We Are Called to Be a Movement

Starred review from April 20, 2020
Barber (Revive Us Again), a MacArthur Fellow and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C., demonstrates his rhetorical gifts in this expansion on a 2018 sermon he delivered at the National Cathedral. Barber attained national attention by organizing “Moral Monday” protests throughout 2013 against legislation hurting the poor, and draws on the Psalms and the Gospel of Luke to develop his principal theme—“God uses the rejected to lead the moral revival.” The rejected, he argues, are the 140 million Americans who are poor or “low wealth” (those within the bottom third of earners). He makes an argument for all rejected to form a mass movement and come together to be the “chief cornerstones” of a more just and economically equal America. Barber’s impassioned oratory (“Revival power! Resurrection power! Love power! Mercy power! Telling the truth power!... when the stones that have been rejected come together, something powerful can happen.”) shows the influence of Dr. Martin Luther King, whom Barber cites as a model for his thinking. Christians looking for inspiration toward collective action will love this.