Woke Church Quotes

“hard for me to hear the constant refrain of “just preach the gospel.” When the topic is abortion, nobody says, “just preach the gospel.” We preach against abortion as if it’s a gospel issue. When the topic is sex trafficking, no one says “just preach the gospel.” We develop a battalion to go and get people out of sex trafficking. And we should because these are crucial issues. But so is racial justice!”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“Colorblind theology denies Christ’s power to heal racial divisions, disparities, and injustices by ignoring their ongoing impact. Colorblind theology undermines unity in the church by refusing to acknowledge significant ethnic differences or address significant problems.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“But in the gospel, man is not just reconciled to God by faith. Man is also reconciled to man by faith. (See 2 Cor. 5:18). God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He doesn’t give us the luxury of refusing to be reconciled.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“One of the most difficult things for me to deal with is the refusal for many evangelicals to acknowledge the truths about what has happened in our country. Our history has been hard for people of color, and the church must be willing to acknowledge those hard truths if we are to move toward healing. Much of our history is shrouded in darkness because it is hard to talk about and even harder to understand from our vantage point today.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“There is a growing body of evidence that “race affects how teachers see and treat their students. Black students taught by white teachers are less likely to be identified for gifted programs than black students taught by black teachers, for example. Other research has shown biases in teachers’ grading of work by students of different genders, races and ethnicities.”5”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“Cornel West says: “If your success is defined as being well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference, then we don’t want successful leaders.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“You have to be intrinsically changed by God in order for justice to be done. In other words, justice doesn’t come by legislation, because you can legislate things and nothing changes. We can go to the executive branch. We can go to the legislative branch. We can go to the judicial branch. We can put whatever kind of Supreme Court justices we want to put in place. But at the end of the day legislation doesn’t change hearts … only the gospel does.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“What Paul is saying is that the gospel strengthens us through the Spirit to see things in our society that others do not. We are called, as the people of God, to wake up. To see what others don’t and call it out. The church in America is not awake to the reality of what is happening in communities across this nation, and we are missing out on our calling to shine the light into these places of darkness for Christ’s glory.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“We desperately need the gospel. I need the gospel. Every day I need Jesus’ gospel to shepherd my heart and mind. When I see all the bad news on my newsfeed on Facebook, if I’m not in my Bible, preaching the gospel to myself, looking at the eschatological hope, I will lose my mind. And so I’m glad that when we see the injustices and the brokenness of our society we have the tool of God’s Word to help us become change agents—to make a difference in our spheres of influence. The gospel is the truth that unites us. It is the common ground that knits our souls together as one.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“There’s a tendency to want to gloss over injustices for the sake of unity. However, any authentic attempt to pursue unity and reconciliation must start with truth. The journey toward healing begins with an awakening.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“The gospel is supposed to bring people together who wouldn’t naturally be together.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“We are called to follow His example of caring for the physical needs of others in order that the gospel witness of the kingdom might saturate the earth.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“It is incumbent on leadership to reevaluate areas where women have been relegated to serve that are not based on biblical prohibitions but rather on cultural practices that may be extensions of sexism and misogyny.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“The Woke Church is one that is aware of the urgent needs in its community and does more than just talk about those needs”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“We are called to advocate for the poor as an outworking of being a wise covenant community. This is the legacy of the church. Defending the cause of the needy and oppressed is a huge role that we are to be known for as the people of God.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“If we’re going to engage the brokenness in our culture, we have to know how messed up we are, how great Jesus is, and how awesome the end is going to be.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“They forgot about all of their differences and all of their frustrations, because the ones who had won the game represented all of the people of Philly.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“we know how much we are allowing ourselves to experience the hesed of God based on how much we give it out to others.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“In our own city, we do an analysis every year. We ask our community: What are the top three needs in the community? What are the three greatest influences? And what are the churches in this community doing to put a dent in those three needs”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“The founding of the first black denomination came from a refusal to accept black people in the church as equal in every respect. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, former slaves, were attendees at the St. George’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“When you actually see the suffering, you must lament. And what have we seen in our cities? Many of us have made the choice to get as far from the inner city as possible—to remove ourselves from the pain and suffering.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“However, if one is regenerated by the gospel, yet unaware of the double consciousness of African Americans and other ethnic minorities in America, one’s clarity on justice and race issues will be clouded and even absent. Therefore, to be fully woke, one needs to have all three aspects of consciousness.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“At our core, without being conscious in Christ, our souls are still in bondage and can only see things from the natural, fleshly appearance. Our Christ Consciousness gives the double consciousness depth and character. Our Christ Consciousness elevates our awareness to our responsibility to care for and love our brothers—even those who don’t look like us.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“The words of Martin Luther King Jr. help to inspire us and give us much needed hope when we want to quit loving those who wrong us: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“When the realities of a fallen world hit us, we need room to worship the Lord in honest expressions of unedited grief.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“Preaching is spiritual warfare! Ephesians 3:10 tells us that when we preach, something supernatural happens.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“We must address the things that happen in our culture exegetically, expositionally, theologically, historically, critically, lovingly, passionately, humbly, and with Jesus at the center.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

“You can speak on justice and race with rhetorical excellence, but if the gospel isn’t presented, heart change won’t happen.”
― Eric Mason, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice