“[Black] dignity has lingered in a state of confusion for generations in this country as we’ve faced constant harassment, false theologies, white supremacy, syncretistic evangelicalism, and civic oppression,” writes Dr. Eric Mason. Consequently, the task of such apologetics is to … Continue reading The Nature and Necessity of Urban Apologetics | Influence Podcast
According to Pew Research Center, the Assemblies of God is one of the most diverse Protestant denominations in the United States. AG statistics show that 56% of AG adherents are white and 44% ethnic minority. However, statistics also show that … Continue reading 7 Steps to Diversifying AG Leadership | Influence Podcast
The Assemblies of God (USA) is a racially and ethnically diverse denomination, 56% white and 44% minority. The diversity of its adherents is not matched by the diversity of its leadership, however, especially at the level of district leadership. Not … Continue reading Wings to Rise | Book Recommendation
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.” King said this about race in 1963, but it is still largely true today. According to sociologist … Continue reading Becoming a Church that Crosses Racial and Economic Divides | Influence Podcast
Neighborliness is a beautifully written book that is difficult to categorize in terms of genre. Part memoir, part social analysis, part plan of action, the book explores what happens when Christians reach across the dividing lines of race and economic … Continue reading Neighborliness | Book Review
On June 4, North Central University hosted the funeral for George Floyd. NCU is an Assemblies of God school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the days that followed the funeral, my Facebook timeline was filled with Christian folk weighing in on … Continue reading Weep with Me | Book Review
The Bible begins with a family and ends with a multitude. Its narrative arc thus includes unity and diversity. Because of creation, all who bear the image of God are also children of Adam and Eve. Because of the new … Continue reading Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0 | Book Review
The events of the past week have set America on fire. It began on Monday, March 25th, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the death of George Floyd, a black man. Video of the event showed the white arresting officer, Derek Chauvin, … Continue reading What Racial Reconciliation Requires | Influence Podcast
On December 3, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. opened the first annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change in Montgomery, Alabama, with a message titled, “Facing the New Age.” The institute was sponsored by the Montgomery Improvement Association, which King led. Almost a year to the day earlier, Montgomery police had arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white man. Her arrest began a yearlong bus boycott that ended with a Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of public transportation throughout Alabama. King began his address by noting that both around … Continue reading Welcoming Justice, 2nd ed. | Book Review
The word woke is slang for being “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” Dr. Eric Mason appropriates this term to describe a church that has been “awakened to the reality of implicit and explicit racism and injustice in [American] society.” Such a church is characterized by four attributes: Awareness of the “overarching truths” that unite the Body of Christ, including the relationship of justice to the gospel (chapter 2) and the Church as the holy family of God (chapter 3); Acknowledgement of the history of racism among American Christians (chapter 4), … Continue reading Woke Church | Book Review
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