California Pastor Noel Jones Criticizes the Black Church for ‘Looking to the Government to Take Care of Us’ and Says ‘There Are Too Many Egos and Narcissistic People Tearing the Church Apart’ Who Need to Humble Themselves for There to be Unity

California megachurch pastor Bishop Noel Jones has taken a dig at the black church for not fulfilling its role in the community.

In an interview with The Philadelphia Tribune last Thursday at the Holy Ghost Headquarters Revival Center at the Met in Philadelphia, Jones, who leads the 20,000-member City of Refuge Church in Los Angeles, said the black church is waiting for the government to do ministry it should be doing.

“We still have self-doubt, we still are killing each other at an alarming rate and it’s happening right in our communities. The prostitution, the drugs — all of the things that are negative are happening right around the church. It’s right down the street from us,” he said. “How do we address it? We stop looking to the government and we stop looking to everybody else to take care of us as if we are still slaves and we take the opportunity that is in front of us.”

According to his bio, Jones seeks to persuade people to “question … conventional approaches to daily challenges” and doesn’t see the preacher as head of a hierarchical system “but rather in partnership with administration and laity of the Church.”

He promotes “integration and multi-faceted leadership styles and methods to reach the community within and outside of the Church” and practices this approach at The City of Refuge where he has integrated programs that help people with varying degrees of struggle.

In his interview on Thursday, he argued that churches can better fulfill their purpose by investing in service for humanity.

“Unless we partner with people who are dealing with Socratic problems in our community, then we are really not having church. You can have church and never minister,” he said.

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SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair