Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community, equips pastors to respond with confidence when crises occur, lower their own inhibitions about addressing this topic, and reclaim their authority as prophetic witnesses and leaders in order to transform their communities. Pastors and other church leaders see, to varying degrees, racially rooted injustice in their communities. Most of them understand an imperative, as part of their calling from God, to lead their congregations to address and reverse this injustice. For instance, preachers want to be preaching prophetically on this topic. But the problems seem irreversible, intractable, overwhelming, and pastors often feel their individual efforts will be futile. Additionally, they realize that there is a lot of risk involved, including the possibility that their actions may offend and even push some members away from the church. They do not know what to do or how to begin. And so, even during times of crisis, pastors and other church leaders typically do less than they know they could and should. This book provides practical, foundational guidance, showing pastors how to live into their calling to address injustice, and how to lead others to do the same. Holding Up Your Corner prompts readers to observe, identify and name the complex causes of violence and hatred in the reader’s particular community, including racial prejudice, entrenched poverty and exploitation, segregation, the loss of local education and employment, the ravages of addiction, and so on. The book walks the church leader through a self-directed process of determining what role to play in the leader’s particular location. Readers will learn to use testimony and other narrative devices, proclamation, guided group conversations, and other tactics in order to achieve the following: 
<ul>
<li>Open eyes to the realities in the reader’s community—where God’s reign/kingdom is not yet overcoming selfishness, injustice, inequality, or the forces of evil. </li> <li>Own the calling and responsibility we have as Christians, and learn how to advocate hope for God’s kingdom in the reader’s community.</li> <li>Organize interventions and activate mission teams to address the specific injustices in the reader’s community.</li> </ul>
What Does ‘Holding Up Your Corner’ Mean? The phrase ‘holding up your corner’ is derived from a biblical story (Mark 2: 1 – 5) about four people who take action in order to help another person—literally delivering that person to Christ. For us, ‘holding up your corner’ has meaning in two aspects of our lives today: First, it refers to our physical and social locations, the places where we live and work, and the communities of which we’re a part. These are the places where our assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs have influence on the people around us. When we feel empowered to speak out about the injustice or inequity in our community, we are holding up our corner. Second, the phrase refers to our actions, the ways we step up to meet a particular problem of injustice or inequity, and proactively do something about it. When we put ourselves—literally—next to persons who are suffering, and enter into their situation in order to bring hope and healing to the person and the situation, we are holding up our corner, just like the four people who held up the corner of the hurting man’s mat. Holding Up Your Corner is a passionate, fast-paced, wonderfully practical book. F. Willis Johnson has a gift for Christian communication and he pours all of his gifts and rich pastoral experience into a book that encourages his fellow Christians to acknowledge, affirm, and act in the face of the racism that grips many of us. He displays deliberative theology in the service of instigating talk and action on behalf of racial justice, all in the service of a God who graciously enlists us to work with God to defeat evil. I guarantee that after reading Willis Johnson you will want to work from your corner to become part of God’s work in the world.” --Will Willimon, UM Bishop, retired, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School

Holding Up Your Corner: Talking about Race in Your Community

Religion & Spirituality

Johnson, F. Willis

Christian Books & Bibles

ABINGDON PRESS *

Pastors will drive this process in their local churches. They will read the original book, Holding Up Your Corner, and will organize the Guided Conversations, at least initially. In most cases, the pastor’s church serves as host site for the one- or two-day Conversation experience. People from across multiple boundaries will be invited to participate, including people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, different social locations, different religious or spiritual identities, different genders, and different ages. The DVD includes video clips from clergy and other Christian leaders across the country. Each presenter shares a personal story related to one of the discussion points in the Conversation. These video stories are meant to open participants to new ways of thinking, to spur their own self-examination, to offer a sense of common experience, and to spur thoughtful dialogue.

Holding Up Your Corner DVD: Video Stories about Race

Holding Up Your Corner: Guided Conversations About Race is a unique, conversation-based experience that pastors facilitate for their communities. The resource includes everything pastors need to organize, host, and lead the events: - a one- or two-day Conversation, hosted by the church, including people from the congregation and the wider community - people from various backgrounds gather for large-group presentations and small-group discussions - includes multiple video Conversation Starters from pastors and others across the US who share their own experiences, fears, and realizations about race - face to face conversations lead to radically new understanding - each community determines the outcomes of their own Conversations, which may include new relationships and ministries in the community The Promise for Participants: Our lives change when we sit with one another and converse. When we share our own stories and listen to another. Real, honest, vulnerable conversation leads to empathy. It fosters our understanding and sharpens our convictions. It breaks down barriers and builds surprising new relationships. Conversation leads to change. Gather with diverse people from your community for a series of guided conversations that will empower you individually and together to embody God's promises of hope and justice for all.

