-- appears next to a general description to indicate that an item covered by that description is online. Clicking on the symbol or the underlining will link to the item. If there are two or more of these symbols -- -- that appear by a description, the number of symbols indicates the number of items covered by the description that are online, such as several different photos from a photo file.]Collection 548
[March 21, 2002]
Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America; 1988
Records; 1986-1989
3 DC (1.2 cubic feet), Audio Tapes, Books, Photographs, Videotapes
Restrictions: None
Historical Background
Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America:
Dates: August 16-20, 1988
Location: Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia
Participants: Approximately one thousand (1,000)
Chairman: Matthew Parker
Goals: "1) Increase knowledge of the scriptures. 2) Offer how-to methods for effectively communicating the Gospel to others. 3) Encourage support and sharing of resources with other Christians. 4) Challenge the Black churches in different denominations about the responsibility of the world evangelization."
Origin: Atlanta '88 resulted from the exclusion of the African American community from the focus of Houston '85, a consultation on evangelizing ethnic America. During Houston '85, Black Christian leaders formed a task force to convene a conference on evangelizing the African American community, which three years later sponsored Atlanta '88. The members of the task force were: Glandion Carney, Alfonso Tyler, Donald Donaldson, Matthew Parker, C.C. Pratt, Bob Harrison, Hank Allen, Charles Johnson, J.D. Ellis, Lindsey Robinson.
Scope and Content
This collection documents the planning and proceedings of the Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America. Matthew Parker of the Institute for Black Family Development (a product of the 1984 National Summit on Black Church Development), was a key figure in the Congress planning. The records of the meeting reveal the network of Black Christian leaders, and document their thinking and planning together to address the role of the Black church in evangelism. A great value of the collection is that it not only documents the planning for the Congress but also the proceedings as Black church and ministry leaders confer and learn together as they analyze their history and current situation and plan for the future. The arrangement of the collection has remained as it was received. Duplicates were returned to the donor.
Audio and videotapes comprise a major part of the collection. Audio recordings (see Location Record: Audio Tapes) provide a comprehensive record of the plenary sessions and small group workshops at Atlanta '88, while the video footage covers the 1986 Summit plenary sessions (see Location Record: Videotape).
Series: Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America
Arrangement: Alphabetical
Date range: 1986-1989
Volume: 1.2 cubic feet (50 folders), 36 audio tapes, 12 videotapes,
Boxes: 1-3
Type of documents: Correspondence, memos, reports, conference participant list and schedule, minutes, financial records, clippings about the event both prior to and following the Congress, and evaluations, audio tapes and videotapes
Correspondents: Matthew Parker and Black Evangelical leaders
Notes: The series contains the various documents which record the planning, promotion, and convening of the Congress in mid-1988, including lists of participants and area coordinators (folder 1-4), negotiations for audio-visual recording of the event sessions (folder 1-5), promotional material (folders 1-10,11), correspondence (folders 1-14,15), inquiries about arrangements, registration, requests for grant funding (folder 3-11 and 12), exhibits (folder 2-1), press releases and media coverage (folder 2-8), minutes from the local committee (folder 2-10), a steering committee notebook which includes meeting minutes, an organizational chart (folder 3-12), Congress Connection, the Congress "official daily communication" (folder 2-15), program development and sample packet (folders 2-17 and 3-1,2). Several of the files contain samples from other events or processes which appear to have been used as models than containing information directly about Atlanta '88 (PR in folder 3-5 and Registration in folder 3-7). Most of the financial data appears in raw form in folders 1-1, 2, 6 and 1-12, with the exception of a financial statement on the last page of Matthew Parker's summary report (folder 3-13). Audio and video recordings document the actual content of the Congress (see Location Record: Audio Tapes, Video Tapes).
Exceptional items: The summary report in folder 3-12 consolidates information about the Congress, describing its genesis, listing task force members, and reviewing objectives, ethnic and institutional representation (not statistics), impact and planned actions, analysis of some of the responses to evaluation questions, and a financial statement.
Folder 2-7 (labeled Masters) consists of originals of documents which were then duplicated. Some of these documents turned up in other files, while others did not (such as the minutes for the Congress's Steering Committee meeting in March 1988), making this a valuable rather than repetitive resource.
Provenance
The materials in this collection were given to the Archives of the Billy Graham Center by the Institute for Black Family Development in April 1989.
Accession: 89-32
August 25, 1997
Paul A. Ericksen
M. Bergstedt
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 89-32
Type of Material: Audio Tapes
The following items, all audio cassettes, are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE:
Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America. The audio tapes for Atlanta '88 are subdivided into plenary and workshop sessions; the plenary sessions are arranged in the order in which they were recorded, while the workshop sessions are arranged alphabetically by their subject.
General sessions:
T1 - Evening, Tuesday, August 16, 1988. George McKinney. See V1.
T2 - Bible teaching, Wednesday, August 17, 1988. Tony Evans. See V2.
T3 - Plenary (Youth), Wednesday, August 17, 1988. Bruce Walls and Buster Soaries.
