As I shared a few days ago, some friends are teaming up for a season of fasting and prayer for the church in America.

We have been distressed by the hateful words and violent actions of brothers and sisters that reflect an ancient disease in the church.

And we believe it is time to repent.

So we’re taking the season of Lent to give ourselves to three practices through which we hope Jesus will get in our way. We will listen to leaders of color to inform our repentance, lament our own sins and (in the spirit of Ezra and Daniel) the sins of our people, and look to Jesus who alone is the Savior of the church.

We invite you to join us.

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Though the six of us are pastors, any follower of Jesus is welcome to participate as much as you are able.

And no, we are not fasting all forty days, though we won’t stop you if you do. We have agreed to fast each Wednesday, with an optional fast day on Fridays.

(If you do plan a full Lenten fast, please make sure you’re in regular contact with health care professionals.)

The big idea is to pray.

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Here are your first three steps on this journey together.

1. Buy a book.

To inform our repentance we each have chosen a book to help us see the church from the perspective of the historically marginalized. As a group we’ve read these books. But each person chose one they haven’t read.

Here’s what we’re reading (with links, mostly affiliate):

• Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
  • 40% off from IVP with the code 22BD84
  • $4.98 for the audiobook from Christian Audio
• Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times by Soong-Chan Rah
• Say It! Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African-American Tradition by Eric Redmond
• The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible by Allen Dwight Callahan

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There are many other books we’ve read that we suggest for your consideration, either directly about the church in America or about American society at large.

These include these:

• Healing Prayers and Meditations to Resist a Violent World: For Peoples Weary of Injustice by Dennae Pierre
• The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
• Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity by Robert Chao Romero
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
• The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race by Willie James Jennings (perhaps the densest volume in this list, but a real eye-opener)
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra Maria Van Opstal

The list could go much longer, but we’ll stop here for now.

To those who might object to the presence of one or more books listed above, I offer this gentle reminder: in this season we are intentionally adopting the position of learner. Thus we expect and indeed welcome viewpoints different than our own.

In order to see what we cannot yet see, we need the perspective of other people, especially those with whom we disagree.

So of course we don’t agree with every word printed in these books.

The six of us don’t even agree with one another like that!

But as learners we want to adopt the posture of listeners.

We hope you’ll join us in doing the same.

2. Attend Monday’s Kickoff

Join us Monday at noon ET as we kick off our Lenten fast.

During this virtual gathering, we’ll

• hear the vision that inspired this season of prayer,
• address what Lent is and (just as importantly) what it isn’t,
• discuss logistics for what lies ahead, and
• answer questions you may have.

We’ll send the link to everyone on our email list. To join, just fill out the form below:

3. Join Us in Listening and Prayer

Our first prayer call will be Wednesday at noon ET.

That’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of our Lenten fast.

And I’m thrilled to announce our first speaker!

Joining us is Drew Jackson, pastor of Hope Church East Village and author of the forthcoming book God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming.

Drew will read one or two of his poems, share the story behind them, and connect it to our current moment as a way to help us enter into lament.

It’s going to be fantastic!

Just like with Monday’s kickoff, we’ll send the Zoom link via email.

So just fill out the form above to join us.

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Those are our first three steps on this journey together: get a book, attend Monday’s kickoff, and join us in listening and prayer.

Hope to see you there!