Look up the mission statement of your congregation. Bring it to the class for examination. What assumptions are made about race in the mission statement (covenant document, etc.)? Who was/is the congregation designed to serve? Are there demonstrable differences between intention of the document and actual practice?

If a history of your congregation has been written, browse through that document looking for stated or unstated references to race. How are members of the congregation described (if at all - Judith Levine says, "White is the race that need not speak its name.")? Who has provided leadership to the congregation over the years? How has power been appropriated (membership on committees, etc.)? What images are used to depict biblical characters in curriculum, posters, etc.?

In his book, Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America, Joe Barndt notes, "[racism] exists in layers increasingly difficult to explore and eliminate, beginning with the most accessible layer of personnel, then the more deeply entrenched layers of policy and practice, and finally, most stubborn of all, the deeply embedded racism within the church's structure and foundational base." (145)

Take a moment to look closely at these levels of congregational life. How is power exercised in each area? Are racial prejudices acted out overtly or subtly through that power?

• personnel - who does what you do?

• policy - what does the church say they can do?

• practice & program - what do you do?

• constituency - who supports you to do what you do?

• structure - how are your organized to do what you do?

• foundation - what assumptions underlie what you do?

• mission/identity/purpose - why do you do what you do?

1. The author writes that the North American Anabaptist tradition is "as rich in witness to racial reconciliation as it is impoverished in action to change racist practice" (125). List some of the wealth and the poverty described in the chapter. Is there new information that surprises you? Can you add other items to either list. Where does your church fit on this list? How can that change?

2. Page 128 lists three areas that will need attention in the Anabaptist community: church structures, resource distribution, faith's form and substance. Take each area and apply it to your congregation. Could anything change where you are? How could your congregation encourage others to Enter the River?

3. Harding's words (130) ring out as clear today as when he first spoke them. Have you ever felt the tension between influence and affluence? How have you resolved this tension?

4. "The problem is not so much the presence of heterodoxy (wrong belief) as the absence of orthopraxes (right action)." (132) How would you define "right action"? What would that action look like in your congregation? Is there any heterodoxy about racism present among you?

5. The "Authentic Multicultural Ministry Model" (138) suggests that the various ethnic identities will maintain their shape and function, at least initially, in a fully-integrated Christian community. We see some of the same vision in Revelation 7:9 in which "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" stood before the throne of God. What would such a full embrace of difference look like in church institutions? How would it effect the various levels of institutional life (personnel, program, practice, structure, constituency, identity, mission and purpose)?

6. What do William Stringfellow's words on hope (139) mean for you? How do you resist the power of death - particularly the death meted out by racism? Is it possible to find hope in this sort of demanding work?

Read Chapter 10: What About Affirmative Action?