T4 - Evening, Wednesday, August 17, 1988. Tom Skinner. See V3 and V4.
T5 - Bible teaching, Thursday, August 18, 1988. Tony Evans. See V5.
T6 - Plenary (Women), Thursday, August 18, 1988. Kay C. James. See V6.
T7 - Evening, Thursday, August 18, 1988. Tokunbah Adeyemo. See V7.
T8 - Bible teaching, Friday, August 19, 1988. Tony Evans. See V8.
T9 - Plenary (Missions), Friday, August 19, 1988. Joseph Jeter, Donald Canty, Sallie Cuffee. See V9.
T10 - Evening, Friday, August 20, 1988. A. Lewis Patterson. See V10. E.V. Hill was the scheduled speaker listed in the program booklet.
T11 - Black History. August 1988. V. Simpson Turner. See V11. This session does not appear on the Atlanta '88 program schedule.
Workshops:
T12 - Abortion. August 1988. Ray Hammond.
T13 - AIDS. August 1988. Ray Hammond.
T14 - Child Evangelism. August 1988. Malettor Cross.
T15 - Church Planting. August 1988. Reuben Conner.
T16 - College. August 1988. Thomas Fritz.
T17 - Community Development. August 1988. John Perkins.
T18 - Cross Cultural. August 1988. Emmanuel McCall.
T19 - Drugs. August 1988. Marian Spellman.
T20 - Entertainment. August 1988. Frank Wilson.
T21 - Family. August 1988. Willie Richardson.
T22 - Homosexuals. August 1988. Nicholas Benson.
T23 - Local Church. August 1988. Michael Patterson.
T24 - Pastor's Symposium. August 1988. Michael Flowers.
T25 - Personal Evangelism. August 1988. Crawford Loritts.
T26 - Political. August 1988. Barbara Skinner.
T27 - Prison. August 1988. Harold Brinkley.
T28 - Professional. August 1988. Richard Linyard.
T29 - Singles. August 1988. Haman Cross.
T30 - Social Action. August 1988. Dolphus Weary.
T31 - Sports. August 1988. Clint Hooper.
T32 - Street. August 1988. Earl Lawson.
T33 - TV and Radio. August 1988. Glen Plummer.
T34 - Urban Evangelism. August 1988. Melvin Banks.
T35 - World Missions. August 1988. Bob Harrison.
T36 - Youth. August 1988. Russell Knight.
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 89-32
Type of Material: Books
The following items have been given to the BGC LIBRARY:
Waite, Montrose, edited by Eugene Seals and John McNeal, Jr. Waite: A Man Who Could Not Wait. (Detroit: Parker Books, Inc., 1988)
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 89-32
Type of material: Photographs
The following items are located in the PHOTO FILE; request by Folder Titles (in bold) at the beginning of each entry below.
DESTINY '87. Matthew Parker, Director of Atlanta '87, at the podium with Crawford Loritts, director of Destiny '87. 1 color.
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 89-32
Type of material: Videotape
The following items are located in the VIDEOTAPE FILE:
V1 - Atlanta '88. Bishop George McKinney speaking on Tuesday evening, August 16, 1988.
V2 - Atlanta '88. Tony Evans presenting the Wednesday morning Bible study, August 17, 1988.
V3 - Atlanta '88. Tom Skinner speaking on Wednesday evening, August 17, 1988. Part I.
V4 - Atlanta '88. Tom Skinner speaking on Wednesday evening, August 17, 1988. Part II.
V5 - Atlanta '88. Tony Evans presenting the Thursday morning Bible study, August 18, 1988.
V6 - Atlanta '88. Kay C. James speaking on Thursday morning, August 18, 1988, on "Women."
V7 - Atlanta '88. Tokunbah Adeyemo, World Evangelical Fellowship executive, speaking Thursday evening, August 18, 1988.
V8 - Atlanta '88. Tony Evans presenting the Friday morning Bible study, August 19, 1988.
V9 - Atlanta '88. Plenary Session on missions, featuring Joseph Jeter, Donald Canty, Sallie Cuffee, on Friday morning, August 19, 1988.
V10 - Atlanta '88. A. Lewis Patterson speaking Friday evening, August 20, 1988.
V11 - Atlanta '88. V. Simpson Turner (3 sessions) speaking on Black history of evangelism. The first session was part of the opening session on August 16, 1988. The other two sessions were also part of unidentified large group sessions.
V12 - The Black American Family: A Christian Legacy by Summit Productions, 1988. Color, 52 minutes.
| CONTAINER LIST | ||
| Box | Item | |
| Atlanta '88 Congress on Evangelizing Black America; 1986-1989 | ||
| 1 | Accounts payable - Evaluation (17 folders) | |
| 2 | Exhibits - Program-Directory (16 folders) | |
| 3 | Program Packet - Westin Peachtree Plaza (16 folders) | |
| Study guide for The Black American Family video; 1988 (1 folder) | ||