Friday Book Club: A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story AND America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity(optional)

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Friday Book Club: A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story AND America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity(optional)

September 20 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

book-cover-raphael-warnock

by Raphael Warnock

Register for our September Book Club meeting!

From Goodreads:

On the heels of his historic election to the United States Senate, Raphael G. Warnock shares his remarkable spiritual and personal journey.

“Sparkling… a narrative of an extraordinary life, from impoverished beginnings in Savannah to his arrival on Capitol Hill. Along the way, he reflects with considerable candor and insight on the meaning and importance of faith, truth-telling and political and social redemption.”— The New York Times Book Review

“A compelling, insightful memoir that details an extraordinary journey.” — Bryan Stevenson

Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock occupies a singular place in American life. As senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and now as a senator from Georgia, he is the rare voice who can call out the uncomfortable truths that shape contemporary American life and, at a time of division , summon us all to a higher moral ground.

Senator Warnock grew up in the Kayton Homes housing projects in Savannah, the eleventh of twelve children. His dad was a World War II veteran, and as a teenager his mom picked tobacco and cotton in rural Georgia. Both were Pentecostal preachers. After graduating from Morehouse College, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater, Senator Warnock studied for a decade at Union Theological Seminary while serving at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. At thirty-five, he became the senior pastor at Ebenezer, where Dr. King had preached and served.

In January 2021, Senator Warnock won a runoff election that flipped control of the Senate at one of the most pivotal moments in recent American history. He is the first Black senator from Georgia, only the eleventh Black senator in American history, and just the second Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. As he said in his maiden speech from the well of the senate, Senator Warnock’s improbable journey reflects the ongoing toggle between the pain and promise of the American story.

A powerful preacher and a leading voice for voting rights and democracy, Senator Warnock has a once-in-a-generation gift to inspire and lead us forward. A Way Out of No Way tells his remarkable story for the first time.

*OPTIONAL*

by Tim Scott

From Goodreads:

The American Dream isn’t a thing of the past, but a miracle of the present.

Now more than ever it’s easy to focus on the divisions that plague our nation. It may seem as if our best days are behind us, but bestselling author and senator Tim Scott believes we have yet to realize the fullness of our identity. We are in the midst of a story that’s still unfolding. And beautiful opportunities await.

In this powerful memoir, Scott recounts formative events of his life alongside the inspiring stories of other Americans who have risen above hardship and embodied the values that make our nation great. Together these personal and inspirational accounts call readers to embrace

the mountaintops as well as the valleys on the journey to a more perfect union;a path marked by optimism, hope, and resolve; anda future characterized by endurance, unity, and strength.

Both a clear-eyed reckoning with our nation’s failures and an ode to its accomplishments, America, a Redemption Story issues a clarion call for all of us to rise courageously to the greatness within our reach.