The author issues a call for the church to update the idea of ministry and mission by moving away from condescension and towards inclusion of marginalized groups seeking justice.
Cheryl Sanders grew up and resides in Washington, D.C. She is a third-generation member of the Third Street Church of God, where she is Senior Pastor. She graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics with a concentration in black studies at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She worked for several years as a mathematical statistician with the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While living in Cambridge she earned two graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School, Master of Divinity, cum laude, and Doctor of Theology in Applied Theology. For two years she served as interim pastor of the First Church of God in Boston. She returned to Washington in 1984 to accept a faculty appointment at Howard University School of Divinity, where she is Professor of Christian Ethics. Prior to her installation as Senior Pastor of Third Street Church in 1997, she served there as Minister of Christian Education and Associate Pastor for Leadership Development. She is the recipient of numerous awards, honors and fellowships, including two honorary doctorates in divinity, from Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky and Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana.
Cheryl Sanders' books represent her broad range of interests in Christian ethics and African American religion and culture. Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People gives an ethical overview of the spirituality of African American Christians in the U.S. from slavery to the present. Saints in Exile is an assessment of the impact of the Holiness and Pentecostal churches upon the culture and religious practices of African Americans. Ministry at the Margins examines the role of marginalized persons in the Bible, and especially in the ministry of Jesus. It challenges evangelical Christians to reassess the ministry and mission of contemporary faith communities in light of the bibical witness of the poor, women and youth.
