WATCH THE PREVIEW
Antiracist Practices for Faithful Leadership is a 6-session recorded series seeks to equip leaders with an awareness of their own complicity with white supremacy, and expand their tools to embody antiracist leadership. Whether your leadership has been centered in racial justice for decades or you are yearning to take steps to embody antiracist values in your ministry, this recorded series will offer an opportunity to learn, explore, and practice bringing racial justice to the core of your leadership. Each session is accompanied by a reflection guide with coaching questions to propel you to next steps and action.
Embracing Our Role as Co-Conspirators for Liberation
While significant numbers of Christian communities are on record decrying the evil of systemic racism, most have chosen to respond in ways that position them as tourists as opposed to invested collaborators in the call to dismantle racism. In this opening session, Shawna, and Jessica in dialogue with the insights of Dr. Bettina Love, will explore what it means to be a co-conspirator who takes ownership for the work of antiracism and the vision of liberation. It is critically important that all church/religious leaders awaken their imagination as catalyzers for and sparkers of pathways that lead to racial justice and liberation.
Envisioning Antiracist Institutions and Liberating Church
Churches and religious organizations have disproportionately embraced the idea that racial reconciliation at the interpersonal level is the aim of racial justice work. Institutionally they have invested in programs designed to transform their constituents’ attitudes toward the gifts of human diversity. While this is important, is also insufficient. In this second session, Shawna and Jessica will frame “antiracism as a way of being” and will explore the relationship of antiracism to concepts/strategies like reconciliation, race equity & DEI work as it is critically important that church/religious leaders have an expanded frame as well as shared language & vision for what antiracism is and what it requires of them as leaders.
Assessing and Navigating the Terrain of Antiracist Transformation
All too often those leading religious institutions such as churches do not take the time to assess where their institution is relative to the call to eradicate racial injustice. Many presume more readiness that the community actually possesses. Others fail to explore deeper issues such as an investment in white dominant values which have a greater impact on the journey to become antiracist than whether the worship style appeals to “diverse” communities. It is critically important for church/religious leaders to understand where the institution they are leading is on its antiracism journey as this will assist them in understanding what navigating the antiracist transformation terrain will require of them as leaders. In this third session, Shawna and Jessica will describe six developmental stages of white dominant institutions on the journey to become antiracist, will explore what is required to change these, and reflect on the leadership orientations that aid and/or hinder the journey.
Investment in White Supremacy: Ideas and Values that Inhibit Transformative Leading
A common misconception in the United States is that white supremacy is what right-wing, nationalist militias, and white hate groups profess. Rather than look for the set of ideas that produce an ideology of white dominance, most shift the blame to the extremists – distancing themselves from them in an exercise of virtue signaling. This session will frame white supremacy, explore the values that undergird and inhibit antiracist transformation, and consider how these values shape our leadership orientations and attitudes, hindering our ability to lead in transformative ways. If leaders hope to catalyze change, it is critically important they’re aware of how rooted Unitedstatian Christianity is in the ideology of white supremacy, its cosmology, and values.
Cultivating Values that Undermine and Transform White Supremacy
Working to dismantle racism and white supremacy in the church requires leaders to understand they must invest in cultivating values that challenge and undermine the ways of thinking and being that white supremacy engenders. This session introduces four transforming values animating antiracism and uses a case study to explore why these are critical in disrupting white dominance and shifting institutional culture.
Animating a Hunger for Justice and a Vision for Liberation
With mounting evidence of waning stamina among Christians, particularly white ones, for the long-term work of dismantling white supremacy, the final session of the series reinforces that working for antiracism transformation requires leaders committed to casting a radical vision for liberation. This session will also consider the strategic role vision plays in fueling a hunger in people and cultivating an institutional commitment to structural and cultural change.
Embracing Our Role as Co-Conspirators for Liberation
While significant numbers of Christian communities are on record decrying the evil of systemic racism, most have chosen to respond in ways that position them as tourists as opposed to invested collaborators in the call to dismantle racism. In this opening session, Shawna, and Jessica in dialogue with the insights of Dr. Bettina Love, will explore what it means to be a co-conspirator who takes ownership for the work of antiracism and the vision of liberation. It is critically important that all church/religious leaders awaken their imagination as catalyzers for and sparkers of pathways that lead to racial justice and liberation.
Envisioning Antiracist Institutions and Liberating Church
Churches and religious organizations have disproportionately embraced the idea that racial reconciliation at the interpersonal level is the aim of racial justice work. Institutionally they have invested in programs designed to transform their constituents’ attitudes toward the gifts of human diversity. While this is important, is also insufficient. In this second session, Shawna and Jessica will frame “antiracism as a way of being” and will explore the relationship of antiracism to concepts/strategies like reconciliation, race equity & DEI work as it is critically important that church/religious leaders have an expanded frame as well as shared language & vision for what antiracism is and what it requires of them as leaders.
Assessing and Navigating the Terrain of Antiracist Transformation
All too often those leading religious institutions such as churches do not take the time to assess where their institution is relative to the call to eradicate racial injustice. Many presume more readiness that the community actually possesses. Others fail to explore deeper issues such as an investment in white dominant values which have a greater impact on the journey to become antiracist than whether the worship style appeals to “diverse” communities. It is critically important for church/religious leaders to understand where the institution they are leading is on its antiracism journey as this will assist them in understanding what navigating the antiracist transformation terrain will require of them as leaders. In this third session, Shawna and Jessica will describe six developmental stages of white dominant institutions on the journey to become antiracist, will explore what is required to change these, and reflect on the leadership orientations that aid and/or hinder the journey.
Investment in White Supremacy: Ideas and Values that Inhibit Transformative Leading
A common misconception in the United States is that white supremacy is what right-wing, nationalist militias, and white hate groups profess. Rather than look for the set of ideas that produce an ideology of white dominance, most shift the blame to the extremists – distancing themselves from them in an exercise of virtue signaling. This session will frame white supremacy, explore the values that undergird and inhibit antiracist transformation, and consider how these values shape our leadership orientations and attitudes, hindering our ability to lead in transformative ways. If leaders hope to catalyze change, it is critically important they’re aware of how rooted Unitedstatian Christianity is in the ideology of white supremacy, its cosmology, and values.
Cultivating Values that Undermine and Transform White Supremacy
Working to dismantle racism and white supremacy in the church requires leaders to understand they must invest in cultivating values that challenge and undermine the ways of thinking and being that white supremacy engenders. This session introduces four transforming values animating antiracism and uses a case study to explore why these are critical in disrupting white dominance and shifting institutional culture.
Animating a Hunger for Justice and a Vision for Liberation
With mounting evidence of waning stamina among Christians, particularly white ones, for the long-term work of dismantling white supremacy, the final session of the series reinforces that working for antiracism transformation requires leaders committed to casting a radical vision for liberation. This session will also consider the strategic role vision plays in fueling a hunger in people and cultivating an institutional commitment to structural and cultural change.