Reviving the Spirit: A Generation of African Americans Goes Home to Church

“They call me Sister Lawrence. It sounds funny even to me. I am not a holy roller. I’ve never spoken in tongues and have not yet been visited by the Holy Ghost. Then again, I did not join the church to get to heaven. I joined to survive on Earth.”—Beverly Hall Lawrence

The return in record numbers of young African Americans to the church has been called “a movement sweeping middle-class black congregations’ by the Washington Post. African Americans are not only returning to church in search ...