I began this blogging journey in March of 2011 and a few days ago, I submitted edits for the proof of my first book, Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church. I should have told you sooner but I was kept away by writing deadlines and check lists and personal travels to see Mother Moses etched in stone in New Jersey and New York City. The vision of race abolition is always with me but when my eyes grow weary, I go to her and into my head. I should have come out sooner.

But I have also been doing the work for The Raceless Gospel Initiative and in my new role as interim managing editor of news and opinion at Good Faith Media, I haven’t had much time to blog. Yes, I forgot to mention that as well. Forgive me. But, I have been sharing my witness of a raceless “kin-dom” that is coming on Sunday mornings too. I was a guest on Derate the Hate podcast, where we discussed the need to acknowledge injustice and the work to make things right. I was even asked to write the foreword to Dr. Sheena Mason’s newest book, The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race is the Future of Antiracism, which is set to be released in February 2024. I am still in shock that in just a few weeks, I will have a book of my own.

Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church introduces the North American church to the raceless gospel, which doubles as a teaching instrument and an emerging ecclesiology that is egalitarian, non- binary and non- dualistic. The raceless gospel is an announcement, preparing the way for an undivided “kin-dom” that is coming. The segregation of the North American church was not by happenstance but began the moment European Protestants positioned themselves as the go- between God and other nationalities for relationship. The first sign of segregation was down by the riverside. Thus, the raceless gospel argues that the North American church needs to be taken to the water to submerge all competing identities so that all members can live freely and more fully into their baptismal identity as expressed by the first creed: “For you are children of God in the Spirit. There is no Jew or Greek; there is no slave or free; there is no male and female. For you are all on one in the Spirit.”

Take Me to the Water is for Christ followers who want to do the work of deconstructing race and decolonizing identity as a practice of discipleship and spiritual formation. This book is for baptized believers and would be achievers of a reconciled church. Pick up a copy and grab my hand. We’ve got a church that needs to come together.