Learning
Resources to help you learn about racism, white privilege and more.
Embracing the Beloved Community is a seven-week biblical study for Sunday School classes or other groups to dive into the ways God calls the church to embrace diversity. The curriculum is designed for congregations new to this topic to journey together in an exploration of the sin of racism and Christ’s vision for the Kingdom of God on Earth.
You can download both the participant’s and facilitator’s guide using the form on this page. The participant’s guide contains group prayers, Scripture, biblical reflection, journal prompts and homework videos. The facilitator’s guide adds notes for leading each session, including worship music suggestions for use during moments of reflection.
Who Will Be a Witness: Getting into good trouble This video is a presentation done by Drew Hart from Messiah University for Bluffton University’s Spiritual Life Week Forum. It is an excellent and informative talk, tracing the history of white supremacy from “Christian” supremacy going all the way back to Constantine. He describes the corruption of theology and the Christian life as a result of such supremacy and illustrates these deformations with his own personal experiences as a college student. And he offers a stirring call to recover the story and life of Jesus as the center of the Christian life as a ground for living faithfully and making “good trouble.” https://youtu.be/wAC7vmzzF0E
- Resource List for Ongoing Work Toward Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Reconciliation (Missional Church Committee)
- Missional Church Committee Webinar: Taking Each Next Step: Anti-racism in Our Homes, Churches, and Conference Watch webinar
- Mennonite Church USA undoing racism resources
- Mennonite Church USA statement on racial injustice
- Mennonite Church USA Webinar on Race, Church and Change
- Here’s a wonderful blog post by Christine V. Hides on building an anti-racist children and family ministry. Don’t miss the link to this fantastic list of resources for folks no matter what stage of readiness they indicate for engaging anti-racism. (Shared by MC USA)
- Expanding Our Witness: Equipping Ministry for Anti-Racist Change Webinar from MennoMedia View at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1599446280218838 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfjEvv4M5FY&feature=youtu.be&utm_content=53a40adfe6bc322a09f743dce2f13f6a&utm_campaign=Expanding%20Our%20Witness%3A%20Recording%20Information&utm_source=Robly.com&utm_medium=email
- We need to engage in more costly peacemaking (Glen Guyton)
- Conference Response to Racial Injustice (Doug Luginbill)
- Donkeys and Stones (Doug Luginbill)
- Ann Jacobs Video: Ain’t I a Woman – Reflections on race, gender and the wholeness of God (Mennonite Mission Network)
- Lufuarn Harvey Video: African American Spirituals – Reminiscing through story and song (Mennonite Mission Network)
- Will LaVeist: Steadfast and Immovable: King, Harding and “Beyond Vietnam” (Mennonite Mission Network)
- Trouble I’ve Seen a book by Drew Hart
- Episodes on Race and Healing from On Being, the NPR podcast with Krista Tippett
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Poor People’s Campaign
- Good intentions are not enough by Paul Gorski and contributed by Doug Luginbill
Worship
Resources that can be used in congregational worship.
- Prayers of Lament: Responding to the violence of racism (MC USA)
- Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope by Kenyetta R Gilbert
- Here’s a wonderful blog post by Christine V. Hides on building an anti-racist children and family ministry. Don’t miss the link to this fantastic list of resources for folks no matter what stage of readiness they indicate for engaging anti-racism. (Shared by MC USA)
Acting Together
Resources to help us translate our belief into action
- Resource List for Ongoing Work Toward Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Reconciliation (Missional Church Committee)
- Three Provocations (Missional Church Committee)
- https://issuu.com/nlc.sf.2014/docs/beyondthestreets_final Some ideas of how to participate in justice activities and demonstrations/protests when you can’t be on the streets (contributed by Isaac Villegas)
- Resolution: A call to greater faithfulness in our witness for peace (Hively Avenue Mennonite Church)
- Justice in June
- Petition for racial justice (Faith in Action)
- Justice fund, policing and protesting (Iris de Leon-Hartshorn, Mennonite Church USA)
Families & Children
Resources from the MC USA Faith Formation website
- Here’s a whole page of anti-racism resources from Forming Faithful Families
- EmbraceRace.org, resources for parents raising children in a world where race matters.
- It’s Never Too Early to Talk About Race from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice from Teaching Tolerance
- Talking to Young Children About Bias and Prejudice from ADL
- Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News from Child Mind Institute.
- How white parents can talk to their kids about race, a Life Kit podcast from NPR
- A Collection of Resources for Teaching Social Justice from CultofPedagogy.com
- How to talk to your children about protests and racism, an article from CNN
- FacingHistory.org, helping students to learn to stop hatred and bigotry
