Busboys and Poets welcomes Lisa Sharon Harper and Sojourners to the Langston Room for this Author Event. Lisa Sharon Harper, chief church engagement office at Sojourners, a DC-based Christian social justice organization, and a nationally recognized leader on faith-based approaches to advocacy, will speak about her new book The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right (WaterBrook, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, $19.99 hardcover).
The evening will feature a panel discussion with Harper, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Joshua DuBois, former head of the White House Office of Faith-based Partnerships, and others. Harper will sign copies of The Very Good Gospel after the discussion. The book, which came out on June 7, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly among other media coverage. It explores the biblical call to shalom, “God’s vision for the emphatic goodness of all relationships.” Exploring the first three chapters of Genesis, Harper shows that “God’s mighty web of interconnected relationships” was not merely good, it was “forcefully, vehemently, abundantly good.” “To live in God’s Kingdom in the way of shalom requires that we discard our thin understanding of the gospel,” Harper says. It’s not hard to see where we need God to speak today in a world devastated by terrorist rampages, police shootings of unarmed black men and women, a rise in the activities of white supremacist groups, economic inequality, and environmental devastation. The Very Good Gospel takes readers through nine areas where shalom is desperately needed such as race, between genders, broken families, between nations, with God, with self, with creation, witnessing peace, and death.
Sojourners is a nonprofit organization committed to putting Christian faith into action in the pursuit of social justice, peace, and environmental stewardship. Harper has been recognized by The Huffington Post as one of 50 Powerful Women Religious Leaders and is considered one of the nation’s most influential voices on a faith-rooted approach to advocacy. Harper speaks extensively, nationally and internationally, and lives in Washington, DC.
