Churches in the Progressive National Baptist Convention follow a worship calendar reflecting the African-American experience of God as liberator and sustainer, rather than the conventional Christian year. Annual observances include Christmas and Easter, but most Sundays are designated to focus on aspects of the church’s ministry and role in society.
The Progressive National Baptist Convention is a part of the free-church tradition. Its congregations modify the Christian year followed in the denominations that use the Common Lectionary in order to address the spiritual and social needs of African-American worshipers.
Progressive Baptist congregations generally do not observe many of the traditional days such as Epiphany, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, All Saints’ Day, and Reformation Sunday. But they include on their calendar many observances which are not part of worship in mainline Protestant churches. These special days originate from a variety of sources, including cultural traditions, liberation theology, and the educational background of individual pastors. Which days a congregation includes in its church year varies according to its traditions and the influence of its pastors. And, the calendar of each church will vary from year to year, based on the program priorities.
A Typical Calendar
The following calendar, used by the Allen Temple Baptist Church of Oakland, California, is illustrative of the yearly cycle in Progressive National Baptist churches:
December
- 31 Watch Meeting Service
January
- 01 New Year’s Day Fasting and Prayer
- 05 Communion Sunday
- 12 Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday
- 26 Baptismal Celebration
February
- 02 Communion
- 04 Annual Meeting
- 10 Black History
- 16 Black History
- 23 Black History and Boy Scout Emphasis
March
- 01 New Members Fellowship
- 08 Annual Youth Day
- 15 Pew Captain—Evangelism
- 22 Black Male Redemption
- 29 World Mission Sunday
April
- 05 Communion
- 12 Music Department Sunday
- 12 Palm Sunday
- 17 Seven Last Words Preached by Seven Women
- 19 Easter
- 26 Baptism and New Member Discipleship Sunday
May
- 03 Communion
- 10 Mother’s Day
- 17 Evangelism
- 24 Baptism and Sunday School
- 31 World Mission and Memorial Day Sunday
June
- 07 Communion
- 14 Scholarship Awards and Graduation Recognition
- 21 Father’s Day
- 28 Annual Urban Ministry Promotion
July
- 05 Freedom Sunday
- 12 Hispanic Ministry Sunday
- 19 Ecumenical Fellowship
- 26 Ministers in Training Sunday
August
- 02 Communion
- 9 Progressive
- 23 Credit Union Sunday
- 30 World Mission Sunday
September
- 06 Communion
- 13 Deacons’ Day
- 14 Music Education
- 20 Ushers’ Day
- 27 Annual Revival
October
- 04 Communion and New Members’ Day
- 11 Youth and Children’s Day
- 18 Loyalty Day
- 25 Baptismal Emphasis
November
- 01 Communion
- 08 Youth Day
- 15 Young Adults
- 22 Evangelism
- 26 Thanksgiving Worship
- 29 Annual Women’s Day
December
- 06 Advent Sunday
- 13 Annual Minister’s and Lay Minister’s Day
- 20 Christmas Sunday
- 25 Ecumenical Christmas Worship
- 27 College Students Emphasis
- 28 Kwanza Observance
Special High Days
- Ordination
- Installation of Church Officers
- Christian Education Week
- Volunteers Appreciation
- Public Safety Observance
- Baby Dedication Sunday (on third Sunday of each month)
- Children’s Week
- Athletic Day Observance
- Library Sunday
- Senior Citizen’s Day
The scheduling of these services varies from year to year, and the calendar is flexible enough to meet changing needs. For example, in response to crises like the Oakland earthquake and Oakland Hills fire, special services were called to address the anxieties of the community.
Lay members take a prominent role in planning and leading special observances. Prior to revival, Loyalty Day, and New Year’s worship observances, the laity are present for prayer, anointing, and twenty-four-hour seasons of fasting and introspection.
Worship and Social Concerns
Progressive National Baptist churches also stress social concerns in their worship calendars. In addition to NAACP Sunday and Voter Registration Sunday, days may be designated for focus on such programs as prison ministry and AIDS hospice ministry. Allen Temple Baptist Church designates a day of worship for the promotion of its job information ministry and drug and alcohol recovery ministry. These worship services have the same priority as the observance of Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Easter.
More and more churches are promoting Rites of Passage Sunday for children and youth, usually in connection with Saturday and Sunday church school promotion.
Worship in the Progressive National Baptist tradition does not emphasize the liturgy of historic and Reformation churches as much as a response to the activity of God as liberator and sustainer in the hostile and unfriendly environment of the African-American pilgrimage in American culture. Cornel West of Princeton University describes the African-American religious experience as a “kind of Good Friday state of existence in which one is seemingly forever on the cross, perennially crucified, continuously abused, and incessantly devalued—yet sustained and empowered by hope against hope for a potential and possible triumphant state of affairs” (Cornel West, Prophetic Fragments [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988], 5).
This religion is neither worldly nor an idealistic earthly quest for paradise in the political sense, but a Christ-centered emphasis on survival and struggle in an absurd and insane world. The church year in the Progressive National Baptist Convention reflects this religious and social reality.