From 2003 to 2006, with Under the Baobab Tree 1 and 2, Shouting in the Hush Arbor and Journey into the Hush Arbor, Abingdon Press has been offering a Christian educational program that helps the Church Universal connect with a perspective that focuses on an African American ethos. The curriculum, which is primarily used for Vacation Bible School, has been met with widespread acceptance in a variety of settings, cross-denominationally, cross-culturally, as well as in principally African American churches. Intergenerational learners have been introduced to facts about Africana history and culture that they may have never had the opportunity to know, especially in conjunction with Bible study and Christian spiritual formation.

African proverbs and ways of story telling, illustrations and photography, and musical traditions and innovations that feature the beauty and distinctive qualities of Africana aesthetics were part of the embedded methodology of the curriculum. The historical African American Spiritual was used as a primary source for developing the lessons and activities. Participants heard the songs of the ancestors, songs that were indicative of a creativity and spirituality that carried them through desperate and hard times, songs that could act as a source of inspiration and hope for current and future generations. The material was designed to aid the Church in accessing the reality that God is the Creator of all, and that the story of the deliverance of black people is part of the story of God’s salvation for all people.

In 2007, with Word Up! Speaking and Living for Jesus, while the methodology remained the same, the primary source for development was God’s Trombones, a Harlem Renaissance work that chronicled the poetic oratory of 19th century African American preachers. The Harlem Renaissance was a time in which the artistic sophistication of African Americans took flight in persons like Duke Ellington (jazz composer), Thomas Dorsey (The father of Gospel music), Charles Tindley (hymn writer), Zora Neale Hurston (author), Aaron Douglass (artist) and James Weldon Johnson (lawyer, poet, advocate for justice). Johnson’s God’s Trombones was used as a springboard for connecting Scripture with 21st century issues and culture and served as an example of how cultural practice can be used to uplift the community, rather than reinforcing negative media images and ideology.

For 2008, Abingdon Press will continue this series with Walk It Out: Together in the Way of Jesus. The overall Scripture for this curriculum, Walk about Zion . . . that you may tell the next generation that this is God (Psalm 48:12-14), points to the holy admonition that the experiences of the elders can help the younger generations know the power of God, moving them forward in faith and in life. Starting with The Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s, the 2008 program will explore the work of those who struggled for freedom and justice. In a day when too many young people believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. “freed the slaves,” church communities can learn about how young people like Ruby Sales and Bernice Johnson Reagon participated in the struggle to create a “beloved community” in which all of God’s children could experience God’s equity and love.

Church communities will have the opportunity to see how many people working together can make a difference. They will learn how leaders like James Lawson, Andrew Young, and Dolores Huerta allowed God to use them for the upbuilding of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Their actions and tactics were rooted in Christian faith with an ethical understanding that the means defines the end. The way you get to the goal is just as important as the goal.

Through the singing of freedom songs, new songs that proclaim the gospel, hip-hop rhythms that move their feet, activities that rally their souls, as well as Bible lessons that speak to their lives, participants will learn more about grace, power, persistence, and learning and walking together in the light of God. They will be encouraged to “get to stepping,” to use their body for God, and to never stop trying. Walk It Out: Together in the Way of Jesus will resonate with every generation and with all who desire to experience a holistic church in which all the stories that are told converge in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus wants all of the children to come to him, that the glory of the LORD might be revealed with all flesh seeing it together!