August 2014

Healing Begins HereA summary of my blog series on racial reconciliation and the church.
Healing Begins Here
Image: Defense Images/Flickr

For the past month, this blog has hosted a series of guest posts offering thoughts on race and reconciliation within the church in America. I will offer my own thoughts about this series in a concluding post later this week, but I also wanted to offer an overview and summary ...

Christ is the Answer to Our Race ProblemThree practical, public, and personal ways for the church to lead. The final guest post in our series on racial reconciliation, by Kyle Canty.
Christ is the Answer to Our Race Problem
Image: Jonatas Cunha/Flickr

For the past month, this blog space has been dedicated to exploring the topic of racial reconciliation among Christians. I will offer a summary of all these posts on Monday as well as my concluding thoughts on Tuesday. Today I offer these empowering words about action we ...

Why I Don’t Want My Child to be “Colorblind”Four ways to see the beauty of the colorful world of people all around us. A guest post by Natasha Sistrunk Robinson.
Why I Don’t Want My Child to be “Colorblind”
Image: Nicksee/Flickr

“I don’t see color.”

I cringe inside every time I hear these words. In most instances, people utter them in an attempt to let me and all who are listening know that they are not racist or that they value people regardless of their race. But the statement ...

On the Ground in FergusonBeauty, lament, and sitting together at the foot of the cross.
On the Ground in Ferguson
Image: Elvert Barnes/Flickr

Leroy Barber, Global Executive Director of Word Made Flesh, has been a leader within the evangelical community for over three decades. This past week Leroy joined other leaders in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown's death. We asked Leroy what’s been on his mind ...

Want to Be Multiethnic? Get Ready For DiscomfortLiving out the gospel ideal of reconciled community proved far more difficult, and wonderful, than we ever expected.
Want to Be Multiethnic? Get Ready For Discomfort

Despite the rapid diversification of American society, the typical American congregation remains culturally homogenous. Still, there is an exciting, fresh movement toward reconciliation and healing within the church all over the country. About seven years ago, a group of ...

White Christians: It's Time to Stand in Solidarity With Your Black Brothers and SistersThe history that led us to Ferguson. A guest post by Christena Cleveland
White Christians: It's Time to Stand in Solidarity With Your Black Brothers and Sisters
Image: Elvert Barnes/Flickr

In 1894, black racial justice activist Ida B. Wells sounded the alarm on racial injustice, imploring white Christians to put a stop to the lynching of black people. She spoke out saying, “Our American Christians are too busy saving the souls of white Christians from ...

Multiculturalism Beyond Photo Ops and PotlucksAn interview with reconciliation scholar Dominique Gilliard.
Multiculturalism Beyond Photo Ops and Potlucks
Image: Archives Foundation/Flickr

Dominique DuBois Gilliard is a pastor at New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, California. He is also a board member of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) and director of racial reconciliation pilgrimages for the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical ...

Racial Reconciliation 2.0We are all called to the work of reconciliation. A guest post by Rudy Carrasco
Racial Reconciliation 2.0
Image: Ben Sutherland/flickr

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. –Revelation ...

John Perkins: The Sin of Racism Made Ferguson Escalate So QuicklyThe Christian civil rights leader responds to the shooting death of Michael Brown.
John Perkins: The Sin of Racism Made Ferguson Escalate So Quickly
Image: AP

Five days after the start of this series, on August 9, St. Louis police shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old black man named Michael Brown. Police said Brown had struggled with an officer, while eyewitnesses told CNN he had his hands up and did not to provoke the use of ...

Ten Books on Racial Reconciliation and the Church
Ten Books on Racial Reconciliation and the Church

1. Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart

by Christena Cleveland

An eye-opening look inside the divisions, cliques, and conflicts of the church and the hidden reasons behind them.

2. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View ...

Just Because the Door is Open Doesn't Mean I'm Welcome HereEvery church makes assumptions. It helps to acknowledge them. A guest post by Kathy Khang.
Just Because the Door is Open Doesn't Mean I'm Welcome Here
Image: Artiii/Flickr

Almost 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of America.” Sometimes we Christians want to believe that the Gospel has helped us as the Church achieve what our country has not—becoming ...

Bankruptcy Helped Me Love My NeighborHow one pastor found himself caught up in the mortgage crisis. A guest post by Troy Jackson.
Bankruptcy Helped Me Love My Neighbor
Image: David Shankbone/Flickr

One of the first prayers I learned as a child was the debtor’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. You know, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” It wasn’t until this past year, however, that those words became real to me.

When my wife ...

Confessing My RacismHow forgiveness could transform us all. A Guest post by Anna Broadway.
Confessing My Racism
Image: Flickr

How can Christians seek racial reconciliation, justice and healing? Attempting to answer that question means reckoning with racism. But as a member of the ethnic group that has enjoyed disproportionate power and privilege because of systemic and other forms of racism, attempting ...

In Christ, There Are No Racial StereotypesA call for evangelical leadership in racial reconciliation. A guest post by Michael McBride
In Christ, There Are No Racial Stereotypes
Image: Gofublu/Flickr

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or ...

Why I Stayed in a Predominantly White ChurchSacrificing comfort, gaining unity. A guest post by Trillia Newbell.
Why I Stayed in a Predominantly White Church
Image: liquidnight/flickr

I became a Christian at the age of 22, by way of someone I never would have expected. It was the summer of 1998, four years prior to me submitting my life to the Lord. I was leading a private camp and awaiting the arrival of my assistant. She bounced in with her blonde ponytail, ...

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