Race & Belonging

Education & Action Guide

In this guide, you’ll find resources to equip and educate our community in the areas of racism, oppression, injustice, and inequity. Our hope is that our hearts would be stirred to action in response to all forms of oppression and injustices in our world today.

Vision & Purpose of This Guide

At Reality San Francisco, we are a community following Jesus, seeking renewal in our city. We are blessed in the fact that we reflect the reality of Jesus’ multi-ethnic church. As His church, we are called: to be a light to the world;1 to be a witness of reconciliation2 (both racial and other forms); and to demonstrate, in word and in deed,3 what a community of people looks like with Christ at the center. This task before us is vital and, Christ-willing, will have massive implications in our city and world as a prophetic witness of Christ’s rule. 

As Jesus followers, we desire to be transformed by the Holy Spirit and to care about what He cares about. It is critical for our discipleship to Jesus to reflect the Gospel. Jesus gave His people a heavenly vision for renewal — to bring heaven here on earth. We want the heavenly reality to break into the here and now — part of which is to see an end to injustices, oppression, and racism in all forms everywhere.

The following are resources to equip and educate our community in the areas of racism, oppression, injustice, and inequity. Our hope is that our hearts would be stirred to action in response to all forms of oppression and injustices in our world today.

This list is not meant to be a complete list, but rather a jumping-off point to learn more about race, racism, injustice, and inequity and how these constructs were created and play out in current times, and how we can actively move against them. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint; we must pace ourselves, lean in, and not disengage.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our Race & Belonging Ministry by emailing rb@realitysf.com. 

Footnotes:
1. Matt 5:14-16 
2. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19. 
3. James 2:18

Table of Contents

Actions

Discussions

Daring Discussions Guide

Daring Discussions is a campaign encouraging you to have hard conversations in an effort to find unity — not division. The goal of Daring Discussions is for participants on different sides of a given issue to learn about one another’s personal experiences and perspectives as a starting place to gain compassion, respect, and stronger relationships. Participants are asked to commit to avoiding judgment, defensiveness, and anger and to try to express any negative feelings and different views constructively from a place of giving as opposed to being oppositional or needing to be right.

The Daring Discussions toolkit includes tips on how to pick a topic to discuss, sample questions, strategies to have a productive conversation, and more.  Here is the toolkit to help guide you through meaningful conversations with someone about a topic or set of topics that will help you build empathy and compassion for marginalized people.

Gospel & Race Discussion Dinners 

In 2019, Reality SF hosted discussion dinners across the city to capstone “The Gospel & Race” teaching series. If you would like to coordinate a discussion dinner on “The Gospel & Race” amongst your friends or community, here is our facilitators guide. This material includes a set of group guidelines for helping the group navigate what can be a complicated topic to discuss. Please read these at the start of your dinner to guide the group toward respectful, open, and nonjudgmental dialog. 

Having Difficult Conversations

One of the immediate first steps you can take to advance conversations about racism, oppression, marginalization, and injustice is to talk about it, specifically with family and friends. We understand that this can be challenging, and at times uncomfortable. So, we’ve included a few resources to help you prepare for having these conversations:

Media, Books, & Articles

We strongly encourage you to listen or watch the teachings on this topic from “The Gospel & Race” teaching series in addition to the other teaching resources provided below. This list below is not exhaustive and should be considered a starting point for anyone looking to learn more about the history of inequities and how they were created. 

Media (Audio & Video)

Reality SF teachings, lectures, and podcast episodes on the topics of race and justice:

Here are some recommended audio and video resource as well as films from other sources outside of our church:

Books

The following is a list are books that were used for research and cultural analysis during The Gospel & Race teaching series. Some of these books are Christian and some are not. We believe that these books are important resources to help shape our thinking with the Scriptures as our ultimate authority and guide.

(See Reality SF Race & Belonging Cohort Amazon Book List)

Articles

Resources for Children and Parents