Jerry Taylor -- Christian Leadership in Black and White: Black Leadership in White Churches of Christ and Their Schools

There is a sharp line of racial separation between Black and White Churches of Christ, and it must be addressed at the leadership level. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities that Blacks encounter when exercising leadership in the “white power structure” in churches of Christ and their related schools. It will examine the belief that the only way Blacks can lead in white religious communities is by meeting the unspoken prerequisite of converting to “whiteness.” Jerry will share his own experience of conversion to “whiteness” and the subsequent journey toward Christ, and panelists will recount their own journeys through the realities of racism, voicing their own pain or shame through the practice of confession that might lead toward wholeness.