Leonard Edloe has been a pharmacist for most of his life. He also accepted the call to ministry in the early years of his marriage. He has seen the ups and downs of ministry in the rural black church firsthand. It’s out of his personal experience that Leonard wrote “Restoring The Glory.” He has a deep conviction that the rural black church in America needs to embrace some significant changes before it’s too late.
Leonard joins Dale on today’s podcast to reflect on how the rural black church arrived at this point and offers some solutions for it to become impactful again.
Links to Resources Mentioned or Related
- Book: Restoring The Glory: Breathing New Life Into The Rural Black Church by Leonard Edloe
- Email Leonard
- Link to NEW! Soul Care Essentials Online: 3-Session Video Series
- Link to NEW! Soul Care Essentials Cohort: 6 Weeks of Guided Conversations for Post-Conference Groups
- 95Network – Soul Care Essentials
- 95Network – Healthy Church Assessment
- Read Stalled: Hope and Help for Pastors Who Thought They’d Be There By Now
- Watch Podcast on YouTube
Key Takeaways
1) Observing the traditional way of conducting church makes bringing about change extremely difficult.
2) There needs to be a stronger emphasis on the need for change among the influential black church leaders throughout America.
3) As one lady at our church stated, “I’m not coming to your church if you aren’t dressed properly, pastor.” Even though Leonard’s church had assisted this lady with several important things, she still chose her religious heritage over someone who was helping her.
4) The absence of young people and young families makes implementing the necessary changes to create sustainable church health hard.
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