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How can pastors be on the frontlines of community activism while also being faithful to their call? In this episode we speak with Heber Brown, III, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church and founder of the Black Church Food Security Network, about his work for racial justice in Baltimore and beyond.
How can we live into a more multi-ethnic vision for our congregations? In this episode we speak with Jacqui Lewis of Middle Collegiate Church about multi-cultural and multi-racial congregations, plus the joys and challenges of being a multi-ethnic congregation.
HiRho Y. Park has studied how pastoral leaders can be more effective in cross-racial and cross-cultural ministry contexts. These pastors can be bridge builders, she…
Amanda Poppei’s Washington, DC, congregation is engaged in an anti-racism effort aimed at countering racist assumptions embedded in their congregational life and practices. This effort…
How can a congregation focus intentionally on addressing implicit racism within its own institutional and community life? In this episode Amanda Poppei, Senior Leader of the Washington Ethical Society, describes how her community has made anti-racism work an overarching priority — shaping its identity and congregational practices.
A recent editorial in Christianity Today magazine acknowledges how the magazine failed in confronting racism during critical years of the civil rights movement. Lovett H.…
Drawing on his experience in a cross-racial/cross-cultural ministry setting, Albert Shuler explains that successful multicultural ministry depends on clear goals and objectives. The ultimate goal…
How can white Christians talk faithfully about racism? In this episode Carolyn Helsel discusses her book, Anxious to Talk about It, with Lewis Center Associate Director Ann Michel.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. shares recent findings indicating that mixed-race neighborhoods are becoming more common and enduring, even in the suburbs. Data suggest that Americans…
How do you do ministry with people who don’t look like you, sound like you, or think like you? Listen as Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe speaks with thought leader Rev. Jasmine Smothers about insights for doing effective ministry outside one’s native culture.
Pastor Carey Nieuwhof believes the church is uniquely positioned to respond to the political tension and division that characterize our age. He discusses four ways…
Baltimore pastor Dr. C. Anthony Hunt says congregations need to work proactively to strengthen community relations and build trust with police and public officials. He…
Baltimore Pastor C. Anthony Hunt lifts up Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful vision of the Beloved Community, calling on individuals and churches to continue to…
Many of us were skeptical and even downright hostile when Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, initiated the idea of “Race Together” to promote conversations…
Late last year, the world paid tribute to the remarkable life of Nelson Mandela. Some said there had been nothing like it since the death…
One of the vivid images of the 1960s is a picture of African American students walking boldly out of Cornell University’s student union building. They…
In reflecting on the church and race relations over the past forty years, and whether it is possible or even desirable for us to strive…
Ann Michel reviews two books abut the relationship between race and religion. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by…
Leadership requires us to declare that racism is wrong, and we must work constantly to confront it and end it, according to Lovett Weems, writing…
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.