Grace Matters : A Memoir of Faith, Friendship, and Hope in the Heart of the South
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In Grace Matters, we follow the remarkable journey of Chris Rice, a naive white college student from Vermont, who was transformed into an insightful man of faith who helped form a thriving interracial community in Jackson, Mississippi. Chris Rice's compelling story uncovers the wounds that divide the races and reveals what it takes to bring blacks and whites together, honestly, compassionately, and transcendently.
As a young man in 1981, Chris Rice thought he would take a few months off from his college to join the Voice of Calvary ministry. There he met Spencer Perkins— the eldest son of John Perkins, legendary African American evangelist and civil rights movement activist-and was forever changed. Together, Chris and Spencer and an extraordinary group of ordinary people entered into a bold experiment, creating an interracial faith community called Antioch, after the Mediterranean city where the followers of Jesus first became known as "Christians." Pooling their resources, this dedicated group of black and white Christians joined forces to realize the vision of the Sermon on the Mount. In so doing they not only enriched their own lives but also those of their inner-city neighbors.
From the Back Cover
Praise for Grace Matters
Grace Matters was named a Publishers Weekly Notable Book of 2002 and won a Christianity Today Award of Merit.
"[A] real story of real people and real faith. My prayer is that the ‘seeds' of this story of struggle and hope they planted will spread and bloom and grow in the lives of many people."
-John Perkins, chairman, Christian Community Development Association, and author, Let Justice Roll Down
"This remarkable, inspiring story reads like a good novel. It is a story of powerful Christian faith, intense personal commitment, and maddening human frailty. Though it ends in tragedy, this is a story of hope: My encounter with Grace Matters has left me daring to hope that, even now, we Christians might yet live out the true meaning of our radical creed . . ."
-Glenn C. Loury, director, Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University
"[Grace Matters] is confessional, candid, and even painful as the author bares his soul and his struggles. . . . This is a book with a fundamental and hopeful message-that grace can become a way of life."
-Jim Wallis, editor, Sojourners magazine, and convener, Call to Renewal
"A good read is a voyage of self-discovery . . . With incredible honesty Chris avoids writing about jealousy and pride in the abstract. Instead he recounts his most embarrassing moments-outbursts of unprovoked anger, periods of consuming jealousy, sobering comments from observers . . . Grace Matters is about race, leadership, and self-discovery, but its crowning message is about grace."
-Christianity Today
"Rice's . . . ultimate topic is a friendship that was severely tested and bent but never broken, not because of the strength of the two friends but because of grace-simple and absurd, illogical and amazing."
-Christian Century
Grace Matters : A Memoir of Faith, Friendship, and Hope in the Heart of the South
Grace Matters: A Memoir of Faith, Friendship, and Hope in the Heart of the South,Chris P. Rice,John Wiley & Sons,0787970980,Biography & Autobiography,Biography / Autobiography,Biography/Autobiography,Christian Life,Christianity - Christian Life - Social Issues,General,Homiletics,Religious,Biography & Autobiography / General,Biography: general,Mississippi,Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches,Racism & racial discrimination
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