What is Racist? A Guide to Becoming an Anti-Racist Church

Author: Kerry Connelly with Bryana Clover and Josh Riddick

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.