“Are you going to tell me I have to sell my house?”

“How should I respond when people tell me I am a burden to society?”

“The word privilege doesn’t come up in the Bible. Why should Christians be talking about it?”

“What’s the relationship between being generous and believing in reparations?”

“Should I be ashamed of being a white man?”

Over the past few months, I’ve been traveling around to different schools, bookstores, and churches talking about the themes of White Picket Fences, and these are some of the earnest questions I’ve received. In every location, people haven’t simply wanted to talk about the book. They’ve wanted to talk about their own lives, their own communities, and the possibilities for their own engagement with the social divisions we see in our culture right now.

In other words, most people want to do more than read this book. They want to talk about it. Moreover, they want to respond to it with more than conversation. They want to participate in meaningful change. Are you one of them? (Sign up here.)

People who have never attended a book club before, people who aren’t already in a small group, people from all walks of life–men and women, old and young, north and south, black and white– feel a need right now to engage with the social divisions in our culture. White Picket Fences offers a place to start.

In addition to ongoing blog posts and other supplemental materials at amyjuliabecker.com, we have put together two discussion guides, one for a group that will meet one time, and another for three meetings. (We are also working on a 7-week discussion guide for Lent which will be available in mid- February.)

All of these guides will lead participants through a three-step process of response to the content of WPF including:

• Responding with your Head: acknowledging of the problems and wounds associated with privilege
• Responding with your Heart: connecting spiritually, emotionally, and relationally with the problems of social division
• Responding with your Hands: actively participating in healing in your own life and community

Over the course of this next year, we will be creating additional materials to correspond with each of these three steps, and we will send a monthly email to inform you about these new resources.

If you are ready to gather a group to read and reflect upon White Picket Fences, sign up here.

Once you sign up:

• We will email you the discussion guide you requested (which includes guidelines for forming a group and establishing norms for conversation within the group)
• Once you have established a date for your group’s meeting, you are invited to set up a 30-minute video call with Amy Julia individually or as a group. (For at least the first 50 people who sign up)
• You will be invited to join a private Facebook group of other discussion leaders .

Many people in our culture are concerned about the harm inflicted by privilege. Reading White Picket Fences and talking with others about it offers hope that a meaningful and loving response is possible. Thank you for taking one small step towards healing.

You can also check out my Hope for Healing Pages – there are resources for using your Head, Heart, and Hands.