Faith and Racial Healing: Embracing Truth, Justice, and Restoration
Antiracism Series
Find a group & registerDo you want to talk about racism in your faith community, but you don’t know where to begin?
This small group program guides participants in telling the truth about the history of racism in the United States, that we might work toward true reconciliation with God and restoration with one another.
Faith and Racial Healing: Embracing Truth, Justice, and Restoration guides participants in telling the truth about the history of racial injustice in the United States, that we might work toward true reconciliation with God and restoration with one another.
Regardless of whether your group is new to the topic, or if you’ve already taken our first program on racial equity, Faith and Racial Healing will guide your small group in the difficult but necessary conversation about the historical roots of racial injustice.
Before we come to the communion table, we first confess that we have not loved God and our neighbors with our whole hearts. In other words, before we can receive the joy of reconciliation with God and one another, we must first tell the truth about what we have done and left undone. However, our temptation is to try to skip right to the easy part — reconciliation — without first doing the hard work of truth-telling. And because there is no truth-telling, there is no true reconciliation.
In outlining the topics to be covered in our first program on racism (Faith and Racial Equity: Exploring Power and Privilege), we at JustFaith Ministries quickly realized that it is impossible to work toward racial healing without first acknowledging the truth of our history. So we put together this second program to explain the historical context behind the racial inequalities we face today, whether in education, the criminal justice system, the workforce, or even in church life. Though we focused specifically on enslaved Africans and their descendants, this program will open participants’ eyes to patterns of injustice that affect other communities across the nation.
Through the one-day opening retreat, immersion experience, and eight sessions, your group will emerge from Faith and Racial Healing better equipped to work toward restoration.
Goals for Faith and Racial Healing: Embracing Truth, Justice, and Restoration include:
Learn about the history of racial injustice in the U.S., so that we might better understand and more effectively eradicate modern-day racial injustice
Learn how faith communities responded to racial injustice in the past, so that we might learn from their mistakes and successes
Learn from the faith and spiritual wisdom of those who endured injustice and stood for freedom
Faith and Racial Healing: Embracing Truth, Justice, and Restoration consists of eight two hour sessions, as well as an opening retreat (three hours for groups meeting virtually; six hours for in-person groups) and an immersion experience
Recommended group size is 8-14.Framework & Session Topics
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One-Day Retreat: Community-Building & Self-Reflection
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Session 1: Review of History of Racial Injustice
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Session 2: The Middle Passage
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Session 3: Reading and Discussion of Slave Narratives
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Session 4: Convict Leasing
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Session 5: Confessing Our History of Lynching
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Session 6: Civil Rights and the Struggle for Equal Education
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Immersion Experience (to be determined by the group)
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Session 7: Theology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Session 8: Guest Speaker and Discerning Next (Action) Steps
Sessions include:
Prayer and reflection
Discussion of reading
Videos & group activities
Spiritual practices
Integration of faith
Want to know more?
An overview, sample session, and program booklet are available for free download.
What you’ll need for this program
There are three books used in Faith and Racial Healing: Embracing Truth, Justice, and Restoration, all available through the JustFaith Ministries bookstore.
Need help inviting people to your small group?
This program promotion kit contains sample social media posts, bulletin announcements, email invitations, and more.
We believe strongly in making our programs inclusive and available to everyone
There are two registration options:
Option 1: Participants in the group pay their own registration fees: Participants pay individually based on a sliding fee scale of $35, $55, or $75/person. (There is no charge for up to two facilitators.) A minimum of 8 participants is strongly recommended. Scholarships are available for individuals.
Option 2: A church/organization pays the registration fee for all participants: When the group is set up, a church or organization will automatically be billed a flat rate of $280, covering up to 8 participants. For groups with more than 8 participants, the organization will be invoiced an additional $35 for each extra participant when the group begins.
The registration fee includes:
- Comprehensive materials for each session
- Facilitation scripts, guidance, and training resources
- Retreat and immersion guidance
- Adaptations for virtual groups
- Direct access to program staff for support
Books are an additional cost and available for purchase in the bookstore.
To ensure our programs are not cost-prohibitive for anyone, all programs are offered on a sliding fee scale ranging from $35-$75.
We ask you to choose the registration fee tier that best aligns with your current financial situation. Paying on the higher end allows us to keep the program affordable for all.
If the $35 tier is difficult for you, please consider the program anyway. We ask that you decide what amount you can contribute as a commitment to the program, and send us an email at info@justfaith.org to learn about partial scholarship opportunities for the remainder amount.
What our program participants are saying
It has been an honor to work with Rev. Kristin Dollar and the JustFaith Ministries Team to develop a module that boldly wades into the painful history of systemic racism. I sincerely believe the only way to build a better future is by creating partnerships across the lines of race that re-educate people about issues they were socialized to ignore. This module will provide what I call “new learning that transforms and informs” the kind of justice work that sets us on the path to healing and reconciliation.
This module impacted me by opening my eyes and heart to the ongoing effects of white privilege. It moved me to be more aware of the long-term damage done to African Americans by historic systemic suppression and slavery.
Faith and Racial Healing Overview, Sample Session, and Program Booklet
To get access to this program's overview, sample session and program booklet, complete the form below and you will receive an email with the downloadable materials.
Faith and Racial Healing Promotion Kit
To get access to this program's promotional materials, complete the form below and you will receive an email with the downloads.