Black Pastors' Views on preaching about sex: barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for HIV prevention messaging.

Objectives: Despite the disproportionately high rates of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection among US Blacks and ongoing need for effective inexpensive behavioral interventions, the use of sermons as an HIV prevention tool in Black churches has received little research attention. The Black church plays an important role in Black communities and is a potential ally in development and delivery of sexual risk prevention messages. The objective of this study was to examine Black pastors' thoughts about whether sermons should address issues related to heterosexual relationships - and the barriers and facilitators to discussing these topics in a sermon setting.

Utility of a congregational health assessment to identify and direct health promotion opportunities in churches.

Purpose: The church is a focal point for health education efforts in minority communities due to its status as one of the most prominent and stable institutions. This paper highlights an approach for identifying health programming targets in minority churches.

Methods: Twenty-four churches participated in a one-year Health Ministry Institute (HMI), designed to help churches develop sustainable ministries for health promotion.

Churches, academic institutions, and public health: partnerships to eliminate health disparities.

The four principles represent a framework for improving the process of establishing sustainable partnerships between research, public health, and faith-based institutions that seek to eliminate health disparities. To improve the efficacy of partnerships with churches identification of potential partner churches must be deliberate, trusting relationships must be built, divergent perspectives must be communicated and reconciled, and some tangible power should be transferred to church and community leaders where feasible. We applaud the National Institutes of Health, through the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities', efforts to "promote coordination and collaboration among the agencies conducting or supporting minority health or other health disparities research.