This paper reviews the role of the black church in black American history and suggests ways in which its role must change to help blacks cope with our modern and technological society. Initially, religion was the one social institution which gave black slaves a common tie before the Civil War. Baptist and Methodist ideologies provided emotional messages of salvation, and Bible stories told orally appealed to the slaves' aspirations for freedom and liberation. After the Civil War black churches became institutionalized. They increased their efforts to improve quality of life by establishing colleges, insurance companies, and political groups. In recent years, black churches have placed more emphasis on economic, social, and political problems than on otherworldly concerns of salvation. Two groups can now be identified: storefront churches and more traditional, institutionalized churches. The author suggests that the black church increase its role of leadership in directing blacks toward a high spiritual quality of life which may not necessarily be the same as the modern American materialistic approach to life. (AV)