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.

This book is a description of what the church ought to be. Gish purposes to deal with the concrete issues of what it really means to be a Christian community, the body of Christ.

Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation offers a valuable elucidation of the importance mission as ministry of reconciliation. It expounds on the practical implications of this understanding in a variety of settings. It brings together perspectives from different church traditions, including the Lausanne Movement and the Catholic Church, and also speaks about the socio-ethical implications of mission. In short, this rich book affirms that there is hope--even if it is hope in a fragile world, as the concluding chapter puts it. At the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope and reconciliation. Nothing could be more relevant or necessary in a broken world, and this book centers such a message at the heart of mission.