God, by His love, mercy and grace has blessed us to come through the year 2007 and embark upon another year. It is important that we give God thanks and praise for keeping us. When we look back on the year 2007 we have to say, "through many dangerous, toils and snares we have already come." As our mothers and fathers would say, "there are hundreds and thousands who have been better by nature than we've been by practice, but if you call their names they would fail to answer." We have much for which to thank and praise God.

As I look back over the year 2007 and look ahead to the year now beginning, I issue a challenge to my colleagues and the African' American church this year to focus on strengthening and reviving faith, family and community. The year 2007 saw all three under siege causing devastating consequences for our people.

Historically, faith has always been our bedrock and anchor. When we had nothing else we had faith. It was faith, the belief that God is on our side and that He will fight our battles and make ways for us, which brought us through slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement and racism, and gave us strength and courage to face other struggles. But less and less are we relying on faith in God. We are becoming increasingly dependent on government, political leaders and others to do for us. As a result we are becoming less faithful, less prayerful, and less dependent on God.

This lessening of faith has been accompanied by a steady decline in family unity and values. This has been occurring over the last thirty years or more. With this decline we have seen more single parent homes, more family dysfunction, increased pregnancy out of wedlock, gang membership, prison increase and a host of other problems. Family is the most important institution we have. When we have strong families, we have a support system. Unfortunately that support system is not there, which is why gangs, incarceration and other problems are increasing.

With the breakdown in family has come the inevitable breakdown in community. Community means people have something in common. We have so little in common anymore except violence, death and fear. Neighbors don't know each other or interact with each other anymore. Neighborhood watch today means neighbors watch while strangers break into your house or even attack you.

The strongest institution we have in the African American community is the African American church and it must take the lead in reviving faith, family and community. We have one or two churches on almost every block and we must first come together before we seek to bring anything else together. We must not compete with each other to see who has the best or greatest church, but we must come together for the sake of the kingdom on earth. The ones who must take the lead in this are the pastors.

There is a group of pastors in the Newark Metropolitan area who have had discussions about coming together to promote faith, family and community collectively this year. It is my prayerful hope that it will become contagious and that pastors and churches everywhere will come together. I am convinced that people are looking for leadership and pastors are in positions of leadership. The question is “will we lead?”

The year 2007 was filled with headlines of violence, tragedy and death. The four young people, three of them killed behind the school in Newark, are but one example of far too many sad stories that demonstrate the decline of faith, family and community. But God has blessed us with another moment in time— the year 2008. We have the opportunity in His name to provide testimonies of how, by faith, families and communities have been strengthened and revived: May we, this year, make the most of the moment.