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Race, Class, and the Kingdom of God
This small group study explores God’s heart for reconciliation and your community’s thoughts around race, class, and culture.
Course Description and Details
Begin or advance conversations about reconciliation within your community with this introductory study series. Your group will receive access to video instruction via our online learning platform, as well as a workbook and small group leader’s guide. The weekly meeting format includes a short video teaching, group discussion questions, a song for reflection, prayer prompts, and follow-up questions for reflection.
Themes:
- Biblical reconciliation
- Unity in diversity
- Practices of a reconciling community
Outcomes:
- Understand what the Bible has to say about race, class, culture, and reconciliation
- Share a common language to discuss these complex issues with wisdom and care
 9 weeks, 2 hrs/week
 9 weeks, 2 hrs/week
Group Rates $97+
Week 1: A People, A Place and A Just Society
Explore God’s heart and design for God’s Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven, from Genesis to Revelation.
Instructor:Â David M. Bailey
Main Themes:
- Culture and ethnicity
- Empire vs. the Kingdom of God
- Seeing the narrative of scripture
- Reconciliation and justice
Week 2: Becoming a Reconciling Community
Learn five formational practices that are essential for becoming a Reconciling Community.
Instructor:Â Elena Aronson
Main Themes:
- Intentionality and vulnerability
- Confession and lament
- Repentance and remembrance
Week 3: Shalom Continuum
Learn the spiritual and community formational journey of pursuing shalom.
Instructor: David M. Bailey
Main Themes:
- Homogeneity
- Diversity
- Reconciliation
- Shalom
Week 4: Understanding Homogeneity
Explore the effects of the psychological tendency towards familiarity and America’s history of racial separation.
Instructor: Elena Aronson
Main Themes:
- Social psychology of homogeneity
- Redlining and institutional racism
- Historical impact of homogeneity in your own community
Week 5: Unity in Diversity
Learn how to be a unified community while still honoring diverse expressions of faith and identity.
Instructor: Elena Aronson
Main Themes:
- Sacrificial love
- Proper authority
- Mutual dependency
- Faith
Week 6: Models of Cross-Cultural Engagement, Part 1
Proximity affects our ability to engage cross-culturally. This session explores different styles of cross-cultural engagement and their effects.
Instructor: Elena Aronson
Main Themes:
- Cross-cultural engagement
- Power of proximity
Week 7: Models of Cross-Cultural Engagement Part 2
Continue the discussion about cross-cultural engagement by exploring two new models and their effect over time.
Instructor: Elena Aronson
Main Themes:
- Cross-cultural engagement
- Collaboration
Week 8: Reconciliation
Explore a few popular ideas of reconciliation, and the elements God requires for biblical reconciliation.
Instructor:Â David M. Bailey
Main Themes:
- False/incomplete forms of reconciliation
- Biblical process of reconciliation
- Reconciliation as spiritual formation
Week 9: Shalom
Discover what it takes for the Body of Christ to flourish and imagine together the potential impact of a flourishing Church on the world.
Instructor:Â David M. Bailey
Main Themes:
- God-given value vs. contextual value
- Efficiency vs. effectiveness
- Seeking the unity of the Spirit
- Spiritual gifts of ministry
What to Expect as a Small Group Leader
Going through Race, Class, and Kingdom of God with our small group empowered us — and subsequently our church — to better understand and get more engaged in seeing racial healing as part of our spiritual formation.”
More than 500 organizations and congregations have completed Race, Class, and the Kingdom Of God since 2019 – Join them!
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