BlackNews.com - New Book "What We Love about the Black Church: Can We Get a Witness?"

By: Min. Angela Lee Price
Wow! This is getting "gooder" and "gooder," as Rev. Dr. Freddie Haynes, Sr. Pastor, Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas would say. Dr. Eddie Glaude's recent Huffington Post eulogy entitled "The Black Church Is Dead," available on this website, has generated a firestorm of discussion. But before we commit the body, hold on, me thinks me hear a heartbeat! Here now are two white pastors, William H. Crouch, Jr. and Joel C. Gregory, who have come out in defense of the Black Church as an institution alive and well in their soon-to-be-released book in early May entitled, What We Love About The Black Church.

Couch, president of Georgetown College states "Recently a newspaper editor visited our campus to examine our diversity program. When he did his exit interview with me, he said he knew that what made our program so rich is the fact that our African American students are coming from within the black church, where they are being encouraged, prayed for, funded and guided by their pastors. We have more than an 80% retention rate with these black church members. I am stunned by Dr. Glaude's pronouncement and invite him to visit our campus and see the outgrowth from the black church!"
BlackNews.com - New Book "What We Love about the Black Church: Can We Get a Witness?"

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!

Faith and our future: Churches partner to keep black youth off the streets, out of jail - Cover

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

I am asking special prayer for our youth and young adults. I was on the program yesterday at my church for the funeral of 17 year old, Rashad Massey who was killed senselessly on April 13th. Rashad accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior at age eight and attended Sunday school. We praise God that he knew the Lord! But so many of his peers haven't accepted Christ yet, and are getting caught up in the bogus lifestyles they see of television and are being used by Satan. My heart broke as I watched so many of them grieve the death of their classmate and friend. We as adults have to do more to protect and raise our children! We have to show them who Jesus is!

I know Rashad's mother personally. She has volunteered in the new member assimilation ministry at St. Stephen. I know her to be a God-fearing woman. Rahad's father was very grieved at his son's passing as we spoke several times before and after the funeral. So many of our youth's parents don't know the Lord! That's why this call for prayer and action is all the more urgent!! As the title of the following article implies, our children are our future. So, this story, which I have been following, on what several AME churches are doing to keep youth out of jail strikes a cord with me.

Scripture tells us our responsibility as parents, "Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old, he will no depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Instead of examining ourselves in light of this verse, however, we love to quote the three preceding verses, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may go well with you and thou mayest live long on the earth" (Eph 6:1-3). Our children see us doing wrong. A "do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do" philosophy is not going to get it in the 21st century. Our youth are exposed to too much!

I don't pretend to know all the particulars in the Massey slaying. I am saying that two lives are lost, one to death and the other to prison. And as the young, guest preacher, Rev. Darryl Todd, Pastor, Spring Branch Missionary Baptist Church, Wagram, North Carolina, said in his eulogy based on the death of David and Bathsheba's son in 2 Samuel 12:15-ff, we have to get up, clean up, and go up to the church and worship!

I thank God that when we "go up to church" in Washington, D.C. there is a collective plan in place to protect our future and keep our youth out of jail!

Faith and our future: Churches partner to keep black youth off the streets, out of jail - Cover

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!

SPECIAL REPORT: Dorothy Height, Civil Rights Leader, Passes Away - BCNN1

I have so much respect for the trailblazing work of this leading lady, activist and soror, that I am at a loss for words to articulate what her passing means to me and so many woman (and men) who loved her! She was a giant of a woman. My deepest sympathies to her family. She will be truly missed!
SPECIAL REPORT: Dorothy Height, Civil Rights Leader, Passes Away - BCNN1

Black Baptist pastors criticize McDonnell's policies | Richmond Times-Dispatch

This is a MUST READ article, particularly if you care about restoration of voting rights to former felons. Thank you, black Baptist pastors and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for speaking up against this in Virginia and on the other issues outlined in your letter.
Black Baptist pastors criticize McDonnell's policies Richmond Times-Dispatch

Voting Rights Restored to Connie Cooksey and Kenneth Braxton

Rev. Angela Lee Price

Two more people who in choosing to go with God have been healed of their affliction! Kenneth Braxton and Con­stance Wells-Cooksey (left with her daughter, Andrea and I), our latest appli­cants for restoration of voting rights received their certifi­cates from Governor Bes­hear's office this month! Kenneth is a member of St. Stephen Church and one of my Sunday school members. Connie is a member of Bates Memorial Baptist Church here in Louisville, a decision counselor and greeter. Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who restores voice to the voiceless!! He is an awe­some God!! We Praise God for these victories!


