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Chapter 1
Scene 1
Archie looked across the desk at the man staring at him. Pastor Brown was one of the few men he admired. And out of that short list non he admired more. Today was just one more example why …He had handled the situation with the correctitude of a high mass liturgy and yet the diplomacy of a presidential Chief of Staff. The church was a medium size assembly by urban church standards just a little over 100. The Church like its members was fiercely independent. Even though there was no political board of trustee, or deacons The Pastor ruled by permission of the assembly and if the congregation gave him a vote of no confidence he was for all extent and purposes defrocked. Archie was one of the ones that convinced that convinced the then young and inexperienced speaker a shot. He didn’t even consider himself a preacher much less a pastor in those days and yet he let the slightly older man convince him to take the podium of the then much smaller family church. What he saw in the younger man he still didn’t know. Oh yeah he heard him speak at a school assembly, and then a couple of community meetings, and finally a school board meeting. He was well learned and articulates something none of the former pastors were. Spiritual or deep as they say in ecclesiastical circles was not his strong suit.  But that suited Archie just fine because what the young pastor manner did well was get his message over in a persuasive perspicuous manner. He had prevailed in convincing the rest of the clan which was not without its own difficulties. Most of them were litigious at best. And the week of the vote was not one of their better days. Contentiousness filled the air like hair on a mountain oyster. But thirty some years later it was worth every chip he spent to get David L. Brown Ordained Now he brought himself out of nostalgic musing and on to the task at hand.

Chapter 1
Scene 2
Pastor Brown seldom asked anything of anyone. He looked across his desk at his mentor and friend. To anyone else he probably looked distracted but Pastor Brown knew he was anything but distracted. Archie has amazing focus as had been shown to David on many occasions. His single mindedness is what kept David in the pulpit of New Birth Community Church. Archie’s grand father Michael Lewis Bonner started New Birth. He so the story goes wanted to belong to a church by run colored people. Mount Lebanon Methodist church was in the basement of the  Lebanon Methodist Church and the board was made up of members of both churches even though no colored persons belong to Lebanon and no white would be found dead in the services of New Lebanon Church for niggas, New Lebanon was Bonners church and he was a faithful member but it never set well with him that the whites actually ran the church that the blacks went to. The other options was First Baptism on Church Street which Bonner felt was more of a community meeting place for uppity Negros that wanted to be white more than wanted to be colored.Most of your teachers and service orientated workers went there. First Baptist considered the more rural members of New Lebanon mere field hands who lack the intelligentsia of First Baptist and New Labanon considered First Baptist a group of uppity to big for their breeches negros who was a fine example of why whites didn’t need whips or gun as long as they have high yellow Negros who thought they were white to do their bidden. That is why no educated man ever held the reins of New Birth since its inception. Most thought it was beneath them and even if they didn’t the Bonner clan would never allow it and all the members was in some way related to Michael Lewis Bonner. That was until Bonners Great grandson Archie changed the way things was done at New Birth. Now he needed Archie to get him through another crisis.