Forgiving As We've Been Forgiven

Christians are supposed to forgive others as we've been forgiven. But hearing the call to forgive is different from knowing how to practice forgiveness at home and in the world. Forgiveness is about more than the isolated acts and words of individuals. To forgive and be forgiven, we need communal practices and disciplines for a way of life that makes for peace.Greg Jones and Célestin Musekura describe how churches and communities can cultivate the habits that make forgiveness possible on a daily basis. Following the Rwandan genocide, Musekura lost his father and other family members to revenge killings. But then he heard God tell him to forgive the killers. The healing power of forgiveness in his own life inspired him to work for forgiveness and reconciliation across Africa. Jones, author of Embodying Forgiveness, interacts with Musekura's story to show how people can practice forgiveness not only in dramatic situations like genocide but also in everyday circumstances of marriage, family and congregational life. Together they demonstrate that forgiving and being forgiven are mutually reciprocating practices that lead to transformation and healing.

Célestin Musekura (Ph.D., theological studies, Dallas Theological Seminary) is president and founder of African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM, Inc.), a growing ministry with fifty-one African national staff training church leaders and community leaders across east and central Africa in leadership conflict resolution and tribal reconciliation.In addition to his theological studies, Musekura has done studies in conflict resolution, mediation and reconciliation at the eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. His pastoral and Christian leadership ministries include six years of pastoring in Rwanda and serving in administration with the Association des Eglises Baptistes au Rwanda. He served on the international and continental level as the Africa Regional Director for MAP International, the Director for MAP-Reconciliation Ministries, and the Associate Director for SIM-Urban Ministries Support Group. He co-founded the Sudan Evangelical Alliance to help the persecuted churches in southern Sudan unite in their suffereing and in their outreach to their nation. Musekura has served as an adjunct porfessor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary and Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. He is also the author of An Assessment of Contemporary Models of Forgiveness.

L. Gregory Jones, (Ph.D., Duke) is vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He previously served as dean of Duke Divinity School. He also serves as president of leadership education at Duke Divinity, and as professor of theology. His books include Embodying Forgiveness, Transformed Judgment and Resurrecting Excellence.