Becoming All Things

Author Michelle Reyes
Foreword by Thabiti Anyabwile
Publishing Information: Zondervan Reflective
Release date: April 27, 2021

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Summary

Cultural identities and cross-cultural engagement are not things that anyone can choose to ignore anymore, least of all Christians. Many of us want to have diverse friends and are passionate about justice. But if we are serious about cross-cultural relationships–real relationships that lead to understanding, healing and solidarity across cultural lines–we need to be willing to change. And that’s not something that comes easy for any of us.

In Becoming All Things, Michelle Reyes offers a poignant discussion on the challenges surrounding cross-cultural relationships in America today, including the reasons for cultural difference, stereotyping, appropriation, gentrification, racism, and more. Seeking to deconstruct these things in our own lives, Reyes focuses on the concept of cultural accommodation in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, and looks at the ways in which we need to adapt who we are in order to become all things to all people. The problems inherent in cross-cultural relationships have to do with us. We have to do better.

With language that’s witty, funny, and accessible, Reyes offers hope for majority and minority alike by showing what’s possible when all of us are willing to try something new.

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Endorsements

The challenge of living as a multiethnic community remains as large as ever. Progress toward racially reconciled communities that embody God’s justice feels elusive and at times seems unattainable. I am thankful to Dr. Michelle Reyes for her insightful and well-told work that engages Biblical truths, sociological insight, and ecclesial realities. A much-needed text that offers helpful and useful practices that the church would do well to apply.

In this powerful and important book, Dr. Michelle Reyes takes on one of the most important issues facing the church: How do we wit- ness to the unity of Christ across social divisions? How do we love well in a multicultural, multiracial body of Christ and share that with a hurting world? With personal, professional, and scholarly wisdom, Dr. Reyes is our expert guide. She helps each reader unpack his or her own cultural identity, consider the social and theological significance of these cultural positions, and then leads us to consider how we can respond in practical, everyday steps informed by Scripture. I look forward to teaching this book to my own students.

Dr. Michelle Reyes is a connector of people and a facilitator of hard conversations surrounding race, cultural identity, and justice. Her story and voice matter, and most importantly, her words help Christians truly become all things in challenging conversations. If you are ready to lean in and grow in your understanding of your “neighbor,” then Becoming All Things is the book for you.

Becoming All Things is a kingdom of God manual, a path for experiencing God’s glory through Christlike sacrifice. With grace and truth, Michelle calls us to check cultural appropriation, inventory our own hearts, and move out of our carefully constructed comfort zones into a lifestyle enriched by the experiences of our diverse neighbors near and far. Michelle invites each of us to examine our unique story and the glory that can be experienced from flourishing together. This book stirs in me, after decades of multiethnic leadership, an even greater desire to experience God’s diverse kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I pray that Christians who are unwilling to settle for perfunctory diversity will receive this book as a loving challenge to grow in respect, to build more justice-minded communities, and show our children neighborly love that is lived out to the glory of God.