Gracism, the Gracist way...

Gracism. A book about inclusion of those that are on the boundaries, whether that's racially, culturally or those that are just different. This book provides a very interesting concept about including those that are in the minority to be a part of the fellowship or a part of our lives. This is certainly something we can learn from in our churches and also in our Christian Unions. I am doing a seminar on International Mission in a couple of weeks and a point I will be making is if we want to share the Gospel with the nations and international people within England, then we need to reach out our lives and friendship to those that are different to us.

The book provides many challenges for us. Anderson says in the book about the heart of a gracist is "The one who hears, sees and pays attention to those on the margins" This is a challenge in itself about whether we would willingly go out of our way to include those that look differently to us or are sitting alone and are perhaps socially awkward. There is a lot of talk about racial divide in the book and how as a "gracists" you need to intentionally look out for those that are different in any way. Although I agree with some of the ideas of intentionally looking out for those that are different and on the margins, I don't think however we need to use another label like "gracist". I just think we should be doing these things anyway because we are Christians, followers of Christ.

But not just because we are Christians but because we have a global Gospel. A Gospel that includes everyone to share in fellowship with Jesus. So to not do that and deny those that are different in hearing or sharing in the fellowship means you are going against the Gospel. The very heartbeat is that there is unity in Christ because there is unity in the trinity. I would of loved the book to continue on from stories of acts of inclusion to how this inclusion is demonstrated within the trinity and what the Gospel provides which then should warm our hearts to this global gospel and sharing it with all nations.