Welcome to The Ministry Lab's curated list of resources to help foster congregational engagement in the work of anti-racism and ending white supremacy culture. For study and conversation prompts, please see our Talking about Racism guides for Children and Parents; Tweens & Teens; and Young Adults & Adults.
Here you'll find opportunities for:
If you don't find a resource to fit your need, don't hesitate to consult with The Ministry Lab's director, Rev. Emily Meyer, who is happy to assist you.
Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza urges us to speak out against white supremacy and racism taking shape in voter suppression in God Must Be Rewarding Georgia.
Hollaback and Asian Americans Advancing Justice teamed up to create free Bystander Intervention Trainings. See here for dates and details.
Linden Hills UCC (Minneapolis) offers Acts of Charity in Response to George Floyd.
Support the Minneapolis uprisings
Uprising Minnesota provides concrete steps for action and engagement.
Global Ministries EarthKeepers is a training program that equips US-based United Methodists to launch and grow environmental projects in their communities. Topics include eco-theology, anti-racism, community organizing, and project planning. All participants plan a project during the training. Find out more and apply.
In A Time For Reckoning: North American Christianity and Indigenous Cultural Genocide, Mike Morrell offers a call to awareness, humility, repentance, and action; includes resource lists for reading/study; supporting, enjoying and learning from Indigenous artists; and specific actions for individuals, households, and congregations.
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie’s mission is to advance racial justice and equity, heal damage caused by race-based trauma and elevate marginalized voices and experiences. We achieve our mission in three ways: by using the powerful Black cultural food tradition of making and delivering sweet potato pies; by facilitating story-circle dialogues with intentional listening and authentic sharing; and by building multicultural alliances/relationships that deepen commitment to racial justice work.
Get involved here.
Support the Minneapolis uprisings
Uprising Minnesota provides concrete steps for action and engagement.
The Centering the Silenced Summit featured 15 voices that have been historically marginalized and silenced. These humans answered one main question for us - what is the single greatest social or liberative challenge facing us, as Christians, at this time? During our chats, we spent some time breaking down their answer and looking at the critical and practical ways that the Church should respond.
Faith, Beliefs, and Revolutionary Love
In his book Faith After Doubt, Brian McLaren describes four stages of the faith journey—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—through which we move repeatedly over the course of our lives. As we grow in faith, our specific beliefs become less important than the revolutionary love to which we are called.
In A Time For Reckoning: North American Christianity and Indigenous Cultural Genocide, Mike Morrell offers a call to awareness, humility, repentance, and action; includes resource lists for reading/study; supporting, enjoying and learning from Indigenous artists; and specific actions for individuals, households, and congregations.
Antiracism Study Dialogue Circles (ASDIC) is an esteemed antiracism workshop provider operating from Montevideo, MN, across Minnesota and nationally. ASDIC has worked across different sectors, customizing its work to the particular focus and formats needed by organizations. ASDIC’s programs are noted for their depth of analysis, opportunity for dialogue and reflection, building of relationship and community, and lasting transformative change. ASDIC was founded in 2004 by Okogyeamon, a former monk, teacher, and now ordained UCC minister, and Margery Otto, an attorney.
Joe Davis and David Scherer together are JUSTmove which offers anti-racism performances, retreats, courses, and consulting for individuals and congregations.
Please read Scherer's article: Why Shame Is Not Effective
See their To My Beloved Children video - appropriate for all ages.
The Ministry Lab is excited to share access to Rev. Jia Starr Brown's transformative series, Journey to Freedom: Embracing God's Cultural Mosaic of People. Along with diversity trainings, Bible studies, and book groups, the 2020 them, Intersectionality, was brought to life by six guest preachers reflecting on John 4:4-26 (The Woman at the Well) and poetry and music from Minnesota-based artists.
See Joe Davis' invitation to Deepen Humility and Compassion with the IDI; develop institutional intercultural awareness and competence; and/or join Round 2 of Davis' and Dave Scherer's Next Faithful Move.
ISAIAH is a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition of faith communities fighting for racial and economic justice in Minnesota.
Several blogs highlighting ways congregations can work for systemic change:
Rev. Dr. Ronald Bell Jr. implores that we Do Not Look Away!
Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs of the MN Council of Churches' Open Letter to White Clergy
Anahkwud Mihgiizay, Ajiijak Dodem’s (Wendy Stone’s) post on Ways Minnesota’s White Churches Need to Use Their Power and Faith
Multifaith Anti-Racism Change & Healing’s (MARCH) Statement;
African American college student, Lucy Smith’s, conversation with her white clergy mom, Rev. Mary Austin
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival's list of Demands on Systemic Racism and Police Violence
Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, Minnesota Freedom Fund, CTUL, COPAL, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, NAACP Minneapolis, Voices for Racial Justice
MPD150's report asking us to imagine a different relationship to policing as a society
Interfaith Action of Greater St Paul provide support and encouragement to folks living on the margins through:
The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) is a statewide interfaith legislative advocacy coalition working to advance opportunities for economic and housing security and social and racial justice for all Minnesotans. The MN Council of Churches is the Protestant partner.
You can see their 2021 legislative agenda here. For more information, contact Joan Miltenberger at the JRLC - jmiltenberger@jrlc.org, 612-230-3232.
An Interactive Journal on Christian Social Justice offers numerous and varied ways to engage.
RECLAIM the Block networks neighborhood organizations for local solutions to safety, affordable housing, hunger/food deserts, and unjust policing.
Racial equity in the areas of education, family achievement, home-ownership and more.
Daily Meditations on Restorative Justice (September 6-11):
For personal practice or community discussions.
Executive Director Mark Sundby, referencing this twitter thread by Aisha Ahmad advises that now (09.29.20) is the time to lean in to conversation about race.
Reconciling relationships with nature: In a video released by United Methodist Global Ministries, Rev. Tyler Sit, an EarthKeeper who serves New City Church in Minneapolis, shares the importance of connecting with the Earth and how leading a program that provides nature-based therapy in support of people of color is impacting his community. Watch video
The Revolutionary Love Project, founded by civil rights leader and prophetic voice Valarie Kaur, inspires and equips people to build beloved community where they are, teaching ten core practices of revolutionary love, backed by research and infused with ancestral wisdom. They center the voices of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities in their educational tools, training courses, artwork, music, and stories. In an era of great transition, they believe that we can birth a world where we see no stranger. Each of us has a role. When we lead with love, we labor with joy.
