community patterns very much in the same manner as other institutions.