“Start a new church.”
My heart was opening to the voice rising within. But I was still processing. After serving as the pastor of established churches for two decades, was I now called to start from scratch?
Gradually, the vision grew clear: crossing boundaries of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and age. After several site visits, the Bronx felt like the place to start. It took a year to convince my Bishop. Once we got the green light, we moved our family to the Bronx. We were all in!
I assembled a multi-racial leadership team, but I preached the sermon almost every Sunday. This contradicted our vision. To monopolize this primary leadership role as a white pastor in the Bronx reflected the church’s legacy of white supremacy. Despite our intent, my conditioning through decades of traditional church leadership had not equipped me for the essential work of disrupting embedded patterns of racism.
Eventually, Black and Brown members of our congregation helped establish a multiracial boundary-crossing Community of the Word, in which we supported gifted young adults as they shaped fabulous sermons. The impact on the lay preachers and the congregation was so profound that years later, I began consulting with other congregations about using the Community of the Word as a ministry model.
I narrate these stories and more in my memoir, Beyond the White Church.
Calling draws us into the deepest yearnings of our souls, but the day-to-day can be overwhelming. It’s complex to communicate grand ideas, let alone make them work.
The church shapes our understanding of calling, often limiting certain roles to certain people. As a straight, white man, I assumed I could be the pastor of a multiracial church in the Bronx. To fulfill this calling, I had to reexamine my role and find ways to be more collaborative. Others may feel excluded from certain roles. How can we cultivate our own calling and the concept itself in ways that bear abundant fruit for all of us?
“On the Fourth of July, 1981, my church burned to the ground.”
With that searing image, Rev. Doug Cunningham begins a gripping memoir of faith, loss, and the lifelong work of disrupting white supremacy within the U.S. church…
What People Are Saying
“This book offers an insightful trove of antiracist and anti-hierarchical church ministry practices that radically challenge the repressive politics in our local and national community life. Rev. Cunningham’s inspiring storytelling displays wisdom and humility desperately needed right now from other white social justice faith leaders.”
Rev. Dr. Traci C. West, author of
Disruptive Christian Ethics:
When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter
Speaking Engagements
Rev. Cunningham brings four decades of experience in anti-racism work, community organizing, and church leadership to speaking engagements.
Primary Speaking Topics:
Cultivating Your Calling
Beyond the White Church: Disrupting Racism in Faith Communities
Building Multiracial, Anti-Racist Churches
Lessons from the Philippines: International Solidarity and Resistance
Mentorship and Accountability in Anti-Racism Work