Jesus, Politics & Justice Resources
As we engage in politics and justice, it’s crucial to keep Jesus at the center and practice critical thinking and discernment. Here, you will find tools that offer fresh insights and Jesus-centered perspectives on essential topics.
NEW MESSAGE SERIES | SEPTEMBER 22ND – OCTOBER 20TH
Our new message series “Citizens & Neighbors,” explores how followers of Jesus can navigate political and social divisions with integrity and grace. The series focuses on maintaining a Christ-centered approach to citizenship and community involvement amidst today’s polarized climate.
Together we will learn practical ways to engage with differing viewpoints while upholding core Christian values, encouraging believers to balance their political and social responsibilities with their faith commitments. The series aims to equip Christians to be faithful to Jesus while actively participating in their communities and addressing societal challenges with love and honor.
Beyond Critical Thinking: Becoming People of Depth
Seek deeper understanding through your faith, allowing you to engage with life’s complexities with both heart and mind. By doing so, you can become people of depth who reflect Christ's love and truth in your communities and the world.
Topic: Immigration
These resources are specific to the topic of immigration and those who are wanting to engage in a deeper conversation around this issue.
Better Conversations: A Discussion Guide
This would be great for our Tables and Life Group leaders, or anyone wanting to continue the conversation outside of a Sunday service context.
Studies
Seeking the Peace: A Guide to Kingdom-Minded Political Engagement
A more thorough study on how to approach and engage in politics as a believer.
News That Triggers
An article with helpful tools and tips for how to connect and engage with news stories, especially when they are highly triggering.
Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign's Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement
The authors of this book represent the AND Campaign, which exists to educate and organize Christians for faithful civic and cultural engagement.
Civic Revival
How to be Christian during an election
PODCAST: THE SOUL OF THE NATION
The Soul of the Nation with Jim Wallis informs and inspires everyone from grassroots organizers to political leaders to examine our priorities in meeting the biblical call for social justice and — from that examination — to take action to promote racial and social justice, life and peace, and environmental stewardship.
PODCAST: CHURCH POLITICS
The “Church Politics” Podcast is where you can get in-depth political analysis from a Christian worldview.
MAGAZINE: SOJOURNERS
Sojourners is an ecumenical Christian media and advocacy organization that works towards social and racial justice. Sojourners publishes an award-winning magazine, produces daily news and commentary on sojo.net, and mobilizes people of faith for social justice through its advocacy initiative SojoAction.
Books
Serpents and Doves provides Christians with a vision for political engagement that is governed by the uniquely Christian task of pointing to and glorifying God.
Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism―or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.”
The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don’t know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.
It is time says Jim Wallis, to call out genuine faith―specifically the “Christian” in White Christian Nationalism―inviting all who can be persuaded to reject and help dismantle a false gospel that propagates white supremacy and autocracy. We need–to raise up the faith of all of us, and help those who are oblivious, stuck, and captive to the ideology and idolatry of White Christian Nationalism that is leading us to such great danger.
This book isn’t only for Christians but for all faith traditions, and even those with no faith at all. When we see a civic promotion of fear, hate, and violence for the trajectory of our politics, we need a civic faith of love, healing, and hope to defeat it.
Tony Tian-Ren Lin was born in Taiwan and raised in Argentina, Tony is a cultural sociologist who focuses on the intersection of religion, immigration, race and ethnicity. In this immersive ethnography, Tony Tian-Ren Lin explores the reasons that Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. Lin contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants. Weaving together his informants’ firsthand accounts of their religious experiences and everyday lives, Lin offers poignant insight into how they see their faith transforming them both as individuals and as communities.
In Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian’s Guide to Engaging Politics, Cho encourages readers to remember that hope arrived—not in a politician, system, or great nation—but in the person of Jesus Christ.
With determination and heart, Cho urges readers to stop vilifying those they disagree with—especially the vulnerable—and asks Christians to follow Jesus and reflect His teachings. In this book that integrates the pastoral, prophetic, practical, and personal, readers will be inspired to stay engaged, have integrity, listen to the hurting, and vote their convictions.
“In The Narrow Path, Rich unpacks what living our best life truly looks like. This book is a much-needed heart checkup for every Jesus follower.”—Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women
We live in a culture that wants it all. More is seen as better—whether it’s more money, social media fame, choices, or power. For those chasing this way of life, “narrow” seems negative. Who wants to narrow their options . . . or be seen as narrow-minded?
As people of faith, we all struggle at times to sustain a flourishing prayer life–a loss felt all the more keenly in these times of confusion, political turbulence, and global calamity. This unique book offers a timeless solution for the spiritual and skeptical alike.
If you’re tired of seeing your real-life and online communities in turmoil and you long to be an agent of peace, understanding, and reconciliation, it’s time to join a new kind of resistance movement–one that pushes us toward personal transformation. Grounded in Scripture and illustrated with compelling true stories, this new book from Ashley Abercrombie will help you gain the confidence to communicate and connect with others, stop avoiding necessary tension, and resolve your internal and external conflicts.