(4/5 stars) A needed read for those wanting to learn more about building racial solidarity in a divided culture.

This book was excellent, honest and compelling.
The main takeaways for me came down to: proximity and do something.

I really enjoyed the addition of the authors experiences around unhoused people.

Everyone who purports to be a Christian should read this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book

This book gives a lot of food for thought. As someone who has done a lot of hands on work in working against racism and towards the common good, Terence Lester gives some good applications at the end of each chapter. It's especially good for those that are still wanting to learn.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading All God’s Children. I will definitely recommend this to a number of my friends and family. I have so many takeaways from this, including this quote: “the solution to dealing with many of the macro racial problems in America starts at a micro level as we live in close proximity to others.”

It’s written in such a way that’s easy to read, but it’s also packed with quotes from many other authors, references to psychological studies, etc. I really appreciated that, among other things, this book is a great stepping stone to other important resources. I also appreciated that each chapter ended with an application section with questions that did actually make me think.

My only minor critique is that it sometimes veers a little and seems to get a little lost in politics. That doesn’t really bother me, but sometimes the threads back to Lester’s thoughts got a little lost.

Thanks to NetGalley and InterVarsity Press for a digital ARC - pub date 6/20/2023. Full disclosure - I am not religious in any kind of organized sense (more spiritual, more pagan-leaning) so, a few pages into this book, I became concerned as it became clear that the title was not hyperbole. It is written by a deeply-feeling Christian pastor. However, Terence Lester quickly proved himself the kind of Christian pastor that not only practices what he preaches but he also approaches every living human being with grace and hope and respect. Even if you aren't religious or of a different religion, I truly feel that you can read this book and come away strongly moved. He never claims to have all of the answers but draws on his life experience, his family and friends and their experiences, and builds a strong argument rooted in humanity and empathy for the correction and healing of racial divides.

One of the things that hit me strongest was his emphasis on the work of understanding, of getting to know people, of understanding the suppressed history of Black people. Another point was the line he drew between racial justice and racial reconciliation and it hit like a bolt of lightning. Of course we cannot skip over the justice and straight to the reconciliation. Why on earth do we think we can? Trauma cannot be healed by ignoring it. This includes racial trauma. Pretending to "not see color" or suppressing selective bits of history does not help anyone except White supremacists. We cannot understand each other and support each other without honestly knowing each other. Learn all of the history. Speak to all of the people. Use your heart as much as your head. Terence Lester supports all of this with verses from the Bible but he does not dismiss real world examples as equally important. I definitely would suggest this book to anyone interested in expanding their mind and heart and wanting to pursue a strong approach to social and racial justice.

While I love the work that Terence Lester does, All God's Children was difficult to read due solely to the tone. Nearly every single example in every single chapter paints Lester as A) the hero -- saying exactly the right thing, doing the right thing, saving the day, not ever doing anything wrong etc etc etc -- or B) the victim. There are no other options. About half way through I began to realize the tone was consistent. At this point, I began looking for ANY story or example where Lester didn't show himself to be the one with all the answers or the one who doesn't ever mess up, etc. (Many Christian nonfiction titles, such as this one, teach the reader through stories that invite the reader into the highs and lows, the lessons and the mistakes. The reader can see himself/herself in the story as the author comes alongside, or in some cases (more academic) humbly teaches from ahead. I'm not sure if this tried to put a foot in both spaces, and that's why the tone doesn't work, but it felt prideful in many places. The overall message -- All God's Children -- is one that is needed, but not in a book that speaks down to the reader (here's how I did it, which is exactly how it should be done etc.).

This book was a great introduction to antiracism for me. It's the first of its kind that I've read and I am eager to read more. I most appreciated the author's personal stories, which gave me concrete examples of how Black people experience racism and prejudice in America's white society. I also really liked the explanations of aggression and bias. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to examine racism from a Christian framework and desires to put in the work towards justice for all God’s children.

This is an important book birthed out of years of personal and professional experience. Terence Lester leads the reader on a journey of examining the intersection between racism and poverty. His work with the non-profit he founded, Love Beyond Walls, provides the reader with real examples of people struggling with homelessness and the invitation to love them. He also shares many experiences from years pastoring a majority-white church. As a black pastor, there were many challenges and painful experiences along the way.

In this book, the reader is invited and challenged to learn about America’s racist history. The stories shared are not just statistics, but personal examples from the author’s own life and the lives of his relatives. The reader is then led to unpack biases, engage differences, and become a guest at the table of those who are different than oneself.

This book shares an essential concept that we all need to wrestle with: each human being is made in God’s image. We are all God’s children. Through this book, we are invited to live into this reality on a daily basis, going beyond our walls and outside our comfort zones to love others.

Terence Lester's new book All God's Children does a wonderful job of navigating the terrain of racial strife within the church. Lester powerfully moves between his own story as a black man in the US while connecting his experiences to the stories we read in the Bible.

I appreciated the Application pieces at the end of each chapter for pragmatic steps for the reader to take on their own journey toward building racial solidarity. This book will be especially helpful for church folk whose antiracism journey stalled out after they read Robin DiAngelo following George Floyd's murder.

It's work we all need to do and Terence Lester has given us a great resource to begin the journey.

All God’s Children had me gripped from the comparison of our current time to wilderness in the introduction – a time of uncertainty and growth.

The book is a balance of academic research (thoroughly credited in a way that does not compromise the readability of the text) and stories – stories from Terence’s life, the lives of his loved ones, the lives of the people he has worked with, stories from the Bible, stories from history.

All God’s Children delivers harsh truth with compassion and hope. It fearlessly unpacks history and how it is taught within the education system, especially the role slavery played in the economic supremacy of the US. There are painstakingly detailed descriptions of everyday perpetrations of racism, including the pain of being ignored and avoided, with Terence drawing interesting parallels between how homeless people and Black people are treated in the US.

Each of the chapters concludes with incisive reflection questions and practical calls to action that are grounded in deep theological understanding; the difficult work of self-reflection is connected to faith and worship.

There are also eye-opening reflections on how race informs faith and worship and vice versa, including the differences in preaching in predominantly white vs. predominantly Black churches.

All God’s children is a brilliant example of how it is possible to critique religious structures and practices from a place of deep faith, deep knowledge and deep commitment to the wellbeing of all people.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Terrence does a great job of incorporating his ministry among the unhoused community with the messy overlapping that often occurs due to other factors, predominantly race, in America. There's a reason so many unhoused people are black (and have disabilities/neurodivergence), and it's an issue baked into the very foundations of America. When church members bury this history, or believe it's all "in the past" and has no influence on how believers do life today, it's not only ignoring the problem, but being actively complicit in the generational sin of colonialism and slavery + it's consequences. We're living in the consequence of sin, and BIPOC continue to pay the price. Yet, if we believe the Kingdom of G-d has overcome the evil of sin, and that all human beings possess the very image of the Creator, then certainly there's some recognition and reconciliation that can actually happen. This is a book of hope, a hand extended, towards true belonging for all G-d's children residing within America.