LAUREL — Ellisville pastor the Rev. Leander Bridges can now add author to his repertoire.

Bridges, pastor of Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church at 1403 Dubose Street in Ellisville, has penned a book that was recently released by Tate Publishing of Mustang, Okla. However, the book, Building the Black Church: 7 Curses Facing the Black Church, was actually written seven years ago.

“I tried to get it published back then, but nobody would pick it up,”  said Bridges. “I got a bit discouraged about it, so I laid the book to the side.”

He let the manuscript remain idle until last year. That’s when, while watching television, he heard three different ministers talk about what God had told them to do and how they had let it fall by the wayside.

“God spoke to me and told me, ‘You know what you have got to do,’” said Bridges, as he sat in his church office. “So I got the book out and begin to refine it.”

Still, the minister had no idea if or when his manuscript would get published. A breakthrough came when his daughter, Krista, the church’s music director, began working on her first recording project.

A talented singer and praise leader, Krista McKenzie, signed with Tate Publishing, a company headquartered in Mustang, Okla. McKenzie’s friend, who was working with her on the recording project, knew that in addition to music production, Tate Publishing also had an arm of the business that published books.

He suggested that Bridges submit a copy of his manuscript to the company. Bridges followed through and as the old adage goes, “the rest is history.”

The 88-page paperback book was released in July. Laurie Tomlinson, publicist of Key Market Group & Communication, the company hired by Tate Publishing to promote the book, said it is available at local bookstores, as well as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

“The book sells for $9.99 and is also available on the company’s Website,” said Tomlinson. “People can order it or get additional information from a site that has been set up for him at www.leanderbridges.tatepublishing.net.”

Bridges notes that he has books, also. Interested individuals can also contact him for desired purchases.

In his book, Bridges uncovers seven curses that have perpetrated the black church over the years. According to the minister, when it comes to how far blacks have come as a race, the black church continues to fall short in comparison.

Building the Black Church uncovers seven curses to explain this inequality. Using his own experience pastoring a number of black churches, he details issues such as past-time ministers, too many churches, too little teaching and evangelism, and much more.

“I have served as pastor of this congregation for almost 26 years,” explained Bridges. “I’ve seen, heard and done a lot of things during my years in ministry.

“Among them is the fact that like many ministers, when I started out, I was working  on a job, as well as pastoring the church,”  he said. “During one period, I was also pastoring two congregations at one time.”

Bridges said the Lord spoke to him and he began observing the black church. He discovered that the black church had a lot of deficiencies.

“They were coming from things we were perpetrating among ourselves over and over again,” he said.  “It continued to trouble me and I had to do something about it.”

He preached about it at local and state conferences. He also discussed it at conferences and seminars he and his wife, Esther, conducted across the country. Still, Bridges believe his message needed to reach a broader audience.

“God had laid it upon my heart to let the black church know that if we wanted to start accomplishing things the way God wanted us to do, we had to do things differently,” he said. “That’s the message in the book.”

Bridges confesses that the initial title of the book was The Curses of the Black Church. The publishers thought it was too strong of a title for a book. They didn’t think a book with such a strong title would be able to survive the consumer market.

“I knew what God had instructed me to do and I didn’t want to change the title,” said Bridges. “Then God spoke to me and said he wanted me to get the book out. So I agreed with the new title, but I used my initial title as the subtitle.”

 Bridges, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Bible from Southeastern Baptist College in Laurel, has also done some study at Mississippi Baptist Seminary in Jackson and the University of Southern Mississippi. He currently serves on the executive board of the Office of Evangelism for the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. and as vice president of the Congress of Christian Education for the East Mississippi State Baptist Congress. He also serves as Lecture Series Coordinator for the First Enterprise District Association.

“By the grace of God, black people have advanced in so many ways,”  noted Bridges. “Yet, I could not help but to notice how the black church, which I am a part of, was lagging far behind the advances that have been made by black people.

 “The book, Building the Black Church, is more like a long sermon God gave me to address as to what’s causing this problem in the black church. The book shows seven curses that contribute to this lagging of the black church as a whole.

 “No, these problems are not prevalent in every black church, but they are in so many,”  he continued.  “So in this book, God is crying out to us to end these curses so that we can move on to be the church God would have us to be — one that will not have to be referred to as the back church or white church. But before we, in the black church, can rise to this needed position, we must straighten out and end these seven curses that we have perpetuated for generations among ourselves.”

For additional information, or to purchase books from the Rev. Leander Bridges, phone Spring Hill Baptist Church at 601-477-8463.