Brooklyn's Black Church Choirs Keep Singing Despite Shrinking Congregations
Gospel choirs at historically Black churches in Brooklyn are holding on even as attendance has dropped and neighborhoods have changed. At Concord Baptist Church of Christ, the choir has shrunk from 100 voices in 2006 to about 30 today. Choir directors and longtime members say the music remains central to Black church identity.
On Sunday mornings in Brooklyn, the sounds of gospel choirs, hand-claps, and Hammond organs still drift out from church doors onto the sidewalk. But inside, the pews are thinner than they used to be.
Black church choirs across the borough are persisting despite falling attendance and the effects of gentrification on neighborhoods that were once majority Black.
At Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the choir has shrunk from about 100 voices in 2006 to roughly 30 today. Glenn McMillan, the church's director of music ministry, said the decline reflects broader trends in organized religion.
"In the last 20 years, the members of church choirs started getting older because this generation does not see church as important as it was back in the day," McMillan said.
Concord Baptist, founded in 1847, is Brooklyn's oldest historically Black congregation. Jessica Howard, 25, leads the gospel choir there. She said singing connects her to something larger than herself.
"As a Black Christian person, as a descendant of slaves, I think when I sing, I feel really connected to my ancestors," Howard said. "I really feel sometimes like it's not just me singing, it's my lineage singing."
Pew Research Center data shows Black Protestant monthly church attendance fell from 61% to 46% between 2019 and 2023, the largest drop among major U.S. religious groups. The pandemic accelerated that trend.
At Berean Baptist Church in Crown Heights, longtime soloist Gwen Davis recalled Easter services in the mid-1960s when more than 400 people filled the pews and four separate choirs led the congregation. Today, a typical service draws about 150 in person and 100 online. The church's choirs have merged into a single mass choir of about 20 singers.
Gentrification has also reshaped the neighborhoods these churches serve. Crown Heights lost nearly 19,000 Black residents between 2010 and 2020, while gaining about 15,000 white residents, according to Census data.
St. Teresa of Avila in Crown Heights, the first church in the country to hold Mass in Creole, is set to close by the end of the year.
McMillan said choir singers remain among the most faithful churchgoers, even as overall attendance drops. "A choir is a community within the church community," he said.
