You have done the reading, weighed the history, and you are convinced Christianity is not the white man’s religion. So what do you do on Monday, on your block, in your church, with the gifts you actually have?
The closing lesson of the Unspoken curriculum, A Way Forward, answers with one claim: a settled conviction should become initiative. It shapes that initiative through four practices, advocate, create, educate and disciple, gathered under one proverb: “We are the they.” This study helps you turn that proverb into a plan. You can work through it alone in about an hour, or with a group over one or two meetings. By the end you should have one concrete step written down, with a what, a when, a where and a how. Sharing anything you write is always optional.
Begin with your own sentences
Before reading any Scripture, take five minutes and write down every sentence you can remember saying or thinking that begins with “they.” They should teach more Black church history. They need to do something about the schools. They ought to hire people from this neighborhood. Do not edit or judge these yet.
Now mark each sentence. Put a circle next to the ones where “they” refers to a specific group with real power to act, such as a school board, a denomination or an employer. Put a square next to the ones where “they” is vague, someone out there who ought to care. Hold on to this list. Everything that follows will send you back to it.
If you are leading a group, give people the full five minutes in silence. Then ask only whether anyone noticed a pattern in their own list. Do not ask anyone to read a list aloud. Some complaints are personal, and the exercise works whether or not anyone shares.
Read the mission Jesus announced
The lesson grounds everything in one scene. Jesus stands in the synagogue at Nazareth and reads from Isaiah. In the KJV, Luke 4:18-19 reads: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then, in Luke 4:21, he says: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Read the passage slowly twice. On the second reading, underline every group of people named. Then answer two observation questions before moving to application.
- Who is acting in this passage, and by whose power?
- Is Jesus describing what he wishes someone would do, or announcing what he himself has come to do?
The second question matters for the rest of this study. Jesus does not read Isaiah and then appeal to the authorities in Jerusalem. He says the text is being fulfilled in front of them. The lesson notes that for the rest of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus crosses economic and ethnic lines so the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed are seen and helped. It then draws the line to us: “As Christ’s followers, we are called to follow Him in this work.”
Keep one distinction in view. This passage is first about Jesus and his unique, Spirit-anointed mission. We do not fulfill Isaiah the way he did. The lesson’s point is that his followers take on the direction of his life. That is an application built on the text, and a reasonable one, but it does not make us replacements for him.
Read the warning James gives
Now turn to James 2:14-17, which the lesson also cites. In the KJV, verses 15-16 give a picture anyone can see: “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” Verse 17 draws the conclusion: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
The speaker in James’s example says kind, correct things about warmth and food. He simply does nothing. The whole problem is the gap between right words and an empty stomach. Go back to your list and ask honestly whether any of your “they” sentences work like that blessing in James 2:16, a correct statement that leaves the need exactly where it was.
One more text completes the picture. The lesson’s summary insists, “We haven’t just been saved from something; we’ve been saved for something,” and points to Ephesians 2:10. In the KJV, that verse reads: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Read it alongside verses 8-9 just before it. Grace saves first. Good works follow as a path God has already laid out.
What the proverb actually asks
With those texts in view, the lesson’s central idea becomes more than a slogan. It opens with a claim about history: “One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Black Church is initiative.” It gives examples. Churches built banks when Black people were denied loans, built schools when education was denied, and raised fellowship halls when segregation closed other doors. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society to support newly freed people, and the lesson says much of its work was funded by the Sunday morning benevolence offering. Of that generation it says, “They did not wait for someone else to solve their problems or meet their needs. Instead, by God’s grace, they sought to become answers to each other’s prayers.”
That phrase, “by God’s grace,” keeps the proverb from becoming simple self-reliance. The proverb means the people praying for an answer may be the answer God intends to send. The lesson gives its own examples of what the proverb redirects. Instead of saying someone should make children’s books that depict biblical characters more accurately, you make the art. Instead of saying universities should teach early African Christianity, someone builds a school that does.
Four practices, held loosely
The lesson organizes the way forward with the acronym A.C.E.D., and it warns against turning that into pressure: “please don’t think of this acronym and its corresponding ideas as a test you must ace.” Read the four as kinds of work. You will be naturally suited to some more than others.
- Advocate for the rights of the oppressed. The lesson’s boldest claim lives here: “Christian advocacy is an apologetic for the work and person of Jesus Christ.” It names tutoring, voting, community activism and serving as forms this can take, and it states the cost of neglect: “when our faith lacks the work of advocacy for the oppressed, people are left questioning God’s goodness, commitment to justice, and love for all.”
- Create God-glorifying work. The lesson points to Ida B. Wells, who used her writing to investigate and expose lynching, and compares her to Moses using what was in his hand (see Exodus 4:2). Its question is direct: “Christian, what is in your hand?”
