Race is one of the most pressing issues of our time; How should pastors tackle it from the pulpit? In this collection of essays, issues of race and ethnicity are explored from a variety of perspectives, offering guidance to pastors on how to address those topics in their own contexts. Each builds on a foundational passage of Scripture. With contributions from Bryan Loritts, Ray Ortlund, J. D. Greear, and more, Ministers of Reconciliation offers practical and biblically faithful approaches to the subject of race.

Nationally recognized speaker and church leader Jay Augustine demonstrates that the church is called and equipped to model reconciliation, justice, diversity, and inclusion. This book develops three uses of the term "reconciliation": salvific, social, and civil. Augustine examines the intersection of the salvific and social forms of reconciliation through an engagement with Paul's letters and uses the Black church as an exemplar to connect the concept of salvation to social and political movements that seek justice for those marginalized by racism, class structures, and unjust legal systems. He then traces the reaction to racial progress in the form of white backlash as he explores the fate of civil reconciliation from the civil rights era to the Black Lives Matter movement. This book argues that the church's work in reconciliation can serve as a model for society at large and that secular diversity and inclusion practices can benefit the church. It offers a prophetic call to pastors, church leaders, and students to recover reconciliation as the heart of the church's message to a divided world. Foreword by William H. Willimon and afterword by Michael B. Curry.

The Scriptures declare: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)This says that everyone who believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ has been made a "new creature." This cannot be disputed. We were once something and now are something "new." We were not made something new in order to live as we did before. We have been given a purpose. For God who has through Christ reconciled us to Himself, AND has give us the ministry of reconciliation! Most of Christendom is quick to believe and accept the first part of this Scripture and ignore the second. This is demonstrated in the following statistics from the Joshua Project. It says that America has a population of 326,297,000 and 26.82% is evangelical Christians who believe in gospel witness. This means that there should be a Christian population of 87,512,855.4 who actively work towards the common goal of gospel witness.If this is true, then every evangelical Christian in America would have to witness to 3.73 people for all of America to hear the gospel at least once. Let's reproduce this for the entire world. The Joshua Project puts the world population at 7,671,055,000. They say that 7.7% of the population are evangelical Christians. That means that 590,671,235 people identify themselves as Christians who are active in gospel witness. According to these statistics, if every evangelical Christian witnessed to 12.99 people, then the whole world would hear the gospel once. These statistics are mind blowing! How can this be? If you are following along with me, then you understand that there is a disconnect somewhere. Something within these statistics does not add up. Either most evangelical Christians are disobedient to their commission to go and make disciples. Or the statistics are wrong, and there are far fewer evangelical Christians than led to believe. Or this is a both-and situation where there are far fewer evangelical Christians than reported, and some are disobedient to their commission.Either way the problem exists that most of Christianity today doesn't know who the true God of the Bible and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is. Thus, the world doesn't know God. Nor can they know Him because those who say they know Him don't accurately represent Him, nor do they bear witness of Him. So then, how can those who are still enemies of God due to their sin be saved?We who are of Christ's church must know God. Not just for our salvation and personal growth, but for evangelism. Evangelism is not a method, it is personal revelation of who God is, what He has done, and what He will do. Our evangelism, regardless of our knowledge of Him or maturity in Him must come forth from knowing God.This is what the first book "Proclaiming The God We Know" of the series "Ministers of Reconciliation" is about. Growing in our knowledge of God for the purpose of being better equipped to witness of Him to a lost and dying world. Since we who are in Christ have been made ministers of reconciliation it is vitally important that we grow in this occupation. This book is written as a resource to help the Christian grow in their knowledge of God as it pertains to their gospel witness as ministers of reconciliation.

We will never be short on fears. Failure, rejection, sickness, losing a loved one, being alone—the fears we carry are many and heavy. Fear can be a tyrant, a bully we can’t hide from. It can paralyze our spirit, damage our relationships, and hinder our faith. Trillia is no stranger to fear. She has known its harsh grip on her life, but she has also known the gentle hand of God, a peace and a faith from the One who conquers fears. In Fear and Faith, Trillia will encourage you as she reflects on Scripture and her own story. She will show you Jesus, who was tempted like you in every way. She will show you the character of God and how it inspires faith. And she will show you real women who have walked the road of fear—or are still walking it—and how they have found security in the Lord to be their strength. Whatever your fear, you are not alone, nor are you without hope. You have the One who can replace your fear with faith.

The apostle Paul says to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 4:1, "we have this ministry." He continues in verse four of the same chapter to address the blindness of the world because of Satan’s devises to hide the truth of the Gospel. His appeal to the Corinthian Church is to open their hearts and minds that they are the ones who must share the word of reconciliation. These lessons will explore the true ministry of the Church. Not just our organized assemblies, rather what it means for each of us to have a "ministry of reconciliation.