Career in AME Church
By 1840, Payne started another school. He joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1842. He agreed with the founder, Richard Allen, that a visible and independent black denomination was a strong argument against slavery and racism. Payne always worked to improve the position of blacks within the United States; he opposed calls for their emigration to Liberia or other parts of Africa, as urged by the African Colonization Society and supported by some free blacks.
Payne worked to improve education for AME ministers, recommending a wide variety of classes, including grammar, geography, literature and other academic subjects, so they could effectively lead the people. In the ensuing decades' debates about "order and emotionalism" in the African Methodist Church, he sided consistently with order.
The AME's first task was "to improve the ministry; the second to improve the people". At a denominational meeting in Baltimore in 1842, Payne recommended a full program of study for ministers, to include English grammar, geography, arithmetic, ancient history, modern history, ecclesiastical history, and theology. At the 1844 AME General Conference, he called for a "regular course of study for prospective ordinees", in the belief they would lift up their parishioners. In 1845 Payne established a short-lived AME seminary, and succeeded in gradually raising the educational preparation required for ministers.
Payne also directed reforms at the style of music, introducing trained choirs and instrumental music to church practice. He supported the requirement that ministers be literate. Payne continued throughout his career to build the institution of the church, establishing literary and historic societies and encouraging order. At times he came into conflict with those who wanted to ensure that ordinary people could advance in the church. Especially after expansion of the church in the South, where different styles of worship had prevailed, there were continuing tensions about the direction of the denomination.
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