wfn.org | Faith-Based Effective Black Parenting

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

85NCC7/15/99  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

19 MORE CHURCH LEADERS TRAINED IN EFFECTIVE BLACK PARENTING
Total of 39 Now Credentialed to Train Others in NCC Project's Faith-
Based Curriculum

How are churches helping to strengthen Black families for the 
new millennium? Here's one way - a pioneering national program 
sponsored by the National Council of Churches' Black Family Ministry 
Project.

(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Rev/Dr) _______________________ of 
______________________ is an important part of this effort, having 
just completed an intensive training session, held in May and June 
in Nashville, Tenn., for church leaders in Effective Black 
Parenting.  S/he and 18 others were credentialed June 19 to teach 
the new curriculum, which draws on faith resources and on the Black 
family's history and strengths.

These consultants are committed to recruiting at least two 
churches in their home communities across the nation to provide at 
least two Effective Black Parenting seminars apiece during the 
coming 12 months.  A first group of 20 was trained in February and 
March in Atlanta toward a total of 50 consultants in this first 
phase of the program.  

The Effective Black Parenting training is a tried and true 
program created by the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring 
(CICC). "We are pioneering this faith-based adaptation, testing how 
it can move into congregations and help people present it from a 
Christian perspective," said Josselyn Bennett of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America, Chicago, Chair of the NCC Black Family 
Ministry Project Staff Team.

The local seminars will be evaluated between now and December 
2000, with an eye to recommending the model for wider use by 
churches. 

The Black Family Ministry Project: Effective Black Parenting 
Training initiative is made possible by a $134,760 grant from Lilly 
Endowment Inc. and is sponsored by the NCC Commission on Family 
Ministries and Human Sexuality in cooperation with 10 of the NCC's 
35 member denominations, including historic African American 
churches and other denominations with significant African American 
membership. The grant also will enable two national Black Family 
Ministry Conferences, one December 2-4, 1999 in Atlanta (Theme: 
"Strengthening Black Families for the New Millennium"), and one in 
2000.

The trainer, the Rev. Dr. Bennie C. Thompson of Chicago, a 
psychotherapeutic counselor and United Methodist pastor, is no 
stranger to a faith-based perspective. But this is the first time 
that Dr. Thompson - an experienced trainer of Effective Black 
Parenting instructors - has done trainings exclusively with church 
leaders, said the Rev. Karen Bernstine, Coordinator, NCC Black 
Family Ministry Project. "Usually he works with agencies and with 
parents mandated to take the training. Neither have church leaders 
interfaced before with this kind of training."

Dr. Thompson developed the faith-based adaptation at the NCC's 
request, and his Nashville and Atlanta training were rich in 
scriptural principles for child-rearing and for nurturing spiritual 
development in children. He draws on those principles as he works 
through the Effective Black Parenting training, which includes 
modules on how to praise, confront and ignore effectively; modern 
self-discipline; setting family rules; pride in Blackness; 
preventing drug abuse, using chit-chat and special incentives.

He also led the consultants in considering ways to bring the 
Effective Black Parenting training into churches. "Have a role play 
during worship, as part of your sermon; for example, on how you do a 
family discussion on drugs," he urged. "Now, some churches will 
resist that, and say, `You are bringing the streets into the 
church.' I say, `Sometimes the streets are already in there.'"

The focus on parenting grew out of work from 1989-95, funded 
in part by a Lilly Endowment grant, that aimed at strengthening 
Black families in many areas of life. During those years, 100 
consultants were trained to help congregations be more aware of the 
needs of Black families and to be more intentional in ministering to 
them. The project also published a manual, Church and Family 
Together, edited by Karen Bernstine (Valley Forge, Judson Press 
1996).

Experience led the project team to believe that there is a 
critical need to address faith formation in African American 
households, to provide places for parent education in Black 
congregations and to develop new resources to undergird programs of 
Black family ministry.

The Rev. Bernstine, who was trained as a consultant for the 
National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., during that first project, is 
project coordinator for this second project. She is currently 
serving as a chaplain in the Office of Pastoral Care at New York 
Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Participating denominations in the Black Family Ministry 
Project are: African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion, American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal, 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, National Baptist Convention, 
U.S.A., Inc., Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, 
United Methodist.

Newly credentialed to lead the Black Family Ministry Project 
faith-based Effective Black Parenting workshops are: 

- Karen Bernstine, National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., 
Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Billye Bridges, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 
Indianapolis, Ind.
- Mary Carpenter, National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., 
Nashville, Tenn.
- Diana Chambliss, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Birmingham, 
Ala.
- Michelle Ellison, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, New 
York, N.Y.
- Betty Esters, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Detroit, 
Mich.
- Stephany Graham, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, Ky.
- Evelyn Holden, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Park 
Forest, Ill.
- Raymon Hunt, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Charlotte, 
N.C.
- Rod Lattie, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Lumberton, N.C.
- Laveeta LaVant, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Macon, Ga.
- Ramonia Lee-Shopshire, American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., 
Suitland, Md.
- Darlene Love, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Hawthorne, 
Calif.
- Jesse Neely, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Memphis, Tenn.
- Shandell Northern, United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn.
- Addison Shields, Jr., United Methodist Church, Chicago, Ill.
- Claudine Smith, National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., Metro 
Head Starts, White Creek, Tenn.
- Cathryn Teer-Hodge, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), North 
Carolina Department of Corrections, Fayetteville, N.C.
- Debra White, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Indianapolis, 
Ind.

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