• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 263 0

took the check, smiling, and then said hello to Johnnie Thomas, who was looking good in an ivory silk suit with a matching pillbox hat. He was still getting used to being a prominent pastor. Seems like ever since the conference, folks were looking to him to be the next new leader in the church. And while all of this attention, along with the gifts and privileges that came with it, was nice, it was at times almost overwhelming. Sometimes he felt as if he would never be able to just relax and be himself as long as folks were so bent on "shouting him up and down," as Essie called it, every chance they got. But he recognized that the old pastor Theophilus Simmons was gone. In his place was a man whose heart was more fixed than ever on answering the call God had on his life, in a way that not only did his denomination proud but that also glorified God.

Theophilus walked over to Rev. James, decked out in a brand-new black robe with very expensive purple silk brocade trimming, and gave his bishop a hearty handshake. He grinned broadly when he said, "Bishop." Rev. James smiled, took his place next to Theophilus at the head of the processional line, while Essie greeted Susie James with a quick hug, playfully chiding her for being so decked out in a lavender silk suit and matching hat.

Theophilus stepped before his new congregation, confidently trusting God to guide him in molding this church into the kind of congregation that he, Rev. James, and Bishop Jennings felt that all of their churches should be. This church of the future, the one they hoped and prayed would take them into the next millennium, would be where church folk and the not so "churched" folk came for worship, guidance, spiritual development, solace, education and training, as well as to develop strategies to foster the Negro community's growth and progress at all levels. A place where all—children, women, and men—would be welcomed, put to work, and encouraged to reach their fullest potential. A place that was filled with the Lord's presence, where folks would be exposed to the everyday miracle of the love of God. A church that was an evolving, working miracle in itself.

"Our Lord is in this holy temple," Theophilus began. "Let every child, woman, and man be glad in this day and rejoice in the blessings the Lord has seen fit to send our way. Let the church folk say . . ."

"AMEN!"

Table of Contents

Part 1

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Part 2

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Part 3

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty