Justice Circle Nashville (JCN)

JCN Mission Statement

We will strategically confront racial inequities in our community by engaging in collaborative justice in the areas of law enforcement, education, and healthcare for the benefit of a stronger more unified Nashville.

JCN Core Values

Community, Advocacy, Courage, & Understanding

JCN Charter

Justice Circle Nashville is a Christ-centered ministry rooted in a missional calling to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our compulsion to confront racial inequities is a direct response to the brokenness within our community caused by individual and corporate sin.

Our leadership diversity comes through an open invitation to leverage our shared conviction, rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ, to utilize our resources and influence for the purpose of directly impacting change in the lives of the most vulnerable neighbors within our community.

Our collective work among those most vulnerable is shared with others of varied creed, faith, orientation, and perspective. We understand that no one is exempt from being impacted by oppressive systems or injustice and thus we extend an invitation into this work.

This dynamic work is intended to join with federal, state, local and non-profit organizations which are also working toward this aim. Without preference or bias toward any particular person and/or group, our determination is to remain diligent to the work of reconciliation and unity while pursuing justice.

JCN Pillars of Focus

Breaking Bread is a quarterly luncheon event where community leaders and local citizens of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds come together and have respectful, constructive conversations about race, inequality, social justice, and how best to serve our local community as individuals. We have had great speakers present at Breaking Breads, including a Predators hockey player and the Nashville sheriff.

JCN is supported by:

The ACT NOW Initiative helped Justice Circle Nashville with its founding structure and initial idea of conception. Since then, ACT NOW has helped Nashville move forward by supporting JCN in the following ways: listening sessions with local police and community leaders, online and in-person training sessions with local and national leaders, community organization strategies, and a highly impactful ACT NOW conference which JCN leaders attended in Texas.

The Metro Nashville Police Department partners with the Justice Circle Nashville on multiple events every year, including October’s Faith & Blue. The strong relationship JCN holds with Metro Police ensures understanding and accountability remain pillars of community policing.

Literature Resources

Cleveland, Christena. Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart. InterVarsity Press, 2013.

Emerson, Michael O., and Christian Smith. Divided by faith: Evangelical religion and the problem of race in America. New York, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Evans, Tony. Oneness Embraced: Through the Eyes of Tony Evans. Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2011.

Jones, Robert P. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Simon and Schuster, 2020. 

Jun, A. et al. White Jesus: The Architecture of Racism in Religion and Education. Peter Lang, 2018.

Mason, Eric. Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice. Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2018.

Munoz, Laura. Making of the Dream. HarperCollins, 2019.

Newbell, Trillia J. United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity. Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2014.

Piper, John. Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. Crossway, 2011.

Tisby, Jemar. The Color of Compromise. Zondervan, 2019.