Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 04:1 (Spring 2022)
Article: Talking About Race: Gospel Hope For Hard Conversations
Author: Dan Darling

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 180

Talking About Race: Gospel Hope For Hard Conversations

REVIEWED BY

Dan Darling

Daniel Darling is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a columnist for World and is the author of several books, including The Dignity Revolution, A Way With Words, and The Characters of Christmas. He studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Isaac Adams. Talking About Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had conversations with quite a few pastors across the country, men desperately trying to walk their churches through our divisive and tribalistic times. None of the issues that divide Americans and, as a result, divide American Christians, is as fraught with peril as the conversation about race. I’ve listened as white pastors and pastors of color have shared how excruciating it is to lead their people.

Which is why many pastors, understandably so, are increasingly cautious if not quiet about the topic. They see no way to win. To pursue biblical, racial reconciliation is seen by some as being too woke and by others as being not woke enough. One pastor has seen these struggles up close and offers a pastoral word for the body of Christ. Adams is a church planter in Birmingham, AL and the founder of United We Pray, a ministry whose sole mission is to pray about racial strife in America.

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 181

Talking About Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations is a unique book. Admittedly, in the opening pages, Adams doesn’t pretend to offer detailed policy or political prescriptions for America’s lingering racial problems, but he does offer guidance and pastoral wisdom on how to engage these conversations where perhaps they should begin: among the people of God. For weary pastors, this book might just be the respite and guide you’ve been looking for in your ministry.

Adams begins with this: “In this book I’m trying to speak pastorally, as I’m primarily writing this book as a pastor—not as a sociologist, psychologist, or historian … as a pastor I’m trying to address the mind, I’m also trying to address the heart and soul of the matter … All of this to say, stats shift; God’s Word doesn’t. As as a pastor, I’m going to have that unchanging Word be the lamp for our feet and the light for our path as we journey through this book” (xxii).

Eikon 4.1 (Spring 2022) p. 182

It is this pastoral h...