Drew G.I. Hart - Who Will Be A Witness: Igniting Activism for Gods Justice, Love, and Deliverance

Drew Hart has prophetic fire and pastoral grace. He is one of Americas sharpest young theologians. For far too long, some Christians have tried to dissect elements of the faith that were never meant to be separatedlike faith and works, the great commandment and the great commission, social justice and personal salvation. Dr. Hart reminds us that Jesus and justice are like the blades of a scissors, like two sides of the same coin. In this book, you see that God is both personal and social. God is healing our hearts, and our streets, and our world. Let this book stir up in you a holy indignation and put a fire in your bones. May it birth in you the audacious hope that, with the Spirits help, we can change the world from what it is into what God wants it to be.

Shane Claiborne , author, activist, and cofounder of Red Letter Christians

Drew Hart is an important rising voice in American Christianity. His theology and ethics are rooted in a powerfully productive combination of black prophetic Christianity and Anabaptism. His new book, Who Will Be a Witness? , offers a searching critique of compromised American Christianity and a richly detailed proposal for a better way forward in theology, church life, and social justice practice. I strongly recommend this book!

David P. Gushee , Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, and former president of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics

Drew Hart has done it again! Trouble Ive Seen compellingly and revealingly challenged Christian churches to confront and address their own complicity and participation in racist systems and structures. In Who Will Be a Witness? , Hart courageously, compassionately, and prophetically urges Christians to follow Jesus faithfully by living fully into the radical implications of his teaching, rather than attempting to go halfsies on very serious social concerns in the misguided effort to claim that truth always lies somewhere in the middle. An excellent, accessible introduction to Christian activismand, indeed, its necessitythis book is thoroughly biblical, theologically rich, engagingly practical, and tremendously urgent.

Michael Barram , professor of theology and religious studies at Saint Marys College of California and author of Missional Economics

Drew Harts deep passion for humanity, the gospel, and the calling to alleviate the suffering of people disinherited is on full display. This brilliant public intellectual, preacher, and cultural critic is uniquely gifted to cross denominational, racial, political, and class lines to offer a vision of hope and healing our nation is yearning to hear. Do yourself a favor and purchase this book.

Otis Moss III , senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

Drew Harts Who Will Be a Witness? is a clarion and prophetic call for the church to not remain satisfied with an impotent and disembodied theology of justice within our communities. Harts writing is sermonic as he masterfully enfolds justice and Scripture to point us toward the enfleshed, boundary-transgressing, and power-shifting life of Jesus as its center. This book is a must-readoffering a tangible and compelling way forward for everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus.

Gail Song Bantum , lead pastor of Quest Church

With heart and soul, careful attention to Scripture, and piercing candor about human relationship, Drew Hart summons us to a beautifully holistic vision of Christian witness. He urges us toward holy discomfort. He warns of the danger of individualism. He reminds us of the character of faithful Christian community. And he helps us reimagine what love must beand doin a world desperately in need of Gods justice, true healing, and life-giving good news.

Jeff Chu , cohost of Evolving Faith Conference and author of Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christians Pilgrimage in Search of God in America

Drew Hart is fast becoming a go-to voice for articulating a practical and prophetic Christianity in our time. Dubbed AnaBlacktivism by some, Harts vocation is the jazz improvisation of two prophetic critiques of Christendom: the Black church and peace church traditions. Here is a revolution more radical than that of Barabbas. A liberation that rejects all violence for the militant love of Calvary. In these pages, Hart wields these influences to unmask oppressive economics, white supremacy, and imperialism while revealing what it is for us to take up our cross and follow Jesus for the liberation of others.

Jarrod Mckenna , award-winning peace activist, pastor, founding CEO of Common Grace, and cohost of InVerse podcast

Using powerful imagery and a historical framework, Drew Hart challenges the church to roll up our sleeves. The church of today must reflect our roots and dive deep into responding to the injustice and oppression in our communities. It is time to answer our divine call.

Glen Guyton , executive director of Mennonite Church USA and author of Reawakened: How Your Congregation Can Spark Lasting Change

Drew Hart has written the most challenging and enriching book that I have read in a very long timea book brimming over with moral urgency, uncommon wisdom, and spiritual insight. At its core, it summons the church to do what the American church has seldom doneto discern and then burst the bonds of nationalism, capitalism, American exceptionalism, and white supremacy, and to embrace instead the revolutionary vocation of Jesus on behalf of marginalized people. But it goes beyond that summons to give us the tools we need to accomplish that taska richer understanding of Jesus and the entire biblical text, penetrating insights into both Euro-American history and popular culture, and practical strategies the church can use if it hopes to serve as a liberating, redemptive force in our world.

Richard T. Hughes , author of Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning

The call to follow Jesus is a revolutionary one. Its a call to reimagine a world often marked by dominance in order to embrace deliverance; a call to embody the prophetic mandate to liberate the world from the shackles of systemic sin in all the forms it takes. Drew Hart offers us a powerful vision to be a people on the liberating journey. Im inspired by his depth of insight, social and spiritual analysis, and the demandingyet accessibleways he names for living faithfully to God. I highly recommend this book!

Rich Villodas , lead pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, and author of The Deeply Formed Life

Herald Press

PO Box 866, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803

www.HeraldPress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hart, Drew G. I., author.

Title: Who will be a witness : igniting activism for God's justice, love,

and deliverance / Drew G. I. Hart.

Description: Harrisonburg, Virginia : Herald Press, 2020. | Includes

bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020009959 (print) | LCCN 2020009960 (ebook) | ISBN

9781513806587 (paperback) | ISBN 9781513806594 (hardcover) | ISBN

9781513806600 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Communities--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Social

justice--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Jesus Christ--Example. |