Wait - Is This Racist?: A Guide to Becoming an Anti-racist Church

A Be-It-Yourself Guide to Anti-racism for Churches and Church Leaders Whether you have been an ally for years or just recently opened your eyes to racial injustice, guiding your predominantly white church toward anti-racism is a daunting task. Where do you even begin? White churches especially feel an urgency to respond but at the same time suffer a sense of overwhelmingness and futility, as if no one action, sermon series, or service project will solve the problem of racism in America. And they're right. Instead, we must begin to look deeply at our organizations--our traditions, our ministries, our leadership, our ways of making decisions, our ways of interacting with the world beyond the church--to identify and address implicit biases and to discover how white pseudo-supremacy has been encoded into our way of doing church.

Wait--Is This Racist? is here to guide you and your church through this challenging and uncomfortable work. Intentionally interactive, practical, and biblically based, Wait--Is This Racist? guides church leaders and staff through an examination of all aspects of church life, including leadership, preaching and liturgy, music, small groups, buildings and grounds, and more, to help churches create an action plan that will take them toward not only becoming anti-racist but also actually doing anti-racist work. Offering educational tips, powerful stories, and insightful questions, anti-racism consultants Kerry, Bryana, and Josh will accompany you through this necessary work so that your church can truly become a justice-oriented organization that leans more fully into the kin-dom of God.

Features:

• A clear audit of church operations and reasons why this work is so important
• Workbook-style questions at the end of each chapter
• A workable action plan for churches to implement what they have learned
• Tips, encouragement, and questions for BIPOC leaders in primarily white churches
• Helpful glossary of terms to aid general understanding

Kerry Connelly earned her MDiv at Christian Theological Seminary. She is the author of Good White Racist? Confronting Your Role in Racial Injustice and Pause: Making Time to Walk with God. She lives in New Jersey with her family, where she works as a transformational leadership coach and consultant.

Bryana Clover is the founder and CEO of 1619 Consulting, where she works as a racial equity educator and facilitator for both individuals and organizations. She lives near Raleigh, North Carolina.

Josh Riddick is cofounder of the Kindred Collective, which helps faith communities, nonprofits, and businesses become culturally and racially inclusive. He is a facilitator, public speaker, and systems evaluator. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.