BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT!
I’m thrilled to finally announce that my next book is coming next year in Spring/Summer! I recently signed a deal with Herald Press to produce:
“Liberating Belonging. Deconstructing and Reclaiming Christianity for People on the Margins” (tentative title).
This is a culmination of a few years of work that’s finally going to print.
What is the Book About? Here’s a quick synopsis.
When was the last time you felt safe to be your whole self in community? Christians on the margins of dominant church cultures know about the struggle to fit in and be seen. The norm seems to be assimilate, and then when that fails, leave the faith entirely. Is this the best we can hope for? Or is there a better way? Today, beyond the global pandemic and resurgent anti-racist movements, there is an opportunity to re-imagine Christianity for people on the margins.
From toxic theology to systemic racism, Liberating Belonging deconstructs Christianity and the ways it devalues marginalized people. It then offers new pathways and formation that reclaims Christianity in the pursuit of freedom and wholeness.
We all long for spaces to thrive and to be seen in full. Discover what faith, liberation, and belonging can look like, and how we can get there.
The target readership are people like me: racialized minorities who don’t fit into dominant church culture trends. For me, that’s white evangelicalism. I don’t live there anymore, and I offer my story, and the faith/community I have outside of institutional Christianity, as a pathway to deconstruct a lot of inherited thinking. This is a pursuit for something better devoted to those who’ve have, or are thinking, about leaving it all behind.
But that’s not all….
Because it’s written primary to racialized minorities, if you’re not that you may think this book won’t be for you. Far from it. I extend to include ALL intersections that don’t fit under white supremacy and patriarchy. So in a sense that would exclude white men from the readership. But that too wouldn’t be accurate. Since most books are written to match the white male gaze, this one unashamedly does not. But that doesn’t mean if that’s you, you won’t find something of value. Everyone suffers under systemic systems of oppression; or to put another way, everyone is on the pursuit to find wholeness. Deconstructing and decolonizing your faith is a pathway to get there.
I know a lot of people who are in some form of deconstruction. They know something ain’t right in the way they thought their faith was supposed to work, and are figuring out what else could be (all while grieving the loss). I want to give a shot out to you and say, there’s hope. There ARE clear pathways of formation to reclaim a deeper and robust faith rooted in Jesus.
You’ll have to get the book to unpack the rest ;)
So that’s the announcement, the first of many updates, for my next exciting book project!
(Want to get more details on what’s inside? I release those fine details in my monthly newsletter subscription.)