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“Many white Christians across America are waking up to the fact that something is seriously wrong―but often this is where we get stuck.”
Confronted by the deep-rooted racial injustice in our society, many white Christians instinctively scramble to add diversity to their churches and ministries. But is diversity really the answer to the widespread racial dysfunction we see in the church?
In this simple but powerful book, Pastor David Swanson contends that discipleship, not diversity, lies at the heart of our white churches’ racial brokenness. Before white churches can pursue diversity, he argues, we must first take steps to address the faulty discipleship that has led to our segregation in the first place. Drawing on the work of philosopher James K. A. Smith and others, Swanson proposes that we rethink our churches’ habits, or liturgies, and imagine together holistic, communal discipleship practices that can reform us as members of Christ’s diverse body
David is the founding pastor of New Community Covenant Church, a multiracial congregation on the South Side of Chicago. He is also the CEO of New Community Outreach and previously served as a Director of Church Planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. David and Maggie have been married for 22 years and have two sons.
David’s book, Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Discipleship, is available from InterVarsity Press.
David sends out an occasional newsletter (mostly ) about race, justice, and theology which you can subscribe to here. He also tracks what he’s reading here and keeps a constantly developing reconciliation bibliography here.
David has written for Christianity Today, Leadership Journal, The Englewood Review of Books, The Covenant Companion, Missio Alliance and others. Here are a few of those articles and reviews.
More Pending
