All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters. 15 You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “ Abba, Father. ” 16 The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. 17 But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him.
Filling a need not previously addressed, African American Church Growth contends that it is the prophetic consciousness which appeals to many blacks of the post-civil rights era, and that emphasis on the prophetic will help bring the black church out of the disillusionment of a "post-civil rights malaise".
Carlyle Fielding Stewart defines prophetic ministry as a concern for wholeness of the individual and community. Going beyond a simple call for social justice, the author addresses both spiritual and social tyrannies, within and without the church, that preclude church growth in our center cities and rural communities. Dr. Stewart demonstrates with practical examples how tyranny can be overcome in thriving black churches.