Guess Who’s Coming to Lunch: a request for resources

In 2006, two men in Hope Church sponsored, and Hope’s associate pastor Geoff and I taught, a series of lunch sessions on the subject of work for downtown area business people. The idea was to bring Christians and non-Christians together in a non-threatening environment where a relevant topic could be taught and discussed from a Christian world view. The lunches were billed as “Food for Thought”.

These meetings were not an overwhelming success, but the response was positive enough to warrant continuing the idea. So, for four Thursday lunches in October we will hold “Food for Thought II”. Then venue will change, the cost of the food will fall, but the purpose will be the same: to bring a Christian world view to an issue of relevance.

We have settled upon a general topic for these sessions, the topic of race.

Though we who are white like to think that we have put behind us our racial biases and those who are black like to think they have risen above resentment and anger, these reactions to race still plague us. We would like to consider the depth of the current problem together with some Biblical and practical means of moving beyond our pasts and bringing healing first at the relational level, and then (perhaps) at the social, economic, and political level.

Here is the problem: Geoff and I are clearly white. We have never had to sit in the back of a bus and we have never been looked at with suspicion because of our pigmentation. We are thrilled that Pastor James Roberts of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church has enthusiastically agreed to help us with this. Pastor Roberts knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of racial prejudice, and he has a heart for bridging the divide that still exists between white and black.

But we would like further resources. If any of you know of books, articles, messages, whatever, which address the subjects of race and racism in a helpful way, especially from a Christian perspective, we would appreciate your alerting us to those resources.

We don’t know if we are being foolish or brave (the differences are slight) in taking this on. What we do sense is that God is in it and is leading us. We have no idea what He plans to do with this. Please give us your ideas, resources, and your prayers.