Crocodile's Crossing: A Search for Home Written & Illustrated by Yoeri Slegers Ages 3-7. It introduces children to the complex topic of immigration. Featuring bright artwork packed with playful details, this thoughtful tale sensitively portrays the challenges faced by refugees and other newcomers. A downloadable discussion guide is available.
My Two Blankets written and illustrated by Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood. It is an excellent book for preschool and elementary age youth, as it follows a young girl who must leave her home and who moves to a new country. Now she is a girl who not only has two countries but two blankets where she belongs and feels at home.
In episode 1 of our “Talks at the Desk” series, we learned about Deanna Branch and her family's journey facing lead poisoning. Here is a clip from the episode, Deanna reading her own "A Poem for My Sons."
Aidan: The Lead-Free Superhero
by Deanna Branch, Aidan Branch (Illustrator). This book, supported by ELCA World Hunger, tells the story of the Detroit lead crisis with pictures from a real life young boy and words from his mom. |
50 Cities of the U.S.A. by Gabrielle Balkan and illustrated by Sol Linero. Wonderful diversity of people, ages and sexuality lifted up as influential in their home cities. A gift for discussion on diversity perhaps for a summer or intergenerational program.
"I Am An American: The Wong Kim Ark Story" by Martha Brockenbrough with Grace Lin and illustrated by Julia Kuo.
It is an important picture book that introduces young readers to the young man who challenged the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen and won, confirming birthright citizenship for all Americans. |
For Beautiful Black Boys
Who Believe in a Better World written by Michael W. Waters and illustrated by Keisha Morris. Available for Preorder for September 2020. FREE discussion guide. 
The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver - by Gene Barretta and illustrated by Frank Morrison. A great way to tell the story of someone who deserves to be more of a household name. Great for ages 4-6
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Books Recommended for Adults: |
1517 Media Books/DVDS: |
Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has become a leading figure as an interpreter of the human condition, and an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country, and our current era of upheaval.
The book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is poetically written and brilliantly researched. It invites us to discover the inner workings of an American hierarchy that goes far beyond the confines of race, class or gender. Podcast: Oprah Winfrey and author Isabel Wilkerson, take listeners through the 8 Pillars of Caste, featured in the Oprah’s Book Club selection "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents." The Northern Illinois Synod created a well crafted leader and participant discussion guide which you can download BELOW for free.
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Dialogues On: Race from Sparkhouse is a series designed to create a trusting environment for small groups, engage in conversations about local and worldwide issues, turn conflict into community, and build lasting relationships. The facilitator guide includes a new technique for each session to further those goals. Dialogues On sessions task participants with reading about a weekly topic, gathering in a small group to discuss what they've learned, watching a video featuring a leading voice, and sharing ideas with the group.
Dialogues On: Race spans seven sessions and includes topics such as the social construct of race, the Bible and race in America, anti-blackness, the erasure of Native American stories, the intersection of race and gender, and the problem with rushing to reconciliation. Contributors to the learner book include Rozella Haydée White, Lenny Duncan, and Jim Bear Jacobs. 
White Savior: Racism in the American Church From Sparkhouse - This documentary repackages content from the Dialogues On: Race course and presents it in the form of a documentary available to individuals and groups not able to do the entire course. Based on interviews and current research, the documentary film White Savior explores the historic relationship between racism and American Christianity, the ongoing segregation of the church in the US, and the complexities of racial reconciliation. (*Available for streaming on Amazon Prime.)
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30-Day Journey with Martin Luther King Jr. By Jonathan Chism
30 day journey with martin luther king jrMartin Luther King Jr. led a country from division, racism, and hate toward unity and equality. Through brief daily readings and reflections, the 30-Day Journey series invites readers to be inspired and transformed through meaningful reflection and spiritual growth. This journey provides the perfect way to engage the thought of this hero of the Civil Rights Movement. |
Parable of the Brown Girl:
The Sacred Lives of Girls of Color The stories of girls of color are often overlooked, unseen, and ignored rather than valued and heard. In Parable of the Brown Girl, minister and youth advocate Khristi Lauren Adams introduces readers to the resilience, struggle, and hope held within these stories. By sharing encounters she's had with girls of color that revealed profound cultural and theological truths, Adams magnifies the struggles, dreams, wisdom, and dignity of these voices. Thought-provoking and inspirational, Parable of the Brown Girl is a powerful example of how God uses the narratives we most often ignore to teach us the most important lessons in life. It's time to pay attention. |
The ABCs of Diversity
Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences
by Carolyn B. Helsel and Y. Joy Harris-Smith
How do you teach your kids to respect, embrace, and learn from those who look and think differently than they do? The ABCs of Diversity equips parents, teachers, and community leaders to address children of all ages on complicated topics of race, political affiliation, gender, class, religion, ability, nationality, and sexual orientation.
