Chicago Tribune - November 13, 2009
Lolly Bowean, Tribune reporter

At the same time ministers often become consumed with caring for their church congregations and forget they also are charged with serving their surrounding community, said the Rev. Carol Jamieson Brown, who leads the First Baptist Church of Park Forest.

Those and other issues facing black Baptist church leaders were discussed during a recent Black Church Conference in Matteson. About 120 religious activists attended the annual meeting, held in the Chicago area for the first time in its 20-year history.

They discussed child poverty, dealing with HIV and AIDS, the church's role in public policy and how churches can extend their ministries in the age of texting, Facebook and YouTube.

Clergy members represent churches from across the nation, and they minister to hundreds in their congregations and communities, said the Rev. Jesse M. Brown, a leader at the host church, Third Baptist of Chicago.

The conference proved a push toward outreach, said Carol Brown, who plans to spur her south suburban congregation to work with students at local community schools.

"We've been reminded very eloquently that Jesus was not someone that was just inside the synagogue. He was out among the people. We have to do likewise," she said.

There was an effort to raise money to support a national initiative to fight poverty.

"Churches have historically fed children," said Jesse Brown. "Now we want to be about the business of speaking to those in power about where there are so many children that are hungry. Now we want to ask why does this issue, of child poverty, continue to linger."

One of the most serious discussions was how church leaders can discuss HIV and AIDS prevention without shame and stigma, said Tanya Bender Henderson, an educator from Mt. Jezreel Baptist Church in Silver Spring, Md.

"HIV and AIDS is not a topic that is popular in the church," Henderson said. "Because HIV and AIDS has a perception of sexual origin, a lot of people in the church don't want to deal with it."

Although African-Americans account for only 13 percent of the population, they suffer 49 percent of the new AIDS cases diagnosed in 2007, the most recent year for which numbers were available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Henderson is not a minister but said all kinds of people are fighting on the front lines. "To minister to the sick is a mandate," she said. "We are Christians because we endeavor to be like Jesus. ... HIV and AIDS is no exception."

lbowean@tribune.com
091113
CT091104

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