The more you understand someone's history, the better you can see their humanity. This is true for individuals as well as for society at large. Race relations have suffered because of the erasure of important Black history and cultural context. As we fill in the gaps of our collective knowledge, communities can grow in understanding, empathy, and solidarity.
Terence Lester shares the buried history of the struggles Black people have faced against unjust systems. He tells powerful stories of courage, injustice, pain, and triumph, including ones from his own history. He also unpacks the sociological and cultural dynamics of unconscious bias and inattentional ignorance that keep us apart, and how they can be overcome. This honest account of what it's like to be Black in America paves the way for the church to move beyond showing support from a distance toward loving one another in long-term solidarity, advocacy, and friendship.
"As I joyfully read through Terence Lester's amazing book All God's Children, I realized this was exactly the resource we need for the wilderness season we find ourselves in. . . . As you prepare to read this book, I invite you to open yourheart and view All God's Children as a handbook for navigating the wilderness our nation is in. Allow Terence to pastor you in your quest for deeper formation that leads toward greater sight, greater understanding, and ultimately greater love for God and neighbor."
Daniel Hill, pastor of River City Community Church and author of White Awake, from the for
"As humans, we are hardwired to assume that anything unfamiliar is unsafe-until proven otherwise. As a result, many of us mistake inexperience for fear, leading us to believe that topics like racial solidarity are daunting, problematic, or unapproachable. The solution lies in what we are practicing. Terence Lester first taught us, through love, how to see those we overlooked. Then he showed us how to stand together in pursuit of justice. Now in All God's Children, he is challenging us to do something. If you desire to participate in the hard and necessary work of confronting what has been harmful to so many of your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, this book is for you."
Jerome D. Lubbe, CEO of Thrive Humancare and author of The Brain-Based Enneagram
"Terence Lester has a long-standing track record of listening to and standing up for those society would rather forget. This book beautifully, and in some spaces hauntingly, weaves together the story of the unhoused while providing crucial racial analysis that did my soul so much good to read. I think this book deserves a space in classrooms and libraries all across this country."
Robert Monson, codirector of Enfleshed, writer, and podcaster
