16th Street Baptist Church
As I relive the time that we spent in 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham I couldn’t help but keep thinking that four little girls were killed in that basement. The thought that anyone could seek to harm other people, especially children in a place of worship, is so utterly disturbing that attending service seemed almost surreal in some aspects.
Having said that, I feel pretty comfortable saying that I mostly knew what to expect from services on Sunday. I think that growing up in a black Baptist church, I already knew that the service would more than likely have live music and singing, a somewhat animated preacher, and a congregation that was welcoming and highly involved in the service. The only thing that really surprised me about the service was the makeup of the congregation. The church was not very busy at all, in fact, many of the aisles were completely empty. Aside from the generally weak turnout, there were very few young people in the church, especially young men. I expected many more people to belong to such a historically significant church in the area. Having grown up in a very large black Baptist church, I am very familiar with the homiletics of black ministers and his style of preaching was nothing short of what I would have expected. As a black male, I was very comfortable and experienced the church in a relaxed manner, almost as if it were my own. In regards to our conversation on the bus about the church, I found that people had various opinions about the church experience and whether or not they enjoyed the overall visit. I think that the church minister was mostly concerned with addressing his more mature audience rather than seeking out lessons that would appeal to a younger audience. As a result, I think that the church has lost a lot of potential support and membership from new minds that could keep the church afloat in the future.