Between the Pew

African American Ministries-PCA

If you’re black in the Presbyterian Church in America there is a good chance you are one of the few if not the only, black person in your congregation. Has knowing that there are so few of us in the PCA ever made you wonder how black people got here in the first place? What makes black people enter a sacred space knowing we will be the minority? What makes us leave the comfort of our black church experience? What makes us stay in the PCA? Remember those times after church on some Sundays after most everyone had gone, sitting on a couple of pews turned around facing each other, laughing, sharing your testimony of triumph and struggle and talking to each other about life? Asking each other questions that you never get to ask and hearing each other’s stories? This podcast is a chance to get to do just that in the same way many of us grew up doing and maybe even still do. A chance to hear stories of how we came into the PCA, and maybe even hearing our own story in someone else’s. Join us each week as we get to know black people in the PCA all across the country and discover their origin story. Welcome to Between the Pew.

  1. 12/30/2024

    Meet The Robinsons | Black Love, Ministry & Marriage in the PCA

    Welcome to our Season 4 of Between the Pew. This season will focus on Black love & ministry where we will explore the experiences of five couples as they manage marriage and life in ministry. We will explore the highs, the lows, the pitfalls and wisdom gained from couples ranging in marriage from a few years to over 50. We will hear about the struggles and joys of being Black in an evangelical denomination and how that has shaped their marriages…or not.  Meet Marshall ‘Book’ Robinson and Tanisha Robinson; the first couple in this season's series. Tanisha and Book have been married for 22 years. They have a unique marriage story in that while having no biological children, the Marshalls have fostered and raised 17 children and adopted 2.  Book has served and ministered to God’s people since age 13 in Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Illinois & Indiana and is currently Pastoral Resident at New City West End in St. Louis, Mo. He is also working on his Master of Divinity at Covenant Seminary. Book also heads up InsideOut Jail & Prison Works, a holistic ministry serving the incarcerated, their families,  and the communities affected by the prison industrial complex. Tanisha is a Guinness Book of World Records Holder, a wedding and event planner, a former Bible Study organizer and leader, a talented choir 1st Soprano, and a former Color Guard captain and pom squad member. Once a Pre-Med college major, Tanisha now is intrigued by and regularly studies criminology and trafficking by watching Law & Order SVU and Criminal Minds. Tanisha, like Book, is an avid lover of musicals. Catch up with Book at https://restorestlouis.org/inside-out-prison-ministry or email him at Book@ncfstl.org

    1h 3m
4.9
out of 5
34 Ratings

About

If you’re black in the Presbyterian Church in America there is a good chance you are one of the few if not the only, black person in your congregation. Has knowing that there are so few of us in the PCA ever made you wonder how black people got here in the first place? What makes black people enter a sacred space knowing we will be the minority? What makes us leave the comfort of our black church experience? What makes us stay in the PCA? Remember those times after church on some Sundays after most everyone had gone, sitting on a couple of pews turned around facing each other, laughing, sharing your testimony of triumph and struggle and talking to each other about life? Asking each other questions that you never get to ask and hearing each other’s stories? This podcast is a chance to get to do just that in the same way many of us grew up doing and maybe even still do. A chance to hear stories of how we came into the PCA, and maybe even hearing our own story in someone else’s. Join us each week as we get to know black people in the PCA all across the country and discover their origin story. Welcome to Between the Pew.