Category: Race Matters

The Formation of Our Stories with Jo Saxton (A Sojourner’s Truth podcast)

Here is a summary of our first podcast interview with Jo Saxton! Subscribe today:

Blog Announcement

We will be publishing new podcasts on Thursdays, and they’re going to syndicate on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube.

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Welcome to A Sojourner’s Truth podcast: Conversations for a Changing Culture! I’m your host Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, and I’m glad you’re joining us for Season One where the theme is: Our Stories:

 

Natasha: Hello Beautiful People!

 

I am thrilled to welcome my first guest to A Sojourner’s Truth Podcast. Leader, pastor, and author Jo Saxton. How are you my dear friend? Thank you so much for joining us.

S1E2_Jo Saxton

JO SAXTON: Thank you so much for having me. That’s such a gracious introduction.

 

Natasha: It’s wonderful to have you. What I love, especially about the people I’m inviting to the table up throughout this season, is our willingness to share our stories, and I have invited people  that have directly or indirectly impacted my life. Jo stands out as a leader, influencer, and mobilizer of women.

 

Jo’s short biography: Jo Saxton is an author, speaker, leadership coach, and visionary. Born to Nigerian parents and raised in London, England, Jo brings a multi-cultural and international perspective to leadership. She has served on staff in multiple churches in the United Kingdom and the United States. Today, Jo co-hosts the popular podcast Lead Stories: Tales of Leadership and Life with Steph O’Brien. She is also the founder of the Ezer Collective, an initiative that creates intensives and experiences to invest in women who lead. Jo’s most recent book is called, The Dream of You: Let Go of Broken Identities and Live the Life You Were Made For.

Jo and her husband, Chris, live in Minneapolis with their two daughters. She loves Starbucks, running, her people, and the everyday stuff, like good music, good food, and good books, and Target. She really, really loves Target!

 

This season of the podcast, we are talking about our stories, and to guide our conversation, I’m using the outline of my upcoming book, A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World. We will talk about the FORMATION of Our Stories, the HISTORY of Our Stories, Our Stories in the WILDERNESS, and Our REDEMPTION Stories.

 

Jo is here to talk today about the formation of our stories because what happens in our formative years really has an impact on who we become, how we grow into adulthood, what we do, how we see ourselves and how others view us. As a matter of setting the stage for our conversation, I want to read an excerpt from the book.

 

The Negro is the child of two cultures—Africa and America. The problem is that in the search for wholeness all too many Negros seek to embrace only one side of their natures.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Continue reading “The Formation of Our Stories with Jo Saxton (A Sojourner’s Truth podcast)” →

My Summer with Black Women

I love reading, but I don’t always get to read as much as I would like because life happens! I always have more books available than I have time to consume. This summer was no exception. I didn’t get to read all of the books on my desired reading list, but I did get to read a few great ones. I read each of them for different reasons and enjoyed them all.

 

Today, I’m sharing a few reflections on three books I read this summer that were authored by black Christian women.

Continue reading “My Summer with Black Women” →

White Supremacy Needs Black Redemption

White Supremacy Black Redemption
The Black church has intentionally taught generations of people how to persevere in the faith amid persecution and oppression. 

In recent months, diverse groups of Christian leaders have spoken up against injustices against people of color and other oppressed people within our society.

Beth Moore shared an open letter about the importance of women leaders and the misogyny and racism within American Evangelicalism. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, also joined the great cloud of witnesses by taking a stand against President Donald Trump’s incitement of racism and his unjust, unethical, and immoral practices in his personal, public, and political life. When Beth Moore speaks, her posts go viral. When Russell Moore speaks, he gets featured on CNN. While I deeply appreciate when sisters and brothers like these use their platforms to influence and speak as the Holy Spirit pricks their hearts, I want us to also ask why the voices of the people of color who have been fighting the good fight and speaking against these same injustices for years, some for decades, go unheard?

White allies and sisters and brothers must acknowledge that when things are bad for White women in society and in the church, they are far worse for women of color. Allies, in their confessions and laments, must also use their platforms as an opportunity to elevate, sponsor, and share space with people of color who have been consistent in their witness and faithful in their work and convictions for years. Whenever the words “race” or “reconciliation” are mentioned within the Christian framework, I need the names and contributions of those like the Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil, professor Drew G.I. Hart, Edward Gilbreath, LaTasha Morrison, and the Rev. Efrem Smith elevated.

Continue reading at Faithfully Magazine.

Only a few more days remaining for early registration for The Call and Response Conference: The Past, Present, and Future of Black Christians in America.