Holding Up Your Corner Participant Book: Guided Conversations about Race

Ten personal narratives reveal the shared and distinct struggles of being Black in the Church, facing historic and modern racism. It''s uncertain that Howard Thurman made the remark often attributed to him, "I have been writing this book all my life," but there is little doubt that he was deeply immersed in reflection on the times that bear an uncanny resemblance to the present day, which give voice to the Black Lives Matter movement. Our "life''s book" is filled with sentence upon sentence of marginalization, pages of apartheid, chapters of separate and unequal. Now this season reveals volumes of violence against Blacks in America. 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. Each of the journeys intersect because of three central elements that are the focus of this book. We''re Black. We''re Christians. We''re Methodists. Each starts with the fact, "I''m Black," but to resolve the conflict of being Christian and Methodist means confronting aspects of White theology, White supremacy, and White racism in order to ground an oppositional experience toward domination over four centuries in America."The confluence of the everyday indignities of being Black in America; the outrageous, egregious, legalized lynching of George Floyd; and the unforgivable disparities exposed once again by COVID-19 have conspired together to create a seminal moment in America and in The United Methodist Church--in which we must find the courage to say unambiguously ''Black Lives Matter.'' To stumble or choke on those words is beneath the gospel," says Bishop Gregory Palmer, who wrote the foreword to the collection.Praise for I''m Black. I''m Christian. I''m Methodist."This book made me shout, dance, rage and hope--all at once! As a "cradle Methodist," I have deep love for my church and bless it for nurturing my walk with Christ and my passion for social justice. At the same time, I lament that my church is also the place where I have witnessed and been most wounded by virulent racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ageism. Yet, I stay and struggle for the soul of the church because I am a Black Christian woman fired by the love of God-in-Christ-Jesus. I stay because this is MY church and the church of my ancestors. Although I regularly question my decision to remain United Methodist, it is stories like these--from other exuberant love warriors--that remind me that I am called by God to stay, pray, fight, and flourish!"--M. Garlinda Burton, deaconess and interim general secretary, General Commission of Religion and Race, Washington DC"Racism continues to be the unacceptable scandal of American society and the American churches. In spite of some gains such as the diversity of supporters for "Black Lives Matter," even the best intentioned among us remain largely ignorant of the actual life experience of those who are other than ourselves. This collection of testimonies, edited by Rudy Rasmus, helps remedy that by simply recounting personal stories of being Black, Christian, and Methodist in the United States. White Methodist Christians in particular need to read these stories and take them to heart so that racism and its divisiveness is countered by shared experience and recognition of common humanity across difference. More White Methodists need not only reject racism in our society and church but become active anti-racists willing to do the hard work to create the beloved community, dreamed about by Martin Luther King in the 1960s civil rights movement.--Bruce C. Birch, Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington DC"This book is a powerful collection interweaving personal stories, denominational and intercultural practices, and Black lives bearing hopeful witness. Readers will have their consciousness raised, and they will think more deeply about the meaning of beloved community and the embodiment of the justice of God." --Harold J. Recinos, Professor of Church and Society, Perkins School of Theology/SMU, Dallas, Texas"For hundreds of years, we have not listened. This book is our chance to hear the words of the Black leaders in our church. They will change us, remake us, and reform us. Get ready to be transformed by painful truth and deep love.--Rev. Dr. Dottie Escobedo-Frank, Lead Pastor, Catalina United Methodist Church, Tucson, Arizona"I''m Black gives readers a clear picture of the diversity and value of Black culture in church and society. After reading the dynamic stories told by these faithful, transformative church leaders, Black lives will be cherished, and systemic change for the better will take place."--Joseph W. Daniels, Jr. , Lead Pastor, Emory United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C. "Dr. Rudy Rasmus and others give an insightful look into what it means to be black, Christian and Methodist in America. Their perspectives on the status and plight of being black in America are both engaging and riveting. If you are looking for ways to better understand the nuances and many faces of African American Methodist evangelical life in America, this book is a must-read!"--The Reverend J. Elvin Sadler, D.Min., General Secretary-Auditor, The A.M.E. Zion ChurchAssistant Dean for Doctoral Studies, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio"I endorse this powerful book of Essays conceived and edited by my friend Pastor Rudy Rasmus. It is a book for our current and future realities facing the Black Church a must read." --Deborah Bass , Vice-Chairperson, National BMCR

I'm Black. I'm Christian. I'm Methodist.

History

Rasmus, Rudy

Lightsey, Pamela R.

Coleman, Justin

Smith, Lillian C.

Beasley, Erin

Caldwell-Gross, Jevon

Ross, Vance P.

Graves, Rodney Lorenzo

Butler, Tori C.

World

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