resources

Racial Injustice

calvary edtalk

A Christian History of Race in North America

The history of race in the United States has been both tragic and complex. But how has the church in America addressed, conceived of, and organized itself in light of the cultural conception of race? How can learning about our past help us change our present and our future?

The webinar includes a discussion between Dr. Gregg Quiggle, a local church historian and Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute, and Calvary’s own Rev. Dr. Eric Redmond, Assistant Pastor at Calvary and Professor of Bible at Moody. The webinar also includes a time of audience Q&A moderated by Calvary Senior Pastor Gerald Hiestand.

calvary edtalk

Coming Together, Moving Forward

This panel brings together four Calvary congregants with a view to exploring the issues of race and ethnicity. The panel has four basic sections 1) sharing the panelists personal experiences of race, 2) exploring the reality of racial inequality and prejudice in our country, 3) suggestions for moving forward, and 4) Audience Q&A.

Panelists include: Gerald Hiestand, Eric Redmond, Corazon Ballantine, Amy Brandt, and Donald Robinson

podcast

Shepherding a Politically Diverse Congregation

Are there legitimate "conservative" and "liberal" impulses in the Christian faith? How does personality and temperament relate to political affiliation for church leaders and congregants? How can pastors shepherd their congregations well during a time of heightened political polarization? The podcast of the Center for Pastor Theologians invited Calvary’s Senior Pastor Gerald Hiestand to discuss these and other questions.

Additional Resources


book

In this book, historian Jemar Tisby explores the narrative of how people of faith have historically--up to the present day--worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response. Tisby has also shared the content of this book in a documentary / video study available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church's Complicity in Racism
Jemar Tisby

interview

Race, Gospel, and Justice
Esau McCaulley

This series of articles in Christianity Today includes an exchange between two Wheaton College professors, Ed Stetzer and Esau McCaulley, who is an ordained priest in the Anglican Church in North America. Follow this link to read part 1 and part 2.

book

Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores
Dominique DuBois Gilliard

A Christian perspective on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform. 2018 Reader's Choice Award. Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year.

articles

Additional Articles
Timothy Keller

A helpful four part essay series on biblical justice, personal and systemic racism, critical theory, and meaningful ways of engaging a Christians

calvary edtalk

Books for Children
Various Authors

Calvary Director of Children's Ministry, Taylor Hanson, has put together this list of recommended resources for children:

Videos


video series

Race in America
Phil Vischer


lecture

The Gospel and Race
Dr. Vincent Bacote

Dr. Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College urges us to face racial conflict with a listening ear.

A Liturgy for a Time of Widespread Suffering

Doug McKelvey via The Rabbit Room

Christ Our King, 
Our world is overtaken by unexpected 
calamity, and by a host of attending fears, 
worries, and insecurities. 

We witness suffering, confusion, and 
hardship multiplied around us, and we find
ourselves swept up in these same anxieties and 
troubles, dismayed by so many uncertainties. 

Now we turn to you, O God, 
in this season of our common distress
.

Be merciful, O Christ, to those who suffer, 
to those who worry, to those who grieve, to
those who are threatened or harmed in any 
way by this upheaval. Let your holy compassions 
be active throughout the world even now—
tending the afflicted, comforting the 
brokenhearted, and bringing hope to 
many who are hopeless. 

Use even these hardships to woo our hearts 
nearer to you, O God.

Indeed, O Father, may these days 
of disquiet become a catalyst 
for conviction and repentance,
for the tendering of our affections, 
for the stirring of our sympathies,
for the refining of our love.

We are your people, who are called by you,
We need not be troubled or alarmed.

Indeed, O Lord, let us love now more fearlessly,
remembering that you created us, 
and appointed us 
to live in these very places, 
in the midst of these unsettled times. 

It is no surprise to you that we are here now,
sharing in this turmoil along with the rest of 
our society, for you have called your children 
to live as salt and light among the nations, 
praying and laboring for the flourishing of the 
communities where we dwell, acting as agents of 
your forgiveness, salvation, healing, reconciliation, 
and hope, in the very midst of an often-troubled world.

And in these holy vocations 
you have not left us helpless, O Lord, 
because you have not left us at all. 
Your Spirit remains among us.

Inhabit now your church, O Spirit of the Risen Christ.
Unite and equip your people for the work before them.

Father, empower your children to live as your children. 
In times of distress let us respond, not as those 
who would instinctively entrench for our own 
self-preservation, but rather as those who—in imitation 
of their Lord—would move in humble obedience toward 
the needs and hurts of their neighborhoods and communities.

You were not ashamed to share in our sufferings, Jesus. 
Let us now be willing to share in yours, serving 
as your visible witnesses in this broken world.

Hear now these words, you children of God, 
and be greatly encouraged:
The Lord’s throne in heaven is yet occupied, 
his rule is eternal, and his good purposes 
on earth will be forever accomplished.
So we need never be swayed by the brief and 
passing panics of this age.

You are the King of the Ages, O Christ, 
and history is held in your Father’s hands.
 

We, your people, know the good and glorious 
end of this story. Our heavenly hope is secure. 
In this time of widespread suffering then, 
let us rest afresh in the surpassing peace of that 
vision, that your whole church on earth might be 
liberated to love more generously and sacrificially.

Now labor in and through us, O Lord, extending and 
multiplying the many expressions of your mercy.

Amen.