Derwin L. Gray - How to Heal Our Racial Divide: What the Bible Says, and the First Christians Knew, about Racial Reconciliation

The question, Are we experiencing a racial divide? is easy to answer. How to heal this divide is a conversation we should all be interested in right now. Derwin pastors each of us with his words as he shows us why this all matters and what Gods Word says about it all. With every word of this book, I felt pastored, encouraged, and enlightened.

JAMIE IVEY, bestselling author and host of The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey podcast

When I want to learn about healing, I listen to someone who has been a healer. Thats one of the many reasons I listen to Derwin Gray. He has not just advocated for racial justice and reconciliation, he has worked toward it and demonstrated it in his life and ministry.

ED STETZER, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College

Derwin Gray is a trusted voice for looking at what the Bible has to say about one of the most divisive topics of our day. In How to Heal Our Racial Divide Dr. Gray sets us up by looking into both the narrative arc of Scripture as well as its explicit commands (orthodoxy) and then moves us to the application of the Scriptures in our disciple-making (orthopraxy). There are many books on this subject but few that deal with it as biblically and hopefully as this one.

MATT CHANDLER, lead pastor of The Village Church

Americas racism is not so much its original sin as it is the churchs scourge. In this book Derwin Gray, block by block, slowly and carefully, lays the foundations and begins to build the Bibles own house designed by God for all people. Racisms scourge has always had a biblical prophetic word (sin) and a biblical prophetic vision (the multiethnic church), but many have walked away from Gods design. We need fewer people criticizing and more pastors like Derwin Gray creating solutions to the problem. This book can help heal our nation. Be Tov!

SCOT M C KNIGHT, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

This book is an inspiring and timely grace-driven manifesto from one of the worlds most respected preachers. Avoiding both simplistic answers and despairing cynicism, this book shows us why racial justice and reconciliation are not distractions from the gospel but a central theme of Jesus call to repentance and life together. Read this book and pass it along to a friend. We need it right now.

RUSSELL MOORE, public theologian at Christianity Today

Dr. Derwin Gray is not an author with a big social media following that he leverages to talk about things hes not personally invested in. Derwin is all in on Gods multiethnic family in every sphere of his life. How to Heal Our Racial Divide is a hopeful offering which pours out of a life committed to healing the divide.

DR. BRYAN LORITTS, author of Insider Outsider and teaching pastor at The Summit Church

Why are you always talking about racism? Just preach the gospel! Derwin Gray says he hears this a lotso do I. I love Grays answer: because its a part of the worlds story of sin, because it was on Jesus heart, because reconciliation and unity are a part of Gods beautiful gospel, and because Scripture casts a vision for a many-colored church family living as one. I encourage you to read this book with an open Bible and an open heart. Gray will help you see the racially divided church and world through Gods eyes, and he will equip you to hear the call to become a faithful reconciler in the name of Jesus.

NIJAY K. GUPTA, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

How to Heal Our Racial Divide by Pastor Derwin Gray has given me a new categorycolor-blessed. In the body of Christ, it is a sacred blessing for us as diverse people to stand together as one in him. Thank you, Pastor Gray, for helping us embrace this blessing so that everyone can see Jesus really is the Prince of Peace.

RAY ORTLUND, president of Renewal Ministries, Nashville

In a world where we cant even agree on how to talk about racism or why it matters, pastor and theologian Derwin Gray takes us back to the heart of God. From Abraham to Jesus, from Babel to Pentecost, Gray unpacks the biblical vision of Gods plan to create a single, worldwide, multiethnic family in Jesus Christ. Full of theological depth, personal vulnerability, and pastoral guidance, this book is a Spirit-breathed manifesto for our cultural moment, a clarion call for the church to be, by the grace of God, all that we were called and redeemed to be.

REV. DR. GLENN PACKIAM, associate senior pastor of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, and author of The Resilient Pastor and Blessed Broken Given

Derwin Gray has been a trusted teacher and guide for me on my journey toward understanding racial unity and reconciliation. His prophetic voice is needed now more than ever, and I trust these pages will bring healing and clarity to a divided world.

BRADY BOYD, senior pastor of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, and author of Addicted to Busy and Extravagant

This book is phenomenal. Every Christian needs to read this, and every pastor needs to take their church through this book. Just wow! If you are going to read one book on healing the racial divide, read this book, and then give a copy to everyone you know. In How to Heal Our Racial Divide, Derwin writes as both a theologian and practitioner, showing us that gospel-shaped racial reconciliation and racial justice is the natural overflow of life in Christ.

CHRISTINE CAINE, founder of A21 and Propel Women

Many in our society are ignoring the churchs voice when it comes to the most important and divisive issues of our day. There are two reasons. First, many of the church leaders addressing these issues are merely echoing and amplifying angry culture war rhetoric. And second, far too many church leaders are afraid to say anything at all. Thank God for Derwin Gray. Driven by neither anger nor fear, he wisely draws from Scripture to show us both the evil of racism and the healing that is possible through Jesus Christ. With thoughtfulness born from pastoral experience, Dr. Grays is a voice both the church and our society needs to hear right now.

SKYE JETHANI, cohost of The Holy Post podcast and author of WithGodDaily.com

This is the book Ive been waiting for on racial reconciliation. Not written by an activist, historian, or sociologist but a pastor who sees it all through the lens of the gospel. He writes as he lives and preachesto the whole body of Christ. Nothing is left out. Would to God that Id had this book when we started intentionally integrating Northwood Church.

BOB ROBERTS, global senior pastor of Northwood Church,
founder of Glocal.net, and cofounder of Multi-Faith Neighbors
Network

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How to Heal Our Racial Divide: What the Bible Says, and the First Christians Knew, about Racial Reconciliation

Copyright 2022 by Derwin L. Gray. All rights reserved.

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