- Educate yourself. The documentary and study are only a beginning. The lesson’s practical advice is to “give priority to primary resources over secondary and tertiary resources to get a direct account,” such as autobiographies.
- Disciple others. The lesson argues that discipleship includes more than personal devotion. It also means restoring the dignity of the oppressed, confronting racist ideas, and equipping people to contend for the faith with competence and confidence.
Each practice answers the skeptic’s original objection in its own way, so your conduct becomes part of the case you make.
Test the proverb before you act
The proverb can be misheard in two opposite ways. One makes it a burden: if we are the they, every unmet need is my personal failure. That reading ignores “by God’s grace” and the lesson’s refusal to treat A.C.E.D. as a test. No one is called to all four letters at full strength, or to every need in a city. The other makes it a shrug: some people are activists; I am not one of them. That reading ignores James 2. The lesson’s prompts start small on purpose. Name what burdens you, then ask “What organizations are already doing the work.” Joining existing work is a way of being the they.
There is also a harder objection, and it comes from outside the individual. If the people who were harmed build their own banks and schools, does that excuse the institutions that did the harm? A denomination that tolerated racism, or a school system that underfunds a neighborhood, still owes repair. Resources are unequal too. A congregation that was shut out of loans for generations does not start with the same capacity as one that was not.
The lesson does not dismiss this. It holds two commitments in one sentence: we should always invite white brothers and sisters to help correct the errors of American Christianity, but “we can’t wait for their institutions to fully repent and change.” Inviting keeps the claim on those institutions alive. Refusing to wait keeps their delay from setting the pace of your obedience. The proverb is aimed at the vague “they,” the squares on your list. Your circles, the specific bodies with real power, may still deserve a letter, a meeting or a vote, and advocacy is one of the four practices for exactly that reason.
Which mishearing are you more prone to? You do not need to say it aloud. Knowing it will shape the size of the step you choose next.
Turn one sentence into a plan
This is the main exercise. Return to your list and choose one “they” sentence, ideally a square. Then work through these steps in writing.
- Rewrite the sentence with yourself, or your church or small group, as the subject. They should teach early African Christianity becomes a sentence that begins with I could or We could. Write at least two versions.
- Decide which letter of A.C.E.D. it belongs to. If it fits more than one, pick the one that matches what is actually in your hand: your skills, your time, your relationships.
- Search for anyone already doing this work nearby. Write down at least one name, organization or resource. If you find nothing, that is information too.
- Follow the lesson’s own instruction: “Try to make your next step as practical and measurable as possible.” Write down what you will do, when, where and how.
- Name one person who could do it with you, or hold you to it.
A good plan is usually smaller than you expect. Read one autobiography of a figure from the documentary by the end of next month, borrowed from the library beats learn African church history. Ask the youth director on Sunday whether two students need tutoring help on Tuesday evenings beats help the schools.
In a group, give people fifteen minutes to work alone, then pair them. Each partner restates the other’s plan in their own words and asks one clarifying question about the when or the how. Partners should not critique the choice of cause. The goal is a plan specific enough to happen.
If you are not yet convinced
Some readers have not settled the first question, and the lesson speaks to them before it ever mentions A.C.E.D. Its counsel is to get a second opinion: read the sources cited, return to the documentary, visit a trusted friend’s church, read the Bible, and bring your questions. It compares the situation to a patient misdiagnosed by one doctor, who would be testing the practitioner, not the whole field of medicine.
The lesson observes that “Questions can cultivate commitment,” and it closes on the personal question Jesus asked in Mark 8:29: “But whom say ye that I am?” If that is where you are, your measurable next step may be investigation. Which book will you read, and which Christian will you ask about your questions? That is a real way forward.
Questions for discussion or reflection
- Looking at your list, which kind of “they” sentence did you write more of, the specific or the vague? What might that say about where you have been placing responsibility?
- Luke 4 shows Jesus announcing his own mission rather than appealing to someone else. Where does following that example help you, and where would it be a mistake to read yourself into his unique role?
- Pick the step you just planned. If a skeptical friend watched you carry it out for three months, what would it show them about Christ, and what would it leave unanswered that only an honest conversation could address?
- Choose one circle on your list. What would inviting that institution into repair look like, and what would you start doing in the meantime so its delay does not become your excuse?
- Which letter of A.C.E.D. fits what is already in your hand, and which would stretch you most? What would it take to grow in the stretching one without abandoning the natural one?
- Does “we are the they” sound to you more like freedom or more like weight? What in Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks to that?
Before you close the page
Ephesians 2:10 describes good works that God “hath before ordained.” That phrase puts your small, measurable step in its proper place. It is a path laid down in advance, and you are choosing to walk on it this week. Put the date of your step somewhere you will see it. When that day comes and the step is done, come back to your list and choose the next sentence.