Black Immigrants Are Reshaping American Evangelicalism, Christianity Today Reports
A new Christianity Today article traces how Black immigrants, from Caribbean Baptists to African Pentecostals, have shaped American Christianity for centuries and are now diversifying major Black church denominations. By 2060, an estimated 9.5 million Black immigrants will live in the U.S., bringing distinct theological traditions to churches like COGIC and AME Zion.
Black immigrants have shaped American Christianity for centuries, and their influence is growing. A new article in Christianity Today traces that history and looks at what it means for the future of the Black church in America.
About 300 years ago, enslaved Black Catholics from Central Africa and the Kingdom of Kongo arrived in low-country South Carolina. Historians say their presence played a significant role in the first mass conversion of enslaved people during the Great Awakening.
George Liele, one of the founders of the first Black Baptist churches in America, left the country after securing his freedom and planted the first Baptist church in Jamaica. He named it the Ethiopian Baptist Church. His missionary work helped convert people who became influential preachers across Jamaica, the American South, Canada, and West Africa.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, West Indian immigrants arrived in America and integrated into the Black church. Denmark Vesey, who helped establish Charleston's first African Methodist Episcopal Church, was among them.
Today, more than 5 million Black immigrants live in the U.S. About one in ten Black Americans was born abroad, and about a quarter are immigrants or the child of at least one immigrant.
African immigrants are the fastest-growing Black immigrant group in the country. They are also among the most religiously inclined, and the Christian communities they form tend to be theologically conservative, Bible-centered, and focused on missions.
By 2060, an estimated 9.5 million Black immigrants will live in America. Denominations like the Church of God in Christ and AME Zion will see more ethnic diversity, both overseas and at home.
Author Jessica Janvier, who teaches at Meachum School of Haymanot and works in the Intercultural Studies Department at Columbia International University, writes that the Black church shaped by immigrants remains relatively unknown to many Americans. "As immigrants and their children continue to multiply, it will be more visible and shake up the popular notion of what it means to be an evangelical in America," she writes.
