c.2026, Amistad
$28.99
288 pages
Your shoes are shined.
Wiped down, spiffed up, clean and looking great from toe to head. You’re wearing your finest outfit, a new hat or tie, and you’re confident that the Lord (and your fellow churchgoers) will look favorably upon you. But it doesn’t stop there: In the new book “Call and Response” by L. Michelle Smith, you can have your Sunday best, Monday through Friday.
Not long ago, while relaxing at her parents’ home for the holidays, Smith’s mother handed her a photograph that made her think. It was a picture of several young ladies near a church with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Smith says, “it was apparent what was happening” in the photo; she recognized the scenario immediately: “The group had just finished preparing a meal for the congregation in honor of their guest …”
The photo astonished her; surely other Black churches had similar tales of “leadership grounded in faith and purpose” to tell. As a business owner, she herself had enjoyed the guidance she received from the Black church while growing up.
But she worried: Today’s faithful often looked for services online.
“Could leaders be missing out on a crucial aspect of the value of the traditional Black Church by skipping … the experience or even limiting [it] to a digital one?”
If so, they sorely need to acknowledge leadership skills that the Black Church offers.
The Black Church “prepared us for the boardroom,” says Smith, through purpose and faith. It offers supportive community. It teaches the value in engaging stories and in speaking well to one’s audience. Resilience is learned, including “decision-making, communications, agility, and emotional intelligence …” Perseverance is another lesson, one that helps with many kinds of goal achievement. The Black Church teaches collaboration, accountability, social justice, innovation, and “economic empowerment.”
And if today’s leaders are not paying attention, many of the lessons may be lost …
Is that a good “call” example from “Call and Response”? With a unique take on leadership skills and a clear warning that tomorrow’s leaders are depriving themselves of valuable lessons, you might think it is.
Fortunately, author L. Michelle Smith doesn’t just sound the siren and leave it at that. At the end of each help-filled chapter, she includes brief takeaways that you might want to remember for further reference, and “coaching questions” to get the most out of what you learn and what you need to share. Readers will also be well-advised to keep a pack of sticky flags handy, so you can refer to her advice as needed. If there’s not enough information for you, she offers a nice chapter of other sources and ways to take her warning and her information further. Is that the “response” example? Happily, it sure looks like it.
For the business-minded, this is an unusual book that can be read by anyone, including non-Black Church-going readers. It might also be the eye-opener that young entrepreneurs need as a boost. If you’re looking for leadership inspiration in a different kind of book, “Call and Response” shines.