The Black Church is the only institution that has consistently served the interest of African Americans, and there is no other institution in the African American community that rivals its influence (Camara, 2004). The spiritual well-fare, social support, health, and well-being of its people have been one of its main goals. With health disparities of African Americans still at an alarming rate, the Black Church has used informal education as a means to impart knowledge on health, as well as other non-religious and religious topics. One of the avenues least researched within the Black Church is the pastor's perception of its educational role in health and wellness and its efforts to reduce health discrimination and health disparities between African American and European Americans in the U.S. Since social justice appears as a theme and concern in the traditions of many churches, it is only appropriate that, among other things, the Black Church should address the issue of health education and interventions. The purpose of this study was to explore African American pastors' perceptions of the role of the Black Church in providing health care, health education, and wellness opportunities to African Americans. Many pastors reported their church provided some form of health education and/or health screenings. Their perceptions about the important issues facing their congregants versus African Americans in general were quite similar.

This chapter illustrates the role of the Black church in promoting health awareness and healthy behaviors, and in fighting health disparities.

There is limited research examining the health promotion behaviors (HPBs) of low-income Black men. This study examined the relationship between HPBs, and motivators and barriers to participating in these behaviors in Black men (N = 107), aged 21 to 56. Using descriptive statistics, more than 96% of the participants reported they were motivated because of the desire to be healthy. Canonical correlation analysis and conditional random forest were used to determine the importance of individual motivators and barriers. Canonical correlation analysis yielded one interpretable canonical variate that explained 39.5% of the variance in sets of motivators and barriers, and health promotion lifestyle variables. Men with fewer motivators and more barriers took less responsibility for their health, participated in less physical activity, and reported less spiritual growth. Having too many things to do and not knowing what to do best predicted participation in HPBs.

Online and hybrid programs are becoming more commonplace in graduate theological education, yet few studies have examined the formation wisdom communities within a mixed internet-based and face-to-face learning environment. In North America, the 'suitability of distance learning has raged long and loud' (Hockridge, 2011, 4). Hence in this article we seek to explore the formation of online wisdom communities within a hybrid theological program for doctoral students studying preaching. Using Rovai's (2002) classroom community scale, we measured participants' sense of community in the preaching program. As the findings indicate, the participants did experience community and felt a sense of cohesion, trust, and interdependence as well as deriving educational benefits from their interactions with others. We therefore confirm the validity of such a program and call for further research to be carried out in this field. keywords adult learners, community, communities of practice, elearning, online wisdom community, theological education IntroductionLearning and learning communities have caught the attention of education researchers over many years. Various learning theories (with foundations in constructivist, social, behavioural, etc. approaches) help us to understand how adults learn (Merriam, Cafferella, and Baumgartner, 2007). Within the past two decades, adults have begun taking more online and hybrid courses. During this same time period, research into online learning communities has proliferated. Use