Good News to Change the World: An Interview with Lisa Sharon Harper
PneumaReview.com: The Very Good Gospel is an invitation into a conversation about living in shalom. You put forward biblical arguments for how pursuing shalom should affect every part of our lives. Please share with us a story of how you have seen this made real.
Lisa Sharon Harper: The entire book is full of stories. Without doubt, the stories that surprised me with their power, the stories in my life right now, are the stories of my own reunion with God when I decided to follow Jesus. That transformation was real and began immediately. The other story that touches a deep part of my heart is my struggle against shame; having survived sexual abuse and my parents’ divorce, the power of shame ruled my life. Through inner healing prayer and counseling God has been healing those deep broken parts of my soul.
PneumaReview.com: What is your new book going to be about and why did you write it?
Lisa Sharon Harper: I’ve come to believe the great gulf between most white evangelicals and Pentecostals and those of color is the gap between the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and how we got here. As a result, we have competing visions of what it will take to make our nation (and the church) great. My next book will aim to help shrink that narrative gap through the power of story. I will retrace my own family’s story in the U.S., through their stories from 1650 to present readers will glimpse through windows that reveal God’s work to confront the kingdoms of men, save the image of God on earth, and bring the healing restoring Kingdom of God in our midst.
More from Lisa Sharon Harper:
“Health Care and Judgment Day” Huffington Post (May 18, 2010).
“The Zimmerman Verdict and the Resurrection of the Old Jim Crow” Sojourners (July 18, 2013). Part of the “Remembering Trayvon” series.
“A Call to Transform Politics” QIdeas.org. In response to Ross Douthat, “How Should Christians Engage Politics?”
“The Lie” The Exchange (August 24, 2014). Part of Ed Stetzer’s “It’s Time to Listen” series.
“The Other Lie” RachelHeldEvans.com (September 9, 2014).
“Four Easy Ways to Be a White Supremacist: At its heart, white supremacy is not about white hoods and burning crosses” Sojourners (September/October 2015).
“When Your Good News Isn’t Good Enough” RedLetterChristians.org (June 29, 2016). An excerpt from The Very Good Gospel.
“The Stories of Us” Sojourners (March 20, 2017). Part of the “Faith in Action” series.
David Swartz, “A Highly Trained Nonviolent Peacekeeping Force” Patheos (August 30, 2017).
“When Lisa Sharon Harper marched in Charlottesville to protest white nationalism, she felt fear. ‘It really felt like every step you take could be your last,’ she said, later adding: ‘With each step, I just kept holding on to the call to love.’”
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