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WEEP WITH ME

How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation

Mark Vroegop

Foreword by Thabiti Anyabwile

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Dan Farrell

First printing 2020

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-6759-9

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-6762-9

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-6760-5

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-6761-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vroegop, Mark, 1971– author. | Anyabwile, Thabiti M., 1970– writer of foreword.

Title: Weep with me : how lament opens a door for racial reconciliation / Mark Vroegop ; foreword by Thabiti Anyabwile.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects: LCSH: Laments in the Bible. | Grief—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Suffering—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Race relations—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Reconciliation—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BS1199.L27 V765 2020 (print) | LCC BS1199.L27 (ebook) DDC 277.308/3089—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000827

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000828

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To Keith and Yolanda White

Fellow heirs of the gospel

Faithful followers of Jesus

Friends in the reconciliation journey

CONTENTS

Foreword by Thabiti Anyabwile

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dream: The Vision of Racial Harmony

PART 1 LAMENT IN THE BIBLE AND HISTORY

1 Pray: The Language of Lament

2 Listen: Lessons from African American Spirituals

3 Walk: The Bridge of Lament

PART 2 LAMENT AND MAJORITY CHRISTIANS

4 Weep: The Healing Grace of Empathy

5 Speak: Ending the Painful Silence

6 Repent: Remembering with Remorse

PART 3 LAMENT AND MINORITY CHRISTIANS

7...

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About Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation

Today, racial wounds from three hundred years of slavery and a history of Jim Crow laws continue to impact the church in America.

Martin Luther King Jr. captured this reality when he said: “The most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday.” Equipped with the gospel, the evangelical church should be the catalyst for reconciliation, yet it continues to cultivate immense pain and division. Weep with Me by Mark Vroegop is a timely resource that presents lament as a bridge to racial reconciliation in the world today. In the Bible, lament is a prayer that leads to trust, which can be a starting point for the church to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). As Vroegop writes: “Reconciliation in the church starts with tears and ends in trust.”

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