To facilitate a climate of economic change will take a concerted effort by the Black church to engage their respective communities with consistently targeted financial education and financial literacy programming. The Black community has been consistently made the target of programming antithetical to prosperity. That negative programming has come from elements both within and outside of the Black community itself.

The impact of such ferocious programming especially from what we call entertainment has poisoned our culture to such a degree that those of our ancestors on who's shoulders we now stand would not recognize their own people or communities if they were alive today. It will take a purposeful, consistent and equally ferocious assault of positive programming to counter the effects and years of neglect caused by all the negative elements that have run unchecked in Black America for at least a generation.

Like it or not, we are mired in a time of great global economic change that will as a consequence bring about unsettling social change as well. This is the harsh reality of the New Economy, a paradigm shift from the old economic model that for generations taught us to obtain a good education, go to college, work for 40 years and then retire with a gold watch and either a pension or more recently retirement savings subsidized by a monthly Social Security check.

An economic model so familiar to most of us has suddenly been laid to waste by abrupt economic change that overtook us so fast that we haven't yet had an opportunity to assess what hit us, much less get our collective bearings as what all this transition means for us, our families, our community and our future. It happened all too fast and we are still too stunned and in shock to even get the license plate number of the truck that just ran over us.

But we must muster enough strength to stagger up out of the street and out of harms way before the next on coming truck runs us over and finishes us off. And that next truck is rounding the corner and headed our way at breakneck speed in the form of a global economic collapse.

What overtook the United States and global markets in 2008 beginning with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a financial crisis that the world has yet to recover from, was only a small precursor to the economic crisis that's coming. Already most of Europe and the developed markets around the world are reeling from the inevitable impact of soon to be worthless currencies like the Euro and eventually even the U.S. dollar.

The global sovereign debt crisis currently has no less than five European nations on the brink of economic collapse: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The rapidly rising gold market is telling us what our government and the corporate media giants are not: that the world is going to hell in an economic hand basket soaked in gasoline. Little of what we've known, understood and had confidence in is likely to stand and under-gird us in the very near future. The Black church specifically must resist the urge to feed into to the frenzy that only serves to monumentally compound the varied socio-economic problems that this crisis is likely to manifest. Chief among the impulses to be avoided by the Black church is to be so spiritually focused as to be no earthly good.

It will take a lot more than a feel good sermon on Sunday morning to get people through Monday to Saturday night when food, shelter and the basic necessities of life become as scarce as the money needed to afford them. The faith of our people will be put to the test as never experienced before in our lifetimes as hordes of disenfranchised people of all races, creeds and colors may be forced to make a decision to forsake their faith simply to eat and have access to life's necessities.

Financial Education: The Role of the Black Church in the Prosperity of the Black Community

Closing the Financial Knowledge Gap

The Opportunity to Lead a New Moral Movement

Purpose: The Prerequisite to Prosperity

The Mis Education of The Negro

America Without Black People