“…Over the past several years, a growing body of literature has supported the role of culturally specific, church-based programs in improving the health status of vulnerable populations (Kerner et al, 1993;Lasater, Becker, Hill, & Gans, 1997) including African American communities (Kerner et al, 1993;Kotecki, 2002). For example, the church has been used as a convenient and meaningful intervention site for a variety of health programs including smoking cessation (Stillman, Bone, Rand, & Levine, 1993), prevention and management of hypertension (Smith, 1989), cardiovascular disease prevention (Turner, Sutherland, Harris, & Barber, 1995), prostate cancer education (Weinrich et al, 1998), asthma education (Ford, Edwards, Rodriguez, Gibson, & Tilley, 1996), cervical cancer control programs (D. T. , and maintenance of mammography screening (Duan, Fox, Derose, & Carson, 2000), to name a few.…”