As a Christ-centered church that cares for our community and engages in evangelism, we desire to be a place for great conversations. This fall, we have invited Dr. Rachel Ferguson to campus for a lecture series called Thinking Christianly.

On Sunday morning, October 13, in Memorial Hall at 10:15 a.m., Dr. Ferguson will share about the Black Church. She will briskly walk through its African roots, traditions central to the Black Church (Baptist and Methodist), their abolitionist strands, the impact of the enslaved experience, and how the Black church served as a “cultural womb” becoming a template for thriving fraternal associations and mutual aid networks.

That evening at 6 p.m., we invite you to join us for a gathering in the Student Center as Dr. Ferguson unpacks the primary thrust of her work, Black Liberation through the Marketplace. Dr. Ferguson will shine a light on black entrepreneurs who overcame amazing obstacles and a black community that has created flourishing institutions and culture.

The aim of her writing and speaking is to point to a better way of understanding black history and creative ideas for how to make the American experiment one with liberty and justice for all.

In her book, she poses these key questions, “If we face America’s racial history squarely, will it mean that the American project is a failure? Conversely, if we think the American project is a worthy endeavor, do we have to lie, downplay, or equivocate about our past?”

During this seminar, policy assertions of the political right and left will be challenged, but we also hope this will provide a space where we can dive deeper into learning about culture and each other. We hope you’ll join us.

Have more questions? Contact Jason Leininger at jason@schweitzer.church