Church Folk by Michele Andrea Bowen

First published: New York: Warner Books, 2001

Genre(s): Novel

Subgenre(s): Romance

Core issue(s): African Americans; chastity; church; clerical life; marriage; pastoral role; racism

Principal characters

• Theophilus Henry Simmons, the young pastor of the Greater Hope Church
• Essie Lee Lane Simmons, Theophilus’s wife
• The Reverend Murcheson James, Theophilus’s mentor and friend
• Coral Thomas, a deaconess at Greater Hope Church
• Glodean Benson, an outrageously flirtatious woman
• Sister Willie Clayton, the owner of a funeral home chain
• Cleotis Clayton, Willie’s son
• Marcel Brown, a cunning, ambitious young minister
• Sonny Washington, another ambitious minister
• Bishop Otis Caruthers, a disgraced and suspended bishop
• Mother Laticia Harold, a very proper elderly lady
• Saphronia McComb, Mother Harold’s granddaughter, romantically involved with Marcel
• Precious Powers, also romantically involved with Marcel
• Bishop Percy Jennings, a senior bishop in the Gospel United Church

Overview

Church Folk is a Christian romance novel that relates the story of the marriage of a young pastor, Theophilus Simmons, and his calling. Filled with fire to preach the Gospel, Theophilus Simmons is nonetheless dismayed by his first pastoral assignment. Greater Hope Church is in Memphis, and is the home church of Glodean Benson, whose exuberant sexuality held him in thrall during their college years. When their affair ended before he went off to seminary, an angry Glodean promised to “get” him someday—but only to become first lady of a congregation, not because she loved him. His rigorous studies enabled Theophilus to push away his treacherous images of Glodean during seminary years, but he is not so sure he can resist her in person.

He is being tested, the Reverend Murcheson James tells him—tested in the fiery furnace as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were long ago. Bishop Percy Jennings, their superior, has high hopes for Theophilus, but first he wants to make sure the young minister can resist the net of desire that Glodean still weaves around him. Theophilus, knowing his call to ministry means facing such tests, agrees to go to Greater Hope.

His first year as pastor there is a success. The church’s membership grows, the choir and usher boards’ performances are “spiffed up,” and the young pastor gains a reputation for brilliant preaching. He is sent as guest preacher to a revival in Mississippi. On his trip home, he stays overnight at a tiny Delta town with a locally renowned restaurant, Pompey’s Rib Joint. Although Theophilus avoids wild behavior—and thankfully has not seen Glodean since coming to Memphis—he decides to relax and slip out of his clerical role long enough to try Pompey’s barbecued rib-tip sandwiches and hot blues music.

At Pompey’s he meets Essie Lane, the cook. He is immediately attracted to her; she is just as drawn to him, but her basic seriousness and experience of life have made her cautious. When he asks her out, she counters with an invitation to lunch at her mother’s house. Their initial rapport survives the chaperonage and, later, the miles between Mississippi and Memphis. On Saturday nights, Theophilus calls Essie to seek inspiration for his next day’s sermon. Coral Thomas, a deaconess at Greater Hope Church, overhears enough of these calls to know the young pastor is smitten. She makes sure Essie can attend an upcoming annual conference in Memphis and arranges for Theophilus’s responsibilities there to allow them time together. The plans are almost wrecked, howevere, when Glodean appears, and slick Marcel Brown makes public references to Theophilus’s former affair with her. Theophilus tells Essie that Glodean was a mistake from his past, but he fears that he has not seen the last of her.

After another visit, and another crisis with Glodean, Essie and Theophilus finally marry. Their happiness in their realized passion and closeness is evident. Still, living in the center of church life is full of problems. Theophilus loses a large pledge from Sister Willie Clayton after he scolds her for overcharging a poor family for their baby’s funeral. Essie offends Mother Laticia Harold by ignoring invitations to join her “exclusive ladies’ clubs.” The couple has to define boundaries between clerical confidentiality and sharing a spouse’s burdens.

