What Is the Front Porch?

Tony Carter, writing for the new website and ministry he has started with Thabiti Anyabwile and Louis Love:

Many people fondly remember growing up in a house with a front porch.

I was raised in rural Michigan, just north of the “big city” of Grand Rapids, amidst the glistening lakes and rowed pines of Newaygo County. My family’s house was located on a dirt road for most of the year and a snow-packed road for the rest. It was a few steps from the front porch of our small but warm home. The porch wasn’t much to talk about. That’s why it fit the house perfectly. Like the house, the porch’s worth wasn’t in the structure, but in how it served my family and our neighborhood. Our porch didn’t just welcome people to the house; it welcomed them to our home. It welcomed them to our lives. It was the portal to conversation for all things family and community.

You will experience conversations about faith, family, fellowship, and food, just like the front porches when we were growing up.

Not everyone has a front porch. I bet almost everyone has places where friends, family, and even foes gather for conversation and debate. Such places serve a similar unifying and comforting purpose. We hope you experience those same kinds of conversations here. And that’s what we want to accomplish. Welcome!

The Front Porch aims to be a place for conversations on biblical faithfulness in African-American churches and beyond.

Read the whole thing here, and check out the full website.