A Word & Way 2022 Book of the Year Sojourners' 2022 Book Roundup to Inspire Faith and Justice "Extraordinary. . . . Let this story of family, race, and resistance create anger in your spirit and ultimately inspire your heart to join the work to heal our nation and eventually our world."--Otis Moss III (from the foreword) Drawing on her lifelong journey to know her family's history, leading Christian activist Lisa Sharon Harper recovers the beauty of her heritage, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair. Harper has spent three decades researching ten generations of her family history through DNA research, oral histories, interviews, and genealogy. Fortune, the name of Harper's first nonindigenous ancestor born on American soil, bore the brunt of the nation's first race, gender, and citizenship laws. As Harper traces her family's story through succeeding generations, she shows how American ideas, customs, and laws robbed her ancestors--and the ancestors of so many others--of their humanity and flourishing. Fortune helps readers understand how America was built upon systems and structures that blessed some and cursed others, allowing Americans of European descent to benefit from the colonization, genocide, enslavement, rape, and exploitation of people of color. As Harper lights a path through national and religious history, she clarifies exactly how and when the world broke and shows the way to redemption for us all. The book culminates with a powerful and compelling vision of truth telling, reparation, and forgiveness that leads to Beloved Community. It includes a foreword by Otis Moss III, illustrations, and a glossy eight-page black-and-white insert featuring photos of Harper's family.

A "deeply spiritual and socially radical" (Dr. Obery Hendricks, PhD) guide to uplift our spirits as we work for justice in these politically turbulent times--from Reverend Otis Moss, III, Senior Pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and one of the country's most renowned and beloved spiritual and civil rights leaders. Once again, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first observed in the 1960s, it is midnight in America--a dark time of division and anxiety, with threats of violence looming in the shadows. In 2008, the Trinity United Church in Chicago received threats when one of its parishioners, Senator Barack Obama, ran for president. "We're going to kill you" rang in Reverend Otis Moss's ears when he suddenly heard a noise in the middle of the night. He grabbed a baseball bat to confront the intruder in his home. When he opened the door to his daughter's room, he found that the source of the noise was his own little girl, dancing. She was simply practicing for her ballet recital. At that moment, Pastor Moss saw that the real intruder was within him. Caught in a cycle of worry and anger, he had allowed the darkness inside. But seeing his daughter evoked Pslam 30: "You have turned my mourning into dancing." He set out to write the sermon that became this inspiring and transformative book. Dancing in the Darkness is a "life-affirming" (Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown) guide to the practical, political, and spiritual challenges of our day. Drawing on the teachings of Dr. King, Howard Thurman, sacred scripture, southern wisdom, global spiritual traditions, Black culture, and his own personal experiences, Dr. Moss instructs you on how to practice spiritual resistance by combining justice and love. This collection helps us tap into the spiritual reserves we all possess but too often overlook, so we can slay our personal demons, confront our civic challenges, and reach our highest goals.

Every Sunday, Otis Moss III and his preaching attract over 5,000 people to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

Moss describes himself as, "a jazz-influenced pastor with a hip-hop vibe committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ rooted in love and justice." He admits he can talk endlessly about theology, popular culture, and movies, and has even based some of his best sermons, collected in this book, on these powerful films: The Wiz, 12 Years a Slave, The Butler, The Book of Eli, The Color Purple, Avatar, Flight, and For Colored Girls.

Discussion questions are included, making it ideal for individuals or groups, movie nights and book clubs.

"Can preaching recover a Blues sensibility and dare speak with authority in the midst of tragedy? America is living stormy Monday, but the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. The world is experiencing the Blues, and pulpiteers are dispensing excessive doses of non-prescribed prosaic sermons with severe ecclesiastical and theological side effects." aEURO"from chapter 1 Uniquely gifted preacher Otis Moss III helps preachers effectively communicate hope in a desperate and difficult world in this new work based on his 2014 Yale Lyman Beecher Lectures. Moss challenges preachers to preach with a "Blue Note sensibility," which speaks directly to the tragedies faced by their congregants without falling into despair. He then offers four powerful sermons that illustrate his Blue Note preaching style. In them, Moss beautifully and passionately brings to life biblical characters that speak to today's pressing issues, including race discrimination and police brutality, while maintaining a strong message of hope. Moss shows how preachers can teach their congregations to resist letting the darkness find its way into them and, instead, learn to dance in the dark.