*This resource includes diversity reading lists for children and youth, curriculum activities for younger and older children, and scripts for parents.
Anxious to Talk about It
Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism
by Carolyn B. Helsel
Talking about race can make us anxious. Professor and pastor Carolyn Helsel draws on her decade of work with white congregations to offer tools and practices to engage the discomfort around the conversations and move forward toward action faithfully. Learn how to join the hard conversations with less fear and more courage, compassion, and knowledge of self, others, and the important issues at stake.
Healing Racial Divides: Finding Strength in Our Diversity
by Terrell Carter
While our faith calls us to Christian unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say -- in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways.
In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter takes us on a revelatory journey of the history of racism to show us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to combat racism in the church, our communities, and the nation.
Stakes Is High: Race, Faith, and Hope for America
by Michael W. Waters
Foreword by Vashti Murphy McKenzie
In his award-winning book Stakes Is High, pastor, activist, and community leader Michael W. Waters blends hip-hop lyricism and social justice leadership, creating an urgent voice demanding that America listen to the suffering if it hopes to redeem its soul. Weaving stories from centuries of persecution against the backdrop of today’s urban prophets on the radio and in the streets, Waters speaks on behalf of an awakened generation raging against racism – yet fueled by the promise of a just future. Through the pain and hard but holy work, you will hear the call to join the faithful struggle for racial justice.
Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders
by Carolyn B. Helsel
Homiletics professor and pastor Carolyn Helsel speaks directly to other faith leaders in this book about how to address racism from the pulpit. In this follow-up to Anxious to Talk about It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism, Helsel provides strategies and a theoretical framework for crafting biblical, theological sermons that incorporate insights from social sciences and psychology, gleaned from more than a decade of writing and teaching about racism.
Preaching as Resistance: Voices of Hope, Justice, and Solidarity
Edited by Phil Snider
As nationalism, patriarchy, and alt-right fearmongering threaten our troubled nation, the pulpit has again become a subversive space of sacred resistance. In this provocative and powerful collection of sermons from diverse pastors across America, hear the brave and urgent voice of Christians calling for radical change rooted in love, solidarity, and justice.
Preaching as Resistance resists, confronts, and troubles the dangerous structures of authoritarianism and oppression crashing in from all sides – and proclaims the transformation, possibility, and hope stirring in the gospel of Christ.
Sustaining Hope in an Unjust World
How to Keep Going When You Want to Give Up
by Timothy Charles Murphy
Where is God when we're losing the fight?
In this love letter to the disheartened activist, pastor and activist Timothy Murphy reflects on his own journey of disappointments and despair to rediscover a faith -- and a God -- who inspires us to continue fighting, even when it feels like we're losing the battle.
Ferguson & Faith: Sparking Leadership & Awakening Community
by Leah Gunning Frances
Seminary leader and pastor Leah Gunning Francis was one of the St. Louis-area clergy who stepped in to support the emerging young leaders on the front lines after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Her interviews with more than two dozen faith leaders and with the new movement’s organizers provide an intimate glimpse into the heart of today’s Civil Rights Movement. Ferguson and Faith demonstrates that being called to lead a faithful life can take us to places we never expected to go, with people who never expected us to join hands with them.
Pre-Post-Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
by Sandhya Rani Jha
It’s hard to talk about race and racism in America without everyone very quickly becoming defensive and shutting down. What makes talking race even harder is that so few of us actually know each other in the fullness of our stories. Activist and pastor Sandhya Jha addresses the hot topic in a way that is grounded in real people’s stories and that offers solid biblical grounding for thinking about race relations in America, reminding us that God calls us to build Beloved Community.
*Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide starting points for reading groups.
For Such a Time as This
Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre
by Sharon Risher
Foreword by Michael W. Waters
In this raw and riveting memoir rising from the ashes of the Charleston church massacre, Sharon Risher tells the heartbreaking story of losing her mother and two other family members to the barbaric acts of a young white supremacist and the courageous journey that followed, leading to eventual forgiveness of the killer and a new calling as a national advocate for gun violence and anti-racist work.
Outlandish: An Unlikely Messiah, a Messy Ministry, and the Call to Mobilize by Derek Penwell
Activist/pastor Derek Penwell reminds us in Outlandish that Jesus’ path tended to anger the wrong people, minister to the “wrong” people, and challenged the political powers of his time. Learn from the political, social, and organizational lessons of Jesus' radically different ministry and follow him in changing the world today.
Inclusion: Making Room for Grace by Eric H. Law
Inclusion is a discipline of consciously extending the boundaries of our communities to embrace and affirm people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
In this resource for ministers and church leaders, Law provides models, theories, and strategies that are both practical and theologically sound for moving faith communities toward greater inclusion.
Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences
by Carolyn B. Helsel and Y. Joy Harris-Smith
How do you teach your kids to respect, embrace, and learn from those who look and think differently than they do? The ABCs of Diversity equips parents, teachers, and community leaders to address children of all ages on complicated topics of race, political affiliation, gender, class, religion, ability, nationality, and sexual orientation.
