Our Commitment to Justice

At North Point church, we are committed to the pursuit of justice, to developing our response to God’s call to let justice flow like a river in our personal and communal lives, and in the structures of our societies.  Christ’s message of reconciliation we find at the heart of the gospel, a message directed to the restoration of our relationship to our Creator and to each other, across all barriers of class, race, gender and culture.

Because this message of justice and reconciliation is so central to the gospel, we lament the brokenness that persists in the structures of our societies, in the lives of our neighbors, and in our own hearts.  We repent of our own complicity in these sins, both personal and structural, and we commit to listen, to learn, and to understand.

We remember that throughout Scripture, God shows particular care to those who are most vulnerable, that he commands authorities to be characterized by righteousness and justice, and that he holds nations accountable for how they treat the least powerful groups and persons in their societies.  Accordingly, we seek to prioritize the perspectives of marginalized people most impacted by injustice, to raise awareness, to educate ourselves and our neighbors, to share resources, and to promote advocacy.

And so we join our voices with so many others in our society today, those who lament, those who demonstrate, and those whose protest that the blood of yet another person of color cries out to God from the ground.  We recognize in these voices echoes of the psalmist: How long, O Lord?  How long must our neighbors be killed without consequence?  How long until your justice reigns, until your kingdom comes?

Our hope is in Christ, in the Prince of Peace, and in his message of justice and reconciliation.  We follow Christ, who himself suffered and died at the hands of the mob and the agents of state, but yet conquered injustice and evil, and death itself.  We long for the day when his perfect justice will roll down like waters (Amos 5), when his power will bring utter darkness into the light (Job 12), and when his love will forever join together every race and tongue into the family of God (Revelation 7). 

Until that day arrives, we commit ourselves to the furthering of Christ’s kingdom here on earth.

Links & resources:

•  Center for Public Justice

• CRC Office of Social Justice

• Coalition for Christian Outreach

• Intervarsity Press                          

• Sojourners                              

Books:

• Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times (Soong-Chan Rah)

• Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming our Ethnic Journey (Sarah Shin)

• Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community (Charles Marsh and John M. Perkins)

• The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance (Bethany Hanke Hoang and Kristen Deede Johnson)

• Until Justice and Peace Embrace (Nicholas Wolterstorff)

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, (Malcolm X and Alex Haley)

• Beautiful Struggle, (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

• Between the World and Me, (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

• Counting Descent, (Clint Smith)

• How to be an Anti-Racist, (Ibram X. Kendi)

• I'm Still Here, (Austin Channing Brown)

• Just Mercy, (Bryan Stevenson)

• "March (graphic novel memoir, 4 books)", (John Lewis)

• The New Jim Crow, (Michelle Alexander)

• Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School, (Monique W. Morris)

• Shalom Sistas, (Osheta Moore)

• So You Want to Talk About Race, (Ijeoma Oluo)

• Stamped from the Begining, (Ibram X. Kendi)

• Until We Reckon, (Danielle Sered)

• Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, (Martin Luther King)

• White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo

• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, (Beverly Daniel Tatum)

• Why We Can't Wait, (Martin Luther King)