Deeper Waters

Deeper Waters is a sermon collection--but also a manifesto. Its sermons sound forth a call for Christian preaching that is evangelical and emancipatory: unashamed of the good news about Christ's death and resurrection and resolute in resistance to white supremacy, male domination, and redemptive violence. The author, pastor Nibs Stroupe, is a white son of the segregated South, nurtured in its twin traditions of anti-black white racism and Christian faith. But through the courageous witness of black Americans engaged in the Civil Rights movement, Stroupe experienced conversion to a new theological vision. God's loving claim on humanity in Jesus Christ abolishes oppressive idols and breaks down dividing barriers. This conviction propelled Nibs into a lifelong ministry of gospel proclamation and antiracist struggle. For thirty-four years, Stroupe pastored at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, a multiracial congregation in metropolitan Atlanta. The sermons of this collection present the mature fruit of that ministry, and they offer a gift and example to the next generation of preachers and workers summoned as witnesses of Jesus Christ to the American context.

""Jesus-centered, biblically learned, and dead-set against white supremacy--even as he retains awareness of his complicity with it--Nibs Stroupe is one of the most important models for preaching in our time."" 
--Ted A. Smith, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Nibs Stroupe grew up in the Mississippi River Delta in Arkansas. He retired in 2017 after thirty-four years as pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, a church nationally known for its leadership in multicultural ministry. He is the author of three books, including the award-winning While We Run This Race. In 2007 he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Collin Cornell is a PhD candidate in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Emory University. In addition to racial justice and preaching, his interests include theological interpretation of Scripture and the doctrine of God.