More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel
By Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice
4/5
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About this ebook
"The first step in the reconciliation process," Spencer Perkins writes, "is admitting that the race problem exists and that our inability to deal with race has weakened the credibility of our gospel."
When longtime ministry partners and friends Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice began writing More Than Equals in the early 1990s, their goal was to offer an example of how racial reconciliation is possible—and also critical to Christian discipleship. This landmark book tells the stories of two men from very different backgrounds embarking on the complex, costly journey of healing across racial divides.
Perkins, who witnessed repeated hypocrisy from white Christians and witnessed his bloodied pastor-activist father after a brutal police beating, wondered how it was possible to love white people. Rice, who grew up as a white missionary kid and thought of himself as progressive, was surprised by the tensions he encountered as a volunteer at a majority-black church—and by his own blind spots. As they served together in an intentionally multiracial ministry, both gained insight into why this work is so challenging and how Christians can do it well, in dependence on God.
With biblical grounding, hopeful realism, and practical detail, More Than Equals provides a helpful framework for Christians engaged in the deep ongoing surgery of racial healing. Now available as part of the IVP Signature Collection, this edition includes a new preface by Rice and a study guide for group discussion.
Spencer Perkins
Spencer Perkins, until his death in 1998, worked with the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development and was editor-in-chief of the magazine Urban Family. For twelve years he and Chris Rice and their families lived together in the Antioch Community and served as elders of Voice of Calvary Fellowship Church in Jackson, Mississippi.
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Reviews for More Than Equals
8 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a required text for one of my graduate courses and I didn't expect to enjoy it much. It wasn't far into the book that I began to resonate with some of the struggles for racial harmony articulated by Perkins and Rice. In Chapter 1, Spencer Perkins states emphatically, "The Civil Rights Movement has run its course, and we've gotten just about all you can expect to get from a political movement." I, a white guy, took offense at the thought that someone would declare the struggle for civil rights obsolete. His point is well made through the development of this and subsequent chapters. The move toward reconciliation must move from race to grace. Regardless of your religious affiliations, if you are engaged in civil rights causes or racial reconciliation you would be remiss to neglect this ground-breaking tome.