So often God speaks to us as a group and we need to learn to see ourselves as a “we,” not just “me” when it comes to our lives as Christians. On this episode Jeff and Emily talk to a sociologist, Dr. Korie Little Edwards, and theologian Dr. Soong-Chan Rah about race and the church in the United States. We talk about the needs to listen to the gifts of everyone in the body, the impacts on leaders of color in multiracial churches, and various ways that we can all respond to the things we hear and observe as we learn about how God is at work in the church today.
Soong-Chan Rah is the Robert Boyd Munger Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Seminary. He is the author of many books including The Next Evangelicalism and his most recent Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, co-authored with Mark Charles.
Korie Little Edwards is an Associate Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University and editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. She is the author of several books including the Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches and the forthcoming Smart Suits, Tattered Boots: Black Ministers Mobilizing the Black Church in the Twenty-First Century.
Missio Alliance Comment Policy
The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles.
Unfortunately, because of the relational distance introduced by online communication, “thoughtful engagement” and “comment sections” seldom go hand in hand. At the same time, censorship of comments by those who disagree with points made by authors, whose anger or limited perspective taints their words, or who simply feel the need to express their own opinion on a topic without any meaningful engagement with the article or comment in question can mask an important window into the true state of Christian discourse. As such, Missio Alliance sets forth the following suggestions for those who wish to engage in conversation around our writing:
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If you disagree with something the an author said, consider framing your response as, “I hear you as saying _________. Am I understanding you correctly? If so, here’s why I disagree. _____________.
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One of our favorite tenants is that “an enemy is someone whose story we haven’t heard.” Very often disagreements and rants are the result of people talking past rather than to one another. Everyone’s perspective is intimately bound up with their own stories – their contexts and experiences. We encourage you to couch your comments in whatever aspect of your own story might help others understand where you are coming from.
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