Meanwhile, the denomination’s Triennial Conference is approaching. Theophilus’s friend Murcheson James is a candidate for an episcopal seat. Other plans afoot, though, are less straightforward. Bishop Otis Caruthers misses having a regular bishop’s district, with all its perquisites and power, and is sure that, with enough money to spread around, he can buy his way back into one. With pastors Sonny Washington and Marcel Brown, men who have a sharp eye for the main chance, Theophilus works out a scheme to provide “hospitality” at a price to preachers attending the conference. Sister Willie Clayton’s son Cleotis provides the quarters in his family’s lavish new funeral home.

By coincidence, Essie’s Uncle Booker and his friend discover what is going on at the conference, and they report to the Reverend Murcheson James and Bishop Jennings. All agree that more proof is needed to take any action. At the same time, Tee, a cook at the “club,” decides that Marcel Brown’s two-timing ways deserve exposure. She tells Saphronia McComb and Precious Powers—each of of whom is, unknown to the other, romantically involved with Marcel. Together they devise a scheme to sneak Saphronia into the club to embarrass Marcel. In a hilarious scene, she does just that.

Embarrassment is not the end of it. On the evening before the new bishops are chosen, Bishop Jennings asks Theophilus to speak to the whole conference and reveal the club’s existence. Theophilus, already shaken by the degree of politicking and influence trading that goes into making church decisions, wants to refuse. He knows, however, that this is something he has to do. He tries to put it in nonvulgar terms, speaking of a “club of ill-repute” operating at the conference. Essie’s down-to-earth Uncle Booker interrupts to make sure everyone gets the point: “He’s talking about a ho’ house, folks!” The conference erupts into chaos and near-violence.

In the aftermath, the denomination’s group of newly elected bishops includes some surprises for everyone. Murcheson James and another, quietly faithful pastor are elected. So is a man whose name was on the roster of “preacher’s club” customers. The rascally Bishop Caruthers’s situation stays unchanged; Theophilus consoles himself that the situation is God’s way of keeping other church leaders wary of the devil at work. Glodean finally gets a clergyman husband. She marries Marcel Brown after Saphronia and Precious both tell him off. Theophilus and Essie leave for a bigger, more challenging church in St. Louis, charged with building it into a true community center filled with God’s presence.

Christian Themes

As the story of a marriage, Church Folk is nonexplicitly but realistically concerned with sexuality in a Christian context. Glodean’s unwholesome use of her sexuality to manipulate men contrasts with Theophilus and Essie’s joyful coming together in marriage. Theophilus even preaches a sermon on the goodness of such a bond, saying that husbands should love their wives “with juice.” Not only does such loving sexuality hold families together; it helps give African Americans strength for their struggle against injustice. However, minor lapses resulting from unmarried men’s and women’s natural attraction to each other do not draw heavy condemnation. Sexual sins occur when people turn sexuality to other purposes: Glodean’s flaunting of it to manipulate and punish men, and the preachers’ brothel venture using sex to make money and provide “entertainment.”

Racism is an implicit but powerful theme. Although the foibles, temptations, and strengths of the characters could occur in any group of Christians, racist restrictions confine these Christians’ lives. In the 1960’s south, blacks could not stay at regular motels, so when Theophilus travels he must find a boardinghouse that accepts blacks. Racism has deformed some characters’ self-image. Mother Harold is so proper that she cringes when people use even clean slang or contractions—yet for all her sense of propriety, she has no dignity in the eyes of prejudiced white people. The Civil Rights movement functions in this novel as a vehicle for the church’s redemptive work in the world. Ironically, Theophilus and Essie cannot work for it as openly as their hearts desire. In deference to their church superiors, they provide background support for civil rights efforts as leaders in the respectable black community.

God’s plan is bigger than man’s plan, and not always understood by mere mortals. Most of Theophilus’s big decisions are made in the light of this truth. Thus he answers repeated “calls” that are not his own choice, secure in his trust of the Lord’s will.

Sources for Further Study

Bowen, Michele Andrea. Second Sunday. West Bloomfield, Mich.: Walk Worthy Press, 2003. Another absorbing novel of African American church life, this one set in 1970’s St. Louis.

Lewis, Lillian. Review of Church Folk. Booklist 97, no. 18 (May 15, 2001): 1730. A brief, descriptive review.

Mason, Felicia. Testimony. New York: Kensington, 2002. The story of a traveling black gospel music group and its struggle to carry the good news to far-flung audiences.

Raboteau, Albert J. Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Concise and perceptive history of religious experience and institutions in African American life.