There came a time in my journey that I could not ignore who I was or where I came from. When I looked into the eyes of a sixty-five-year-old Black deacon who attended my worship service, I wanted to ask -- "does my preaching make any connection with you?" Did this third-grade un-nurtured boy understand the concept of love, while he lived in the home of a female single parent? How does the female adolescent respond to her mother's loss of employment? When did all these thoughts suddenly appear? With these childhood contextual images etched into my memory, I have chosen to write this book to discuss possible ways of observing African American pastoral care and maybe we can have serious dialogue.

[This manuscript is a quick guide and can only be used for basic content references due to formatting errors in sentence structure. The full updated manuscript can be found under the title: Shepherding in the African American Community Part 1 & 2]