Healing Our Broken Humanity
Practices for Revitalizing the Church and Renewing the World
By Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill
A Review by Dwight A. Moody
I was predisposed to like this book when I discovered Drs. Kim and Hill were describing nine practices. I used that number when writing “Nine Marks of a Good Sermon” and “Nine Gospel Practices.” Reading their book made me rethink certain things about my lists of nine!
Kim and Hill are scholars, both with PhDs, both teaching at the graduate level, she in the United States and he in Australia. Together they infuse this manuscript with a global feel, invoking illustrations from around the world and addressing concerns common to many Christian communities.
Here are the nine practices: Reimage Church, Renew Lament, Relinquish Power, Restore Justice, Reactivate Hospitality, Reinforce Agency, Reconcile Relationships, and Recover Life Together.
I find these nine practices very compelling, and their descriptions are biblically grounded and practically appealing. Together they constitute a framing of Christian community that is very winsome while, at the same time, being so foreign to so many of the congregations of which I have been a member.
Which brings me to this: I could only wish these scholars had provided more illustrations of where and how these practices are in place. They mention some—River City Church in Chicago, Homeless Church in San Francisco, and The Meeting House in Toronto—but all three of these were in one chapter, and most chapters fail to give a single illustration of how a particular practice—Renew Lament, for instance—might take shape in a real congregation. Same for Relinquish Power and Reinforce Agency.
What they do provide is an attractive bibliography, with most chapters dialoging with authors writing on the same theme. I name these books that I am tempted to track down: Mirror to the Church by Emmanuel Katongole (for Renew Lament), Christians at the Border by M. Daniel Carroll (for Repent Together), Power and Submission by Sarah Coakley (for Relinquish Power), and Roadmap to Reconciliation by Brenda Salter McNeil (for Restore Justice). References to The Christian Imagination by Willie James Jennings appear throughout, and he wrote the Introduction to this book.
I kept wondering how these practices intersect with more common practices of churches, such as hymn singing, convert dipping, or supper eating (of either the fellowship hall type or the sanctuary kind). In fact, I was struck with the sparce attention given to the arts of any kind. The reader is encouraged to “collect and sing worship songs that focus on justice” but beyond that, very little, a serious oversight.
Then, I kept thinking about this very modern question: what sociological evidence do we have (or can we gather) that demonstrates convincingly that any of these nine practices can actually do what the authors suggest? This question reflects the rise of sociological research in the religious world. It boomerangs back on me, as I think: what evidence do I have, other than my own experience, that allows me to assert that the “nine marks” actually produce better sermons? How in the world would we actually know that? How can a social scientist design research to demonstrate that these nine practices heal humanity, revitalize the church, or renew the world?
But the bottom line is this: I read this book while watching the news about a pandemic in the United States, an earthquake in Haiti, and social upheaval in Afghanistan. Many things are broken; and it certainly seems to me that these nine practices are worth a try! It makes me want to gather my congregation, read through the book again with them, and see how the suggested activities at the end of each chapter might shape us more faithfully into the people God wants us to be.
(August 2021)
