Summary

All over the world, Christian churches are struggling to obey the Bible’s clear commands to welcome the stranger, to displace the fear that leads to exclusion, and to both extend and receive mutual hospitality as gifts of God’s Spirit.

Listen Online

Download audio

Details

This session explored these themes in light of recent books on Christian responses to the immigration debate (co-authored by Jenny Yang), the dynamic range of the Latino Protestant experience in the United States (Gerardo Marti), the continuing witness of Christian congregations in the Middle East (Amgad Beblawi), Indigenous communities in Canada (Cheryl Bear), and refugee communities in the US (Jaewoo Kim). These topics are central to the witness of every congregation, and the session will explore how ordinary congregations that may feel quite distant from some of these concerns are crucial places for responding to them in public prayer, thoughtful preaching, and active engagement.

Recent Media Resources

Podcast Justice/Reconciliation Psalms/Scripture
Andrew Wilkes on Doing the Work of Liberation and Justice with the Psalms as Our Guide

Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.

April 10, 2026 | 14 min listen
Podcast Faith Formation Psalms/Scripture
W. David O. Taylor on the Psalms and Praying the Unedited Life

Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.

April 10, 2026 | 26 min listen
Podcast History Psalms/Scripture
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford on the Shape and Shaping of the Psalter

Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.

April 10, 2026 | 17 min listen