February is Black History Month, and anti-racism is a priority of the North Carolina Conference and The United Methodist Church. The print and online resources listed here will enable your church or small group to learn more about and participate in anti-racism.
Request These Resources
These resources can be borrowed for free by anyone involved with a United Methodist Church in the North Carolina Conference. We will mail them to your home! All you need to do is fill out the Resource Request Form.
The online resources listed below can be obtained by following the links to their websites.
New Resources You Can Borrow
Justice or Just Us? The Biblical Call to Confront Racism by Rob Fuquay, Nicole Caldwell-Gross, and Jevon Caldwell-Gross. This 4-session video study helps you acknowledge the reality of racism in our world today, as well as our Christian responsibility to oppose it as individuals and together as the church.
Each video is approximately twenty minutes long, with places to pause and discuss questions with your small group. A downloadable leader pack can be purchased from Cokesbury to help leaders facilitate the discussion and take the next steps of making an anti-racism commitment at your church.
The authors are pastors at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. This resource is based on a sermon series and anti-racism commitment at that church.
I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist. edited by Rudy Rasmus. Ten Black women and men explore life through the lens of compelling personal religious narratives. They are people and leaders whose lives are tangible demonstrations of the power of a divine purpose and evidence of what grace really means in face of hardship, disappointment, and determination.
One of the ten authors who contribute to this book is NC Conference pastor Justin Coleman who writes about pastoring a white Methodist Church. Rev. Coleman recently spoke about the book on the NC Conference podcast, Voices.
All of the authors participated in an online discussion of the book hosted by M. Garlinda Burton, the Interim General Secretary of The General Commission on Religion and Race.
There’s a Storm Comin’: How the American Church Can Lead Through Times of Racial Crisis by Dr. Harold Dorrell Briscoe Jr. Drawing from current sociological, psychological, and political research, Dorrell makes the case that the church must take proactive measures to prepare for racialized crises.
Dorrell then recommends strategies drawn from the academic and professional fields of climate change adaptation and natural disaster mitigation. These insights are synthesized with biblical data to create a framework that gives churches practical steps to prepare for and respond to racialized crises that inflict trauma on the social fabric of America.
Dr. Harold Dorrell Briscoe, Jr. is a writer, speaker, pastor, and public theologian. He finished his Doctor of Ministry degree at Duke University in 2017. He is the founder and Lead Pastor of The Six:Eight Church in Durham, North Carolina. Six:Eight’s vision is to build a gospel community that is intentionally diverse, cross-cultural and neighborhood-centered by engaging and developing ministries in Downtown Durham and the Hayti Community.
Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now by Brenda Salter McNeil. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. Looking through the lens of the biblical narrative of Esther, McNeil challenges Christian reconcilers to recognize the particular pain in our world so they can work together to repair what is broken while maintaining a deep hope in God’s ongoing work for justice.
This book offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. It challenges Christians to be everyday activists who become brave enough to break the silence and work with others to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.
Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil is associate professor of reconciliation studies at Seattle Pacific University and director of the Reconciliation Studies program. She is also associate pastor of preaching and reconciliation at Quest Church in Seattle. She has led the church in pursuing reconciliation efforts over the past three decades. In this work, she has come to the conviction that reconciliation is not true reconciliation without justice.
How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby. Tisby has written a handbook for pursuing racial justice with hands-on suggestions bolstered by real-world examples of change. He offers an array of actionable items to confront racism in our relationships and in everyday life through a simple framework–the A.R.C. Of Racial Justice–that helps readers consistently interrogate their own actions and maintain a consistent posture of anti-racist action. Tisby roots the ultimate solution to racism in the Christian faith as we embrace the implications of what Jesus taught his followers.
Readers of the book will come away with a clear model for how to think about race in productive ways and a compelling call to dismantle a social hierarchy long stratified by skin color.
Jemar Tisby (BA, University of Notre Dame, MDiv Reformed Theological Seminary) is the New York Times Bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective where he writes about race, religion, politics, and culture. He is also cohost of the Pass the Mic podcast. He has spoken nationwide at conferences and his writing has been featured in the Washington Post, CNN, and Vox. Jemar is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Mississippi studying race, religion, and social movements in the twentieth century.
Additional Resources You Can Borrow
Our entire collection of anti-racism books, studies, and more is listed in our Anti-Racism pathfinder. This list includes resources for children.
We also have many resources on the history of Black people in The United Methodist Church. You can find a list of these and other relevant resources in our African American Resources pathfinder. This list includes resources for children.
During the George Floyd protests, we posted a list of 9 Things Your Church Can Do to Fight Racism with recommended print and online resources.
Online Resources
Message from Our Bishop
In this short video, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward encourages the continued pursuit of anti-racism and recommends two online videos to begin conversations.
Anti-Racism Website
In February 2021, the NC Conference will launch a new anti-racism web page that will explore our strategy, stories, resources, and more.
NC Conference Podcasts
The Directors of Connectional Ministries from The North Carolina Conference gathered to discuss efforts in anti-racism on a personal and conference-wide level in this episode of the Voices podcast. Part 2 is also available.
The NC Conference has also launched a new podcast, Deep Reckonings, with personal stories from experiences with culture, race, and racism.
Lenten Study
The Baltimore-Washington Conference has posted a free Lenten study that can be done with any adult small group on your own time, Reclaiming and Living Covenant: A Lenten Experience of Scripture, UMC Social Principles and Antiracist Action to Build Beloved Community.
De-Colonizing the Church Webinar Series
A team of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) pastors and church planters developed a five-week webinar in the hopes that judicatory leaders, pastors, and laity could learn more about the inherent racism in the church and commit to de-colonize The United Methodist Church in America. Join De-Colonizing the Church: A Commitment to Anti-Racism every Thursday from 2-3:15 p.m. beginning February 18th.
Asian American Anti-Racism Statement
The Asian American Language Ministry Plan, the New Federation of Asian American United Methodists, and the General Board of Church and Society produced a video statement against racism read by 12 young people representing 12 Asian-American Caucuses of the United Methodist Church. One of the young people in the video is Kristina De Jesus, daughter of Rev. Edgar De Jesus (Lead Pastor of Davis Street UMC). Kristina is currently serving as the CYC Representative of the Corridor District.
R-Squared by GCORR
The General Commission on Religion and Race hosts an online resource hub, R-Squared. It includes online classes, workbooks to download, discussion guides, videos, tip sheets, infographics, worship resources, and more.
Resource UMC
Find a collection of online resources for racial justice work created by the general agencies of The United Methodist Church on the Resource UMC website.
UMC Panel Discussions
Several agencies of The United Methodist Church have hosted online panel discussions on dismantling racism. These discussions are still happening periodically and recorded conversations can be viewed online.
Discipleship Ministries
Discipleship Ministries of the UMC has collected Resources for Responding to Systemic Racism to help churches address the topics of racism, systemic oppression, violence, and more. It includes featured resources from around the denomination and a sign-up for daily prayers for anti-racism.
Acting Against Racism
The Christian Century recently published a free 14-page downloadable guide, Acting Against Racism, that offers articles from the Century’s archives, study questions meant to spark thought and conversation, and specific action steps to pursue.
Race and Christianity in the U.S.
This free online video series by Professor Sarah Ruble traces the history of slavery, racism, and the involvement of the Christian church in the United States. A free online study guide is also available.
Becoming an Anti-Racist Church
This downloadable mini-course is designed to give participants a chance to review and unpack the concepts and vocabulary introduced in the two-day Racial Equity Institute (REI) Phase I anti-racism workshop. The curriculum was developed and is offered by Episcopalians United Against Racism.