*This resource includes diversity reading lists for children and youth, curriculum activities for younger and older children, and scripts for parents.
Anxious to Talk about It
Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism
by Carolyn B. Helsel
Talking about race can make us anxious. Professor and pastor Carolyn Helsel draws on her decade of work with white congregations to offer tools and practices to engage the discomfort around the conversations and move forward toward action faithfully. Learn how to join the hard conversations with less fear and more courage, compassion, and knowledge of self, others, and the important issues at stake.
Healing Racial Divides: Finding Strength in Our Diversity
by Terrell Carter
While our faith calls us to Christian unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say -- in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways.
In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter takes us on a revelatory journey of the history of racism to show us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to combat racism in the church, our communities, and the nation.
Stakes Is High: Race, Faith, and Hope for America
by Michael W. Waters
Foreword by Vashti Murphy McKenzie
In his award-winning book Stakes Is High, pastor, activist, and community leader Michael W. Waters blends hip-hop lyricism and social justice leadership, creating an urgent voice demanding that America listen to the suffering if it hopes to redeem its soul. Weaving stories from centuries of persecution against the backdrop of today’s urban prophets on the radio and in the streets, Waters speaks on behalf of an awakened generation raging against racism – yet fueled by the promise of a just future. Through the pain and hard but holy work, you will hear the call to join the faithful struggle for racial justice.
Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders
by Carolyn B. Helsel
Homiletics professor and pastor Carolyn Helsel speaks directly to other faith leaders in this book about how to address racism from the pulpit. In this follow-up to Anxious to Talk about It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism, Helsel provides strategies and a theoretical framework for crafting biblical, theological sermons that incorporate insights from social sciences and psychology, gleaned from more than a decade of writing and teaching about racism.
Preaching as Resistance: Voices of Hope, Justice, and Solidarity
Edited by Phil Snider
As nationalism, patriarchy, and alt-right fearmongering threaten our troubled nation, the pulpit has again become a subversive space of sacred resistance. In this provocative and powerful collection of sermons from diverse pastors across America, hear the brave and urgent voice of Christians calling for radical change rooted in love, solidarity, and justice.
Preaching as Resistance resists, confronts, and troubles the dangerous structures of authoritarianism and oppression crashing in from all sides – and proclaims the transformation, possibility, and hope stirring in the gospel of Christ.
Sustaining Hope in an Unjust World
How to Keep Going When You Want to Give Up
by Timothy Charles Murphy
Where is God when we're losing the fight?
In this love letter to the disheartened activist, pastor and activist Timothy Murphy reflects on his own journey of disappointments and despair to rediscover a faith -- and a God -- who inspires us to continue fighting, even when it feels like we're losing the battle.
Ferguson & Faith: Sparking Leadership & Awakening Community
by Leah Gunning Frances
Seminary leader and pastor Leah Gunning Francis was one of the St. Louis-area clergy who stepped in to support the emerging young leaders on the front lines after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Her interviews with more than two dozen faith leaders and with the new movement’s organizers provide an intimate glimpse into the heart of today’s Civil Rights Movement. Ferguson and Faith demonstrates that being called to lead a faithful life can take us to places we never expected to go, with people who never expected us to join hands with them.
Pre-Post-Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
by Sandhya Rani Jha
It’s hard to talk about race and racism in America without everyone very quickly becoming defensive and shutting down. What makes talking race even harder is that so few of us actually know each other in the fullness of our stories. Activist and pastor Sandhya Jha addresses the hot topic in a way that is grounded in real people’s stories and that offers solid biblical grounding for thinking about race relations in America, reminding us that God calls us to build Beloved Community.
*Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide starting points for reading groups.
For Such a Time as This
Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre
by Sharon Risher
Foreword by Michael W. Waters
In this raw and riveting memoir rising from the ashes of the Charleston church massacre, Sharon Risher tells the heartbreaking story of losing her mother and two other family members to the barbaric acts of a young white supremacist and the courageous journey that followed, leading to eventual forgiveness of the killer and a new calling as a national advocate for gun violence and anti-racist work.
Outlandish: An Unlikely Messiah, a Messy Ministry, and the Call to Mobilize by Derek Penwell
Activist/pastor Derek Penwell reminds us in Outlandish that Jesus’ path tended to anger the wrong people, minister to the “wrong” people, and challenged the political powers of his time. Learn from the political, social, and organizational lessons of Jesus' radically different ministry and follow him in changing the world today.
Inclusion: Making Room for Grace by Eric H. Law
Inclusion is a discipline of consciously extending the boundaries of our communities to embrace and affirm people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
In this resource for ministers and church leaders, Law provides models, theories, and strategies that are both practical and theologically sound for moving faith communities toward greater inclusion.
