March 1, 2000

Texas missionary featured in
NAMB week of prayer emphasis
___By Matt Sanders
___Southwestern Seminary
___DALLAS--Before he became a real preacher, Roosevelt Broach used to "play the preacher" after church for his brothers and sister.
___"Back then, the preacher would really preach and sweat and throw his hands up in the air and spin around and everybody would shout and just have a great time," said Broach, who recalled hollering to get the right sound and putting water on his face to get the right

ROOSEVELT BROACH greets pastors at a weekly pastors' conference at Park Cities Bapist Church. (NAMB photo by Hillary Garrison-Smith)

look.
___But it was all just play to the 12-year-old boy who never dreamed of being a preacher. After he became a Christian at 14, that all changed.
___"When I surrendered to the Lord, I really wanted to do something for God," Broach said. "I knew it was just a matter of time before God was going to call me to the ministry."
___In 1984, Broach felt called to be a pastor. He served as an associate minister at New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dallas before starting Macedonia Baptist Church in Garland in 1989 and serving as its senior pastor until 1994.
___Then, Dallas Baptist Association and the North American Mission Board asked Broach to be a church-growth consultant for African-American churches.
___"I found out God really had gifted me and that I had a passion to do what I'm doing and I really enjoy doing it," he said.
___Broach and his wife, Roslyn, are featured missionaries during the Southern Baptist Convention's week of prayer for North American missions, which is March 5-12. Churches across the nation will learn about their ministry in Texas.
___Broach's ministry includes 122 African-American churches, 80 percent of which have fewer than 100 members. He counsels pastors and church planters, helps churches locate resources and helps churches and pastors work through problems. His goal is to help existing churches and church starts reach a community he said has a high spiritual sensitivity and openness to the gospel.
___"You don't find a lot of atheists in the African-American community," he said.
___The sensitivity and openness, however, increase the need for churches to be relevant, Broach noted. African-Americans "have plenty of religion, but they want the religion to be real, to be personal, to be something they can have a grip on, something they can apply in their lives," he said.
___With 12,000 to 15,000 African-Americans attending the 122 churches, Dallas Baptist Association's goal to start 10 new African-American churches a year might seem high. But a growing African-American population estimated now at 427,000 in Dallas County means the association is only reaching 3 percent to 4 percent of the population.
___In addition to starting churches, Broach also works to keep at least 80 percent of existing churches healthy. He defines healthy as a congregation that is growing. And to grow, churches must be relevant, he said.
___"We can't do church the way we did church 50 years ago or 30 years ago," he said. "There's an openness, but many (African-Americans) are not open to the old traditional ways."
___While all Southern Baptist churches to some extent are experiencing the struggle between tradition and relevance, the problem is compounded in African-American churches because many African-American pastors learn to minister from their pastors, Broach explained.
___Young pastors take on their pastors' preaching style, he said. "So many young preachers will come and start a church with the same pastoral style and philosophy of a pastor who has been around 30 or 40 years, and that sometimes doesn't fit."
___Part of Broach's job is to help pastors develop a relevant ministry. He does this in part through one-on-one discussions and workshops to help pastors "minister out of who they may be and not so much who they heard," he said.
___Broach also encourages young pastors to do as he did and get ministerial and theological training from college and seminary.
___"To be the best I could be, I needed to get all the practical, personal mentoring experience I could get from the church, but I also needed to get all the academic training, development and exposure I couldn't get from my pastor," said Broach, who is a doctoral candidate at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.
___Broach does not believe younger African-American pastors should forget the past. He knows firsthand the value of his spiritual father and mentor, R.E. Price, pastor at New Mount Zion for 35 years. From Price, Broach traces his desire to love people, to preach the gospel and to minister with integrity.
___Broach advises new pastors facing conflicts of tradition vs. relevance to wait before trying to make changes.
___Too many young pastors are in a hurry to make changes, he said, and forget that African-American pastors typically serve at the same church for decades.
___"You can't expect a church to take on your identity and personality in two or three years," Broach cautioned. "The church has been around 60, 70 or 80 years, and you want them to take your identity in three years. It's not going to happen. But being willing to work through the process is very important."
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