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"It is a relief to have my rights restored, but it is a frustration to not be able to get the felonies off my record," states Kenneth Braxton.  Kentucky is one of two remaining states where former felons lose rights permanently unless they successfully petition the governor's office to have voting rights restored. Currently, approximately 95% of felony convictions cannot be expunged in the state of Kentucky. Kenneth and Constance Wells-Cooksey, both received certificates from Govenor Beshear's office just in time for Resurrection Weekend through the Jesus Saves Ministries Former Felons Advocacy Initiative

In 2005, Jesus Saves Ministries assisted five former felons to regain their civil rights, including the right to vote. Our initiative in association with St. Stephen Church was the first faith-based advocacy program of it's kind that communicated directly with the governor's office, and local and state Departments of Corrections in Frankfort in tracking applicants through the entire restoration process. As a result of our initial success, the Louisville Branch NAACP modeled their 2008 first-time felons voting rights campaign after our program and assisted more than 100 former felons in regaining their voting rights.

Application for Restoration of Civil Rights 2-27-08.doc. The miracle of the 2008 presidential election was that more than half of those who had their rights restored through our initiative had never voted before. They were able to vote for the first time for the first African American president in our nation's history in Barack Obama. Only God could have done something so amazingly extraordinary as that!

In 2009, we assisted three more people in regaining their voting rights, Sandra Bartell, Tyrone Trumbo, and Rudolph Long. Read their stories on this blog and on the Jesus Saves Social Network.

Moreover, I believe God is not through. He will use the muted voices of those who have never voted, and those who were told they would never vote again to do what has never been done before! All we need to do is trust and believe in Him.

Contact me, Min. Angela Lee Price at jesussaves1@insightbb.com or by calling 502-583-6798 (St. Stephen Church). We believe the job is not done unless and until the certificate is in your hand. Anything else is smoke and mirrors!

T.G.I.F! And It's Good Friday!

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

A "bad" thing happened to Jesus on Good Friday, so what makes Good Friday so "good'? Jesus was falsely accused, scorned, rejected, whipped, humiliated, and nailed to the Cross on Good Friday. He suffered an agonizing death that day at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities.

What happened on Good Friday definitely was not good, but the results were very good for you and me. Scripture tells us that because Jesus endured the suffering of the Cross, Christians can shout, T.G.I.F.!, thank God I'm forgiven and it's Good Friday!

Good Friday is good because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Isaiah 53:5 says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." What can wash away are sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Good Friday is good for another reason. Jesus defeated Satan and his evil forces at the Cross. Colossians 2:15 states, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them at the cross." Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

Finally, Good Friday is good because it proves to us that when you put your faith in Jesus, it ain’t over, as Maurette Brown Clark sings, until God says it’s over! A lot of conversation occurred up on the Cross as Jesus died between two thieves. Jesus prayed to God. One thief taunted Jesus. The second thief rebuked the first thief. The second thief asked Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. Finally, Jesus promised the second thief that he would spend eternity with Him. In lst Peter 3:8 we read, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the Spirit." Acts 4:12 says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Good Friday is good because our sin debt was paid, Satan was defeated, and it proves that through faith in Jesus Christ there's hope for eternal life even in our darkest hour. For these reasons, you can say, T.G.I.F.!, thank God I'm forgiven and it's Good Friday!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!

Join the Jesus Saves Social Network And Enter Drawing to Win Christian T-Shirt

The Church Asleep On the J.O.B!

This is what the church looks like today, asleep and comfortable while on the job. In Matthew 26, Jesus rebuked the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, and more than once for falling asleep on the J.O.B., Jesus Official Business. Like the disciples, the church have been given official business to do, to "go ye therefore" and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, as the gospel is watered down, Jesus is reinvented to appeal to a materialistic society, and Christianity is marginalized even further on the world stage, too many of us are asleep on the job.

In Matt. 26:38, Jesus told the disciples, “Stay here and keep watch with me.” After rebuking them in verses 40-43, He prayed and returned to them a third time and said, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed in the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer."

My Bible tells me the Garden of Gethsemane was the place of Jesus' agonizing prayer, Judas' brutal betrayal, and Christ's wrongful arrest. However, when Jesus needed His disciples most, they didn't have His back. They were asleep on their J.O.B. Jesus needs His church today to "have His back," to pray, be alert and on her J.O.B. Too many false religions are out there out-witnessing the church. And, as a result the church is in decline and losing ground.

What makes matters worse is this wasn't the only time Jesus told the disciples to be on guard. In Luke 12:1 (NIV) He said, "Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." In Mark 13:35, “…keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back….do not let him find you sleeping.” He told the brothers in Luke 21:36, "be always on watch, and pray...." Another translations says, "Keep on the alert at all times...." But like too many Christians today, the brothers were asleep on the job. Yes, their bodies where there with Jesus, but their minds where way on the other side of the town. They were absent-minded, missing in action, asleep on the job, and snoring even!

