As we pursue racial/ethnic reconciliation in the Church together, we would encourage you as a First Step, to begin discussing the 10 Statements on Race, Racism, and the Gospel (click here) from Pastor Matt with a small group. There are many Scriptures associated with each point that could provide Biblical direction to guide your conversations together. You might consider discussing one point a week with your small group or walking through all of them at once with a small group or group of friends.
 
As a Second Step, we would encourage you to choose one of the books below to study with a multi-ethnic group, if possible, so you can gain various perspectives. If your small group is not multi-ethnic, perhaps you can join with another group or invite some friends to join you just for a few weeks for the study. 

Timothy Keller challenges many preconceived beliefs about "doing justice" and presents the Bible as a fundamental source for promoting justice and compassion for those in need. In Generous Justice, he explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous justice. This book offers readers a new understanding of modern justice, human rights, and racial reconciliation that will resonate with both the faithful and the skeptical.

One Blood is Dr. Perkins' final manifesto on race, faith, and reconciliation. The racial reconciliation of our churches and nation won't be done with big campaigns or through mass media. It will come one loving, sacrificial relationship at a time. The gospel and all that it encompasses has always traveled best relationally. We have much to learn from each other and each have unique poverties that can only be filled by one another. The way forward is to become "wounded healers" who bandage each other up as we discover what the family of God really looks like. Real relationships, sacrificial love between actual people, is the way forward. Nothing less will do.

In an effort to bridge the canyon of misunderstanding, insensitivity, and hurt, Mark Vroegop writes about the practice of lament, which he defines as "the biblical language of empathy and exile, perseverance and protest." Encouraging you to "weep with those who weep" (Rom. 12:15), Vroegop invites you to mourn with him over the brokenness that has caused division and to use lament to begin the journey toward a diverse and united church.

With racial tensions as high within the church as outside the church, it is time for Christians to become the leaders in the conversation on racial reconciliation. This biblically-based guide helps readers deepen their understanding of historical factors and present realities, equipping them to participate in the ongoing dialogue and to serve as catalysts for righteousness, justice, healing, transformation, and reconciliation.

Weaving his own story into this word to the church, Tony Evans tells of a life spent between two worlds. As a young theologian he straddled black, urban culture and white, mainline evangelicalism. Now, three decades later, he offers seasoned reflections on matters of history, culture, the church, and social justice. In doing so he gives us a biblical and pastoral guide for striving for unity across racial and socioeconomic divides.