Transformative Pastoral Leadership in the Black Church

Transformative Pastoral Leadership in the Black Church offers practical wisdom from comparative analysis of the experiences of a male pastor and a female pastor in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Church leaders must be transformed themselves as they are transforming their churches to serve their communities. From his research of the perspectives of laity, clergy, and scholars of the black church, Jeffery L. Tribble offers hopeful stories and helpful strategies for those who believe that the black church must continue its historic mission of being an instrument of survival, elevation, and liberation for its people. Transformative Pastoral Leadership in the Black Church is an important contribution to studies of black religion, womanist thought, and social justice.

"As a scholar reporting from the front lines, Professor Jeffery Tribble unpacks leadership development in two radically different Black Churches with such detail that you feel like you are behind the scenes in the all-too-familiar tensions between committed evangelism and community development, power politics and gospel grace, disaster and opportunity, affirmation and accountability, Pentecostal and Traditional worship, lay and clergy perspectives, and even Black and Anglo managerial models. Exposing the intersection of racism, sexism, and class divisions, Tribble identifies challenges confronting all congregations at the beginning of the 21st century, and proposes positive steps that we all can, and should, risk taking in faith." - Carl S. Dudley, Faculty Emeritus, Hartford Seminary

"Dr. Jeffery Tribble's challenge to be intentionally transformative in our pastoral leadership has great value for the fulfillment of the mission of the church. The greater value, however, is the demonstration models of successful transformative pastoral leadership in significantly different social context. There is much to be learned from this very meaningful work." - Bishop Nathaniel Jarrett, Jr., African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Jeffrey L. Tribble, Sr., is Associate Professor of Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, USA