Scripture says to be faithful over a few things, and He will make you ruler over many. Are you faithful in Sunday school, ministry, and church attendance? Are you in the Word of God this Resurrection Week equipping yourself daily and watching for opportunities to "go ye therefore," and witness the Good News that Jesus saves? Or, are you, like the disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane, asleep on your J.O.B.?

Download Jesus Saves Newsletter Special Women's Month Edition!

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

It is here just in time for Holy Week! The Jesus Saves Newsletter Special Women's Month Edition!
Inside This Special Edition Are Bios on Ten Featured Women:

Bertha Johnson, Stacee Spurling, Jackie Lee, Dr. Carolyn Kennedy, Evangelist Carolyn McKinney, Pastor Syvoskia Bray, Therese Warrick, Min. Angela Kelly, Porsha Taylor, and Mona Page.

These women represent a cross-section of the Christian community from across the nation, clergy, ministry leaders, business owners, single mothers, and college students who are lifting up Jesus Christ on the Jesus Saves Social Network.

Plus Pictures of 15 Additional Women:

The story of God's grace upon the women on the Jesus Saves Social Network cannot be told in one newsletter. So, pictured on page 6 are 15 additional women who put God first in their lives. Several of these women are very active in Women's Ministries and are trailblazers for women in ministry. We are so grateful they have chosen to share with us in ministry!

• Top Left to Right: Christine King, Johnette Houston, Ta'Neka Vaden, RaMonica Hughes, Crystal Allen, Karen O'Bannon, and Chalina Clayton (and mother).
  Bottom Left to Right: Shanea Cox, Paula McCraney, MaLissa Love, Barbara Ice Trammell, Cheryl Johnson, Rev. Altonnette Hawkins, Stella Davis, and Pastor Kathy Goodwin.

Also Inside This Special Edition:

• Route 66 and Saving S.O.U.L.S. Way: Can I Go? - Read responses from Therese Warrick (Winner of Ruth 1:16 Friendship Plaque!), Rev. Herman Maxwell, and Stacee Spurling.
• Who Is Your Favorite Female In the Bible? Read responses from Rev. Herman Maxwell, Shanea Cox, Steve Jones, and Min. Angela Kelly.
• Praise Break Reports from Rev. Angela Lee Price, Deaconness Stella Davis, and RaMonica Hughes.
• Support Jesus Saves Ministries by Ordering a Jesus Saves Journal.
• Jesus Saves Ministries 2009 Initiatives.

Download the Jesus Saves Newsletter and share it with your relatives, church members, friends, and co-workers. Tell everybody Jesus saves!

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Can I Go?

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God" Ruth 1:16.

We are in the book of Ruth through Palm Sunday. Last weekend, in my Sunday school class, Learning About Jesus, we talked about Ruth the Moabite, and how her loyal, loving relationship with her mother-in-law Naomi, a Jew originally from the town of Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus), lead her to transition to a new land, new life, and new Lord.

Naomi in Ruth chapter one is an awesome model for effective evangelism, demonstrating that one's faith in God, perseverance in the midst of severe trial, hospitality, and genuine concern for the well-being of family members, (who in this instance happen to be daughters-in-law of a different race, ethnicity, and religion) can, with the help of the Holy Spirit lead them to Jesus Christ.

As we close out Women's month and turn to Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Weekend, I urge you to share your insights on Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz (who comes on the scene Palm Sunday weekend), to this Blog post "Can I Go?" "Can I Go" was the buzz phrase brothers use to say to sisters back in the day when they wanted to get their attention, "Hey, Baby, "Can I go?" Captivated by the sisters' outer beauty and "got it it going on" style, brothers didn't care where the sisters were going just so long as they could go too. In today's society, men are "going with" women, women are "going with" men, and men and women are "going with" each other, and next to no one is "going with" God it seems. How then do Christians help unsaved family members, people of different races, ethnicities, and religions follow the One True God?What do you think about Ruth's Can I Go question in Ruth 1:16?" What about Orpha, "the fish" that got away? She wanted to go too, but was told to go back home. Who asks Can I Go? in the encounter between Ruth and Boaz? If we are going to "go with" God, what are some of the things we should be willing to do/not do?

Post your comments today in either the Route 66 or Saving S.O.U.L.S. group on the Jesus Saves Social Network, and enter our drawing to win a beautiful bronze Ruth 1:16 Friendship Plaque. Some responses will be included in our Jesus Saves Newsletter, a multi-page Women's Month Special Edition featuring ten members of the Jesus Saves Social Network about to be released.