As Christians, we are called and anointed to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed. In The Everyday Advocate, Ross Murray helps Christians explore our individual callings to justice and start taking practical steps to live that out. The Everyday Advocate is for the layperson who feels overwhelmed by the world's troubles and helpless to address them. It is for the person who goes to church, hears the gospel, seeks to apply it to their lives, and yearns to be connected to, or create, a community that amplifies their voice and actions. It is also for pastors and faith leaders who want to help people think through their calling to advocacy and help connect them with the communities that can use their gifts and talents. Murray builds on two questions: Where is God? And what are we called to do? Viewing every action and phenomenon as theological, he stakes out values and shows readers how to work toward those values. He also distinguishes between direct service and cultural change, discussing the balance between them and acknowledging both are needed. Drawing on his own experience and exercising his pastoral spirit, Murray encourages readers to discern their own call to advocacy, learn to identify injustices that still reign, and respond faithfully by incorporating big and small actions into their everyday lives.
Ross Murray is the founding director of The Naming Project, a faith-based youth ministry and summer camp for LGBTQ youth and their allies. He has worked with youth and families in a variety of settings and presented LGBTQ youth ministry around the world. In his day job, Ross is vice president at the GLAAD Media Institute, providing activist, spokesperson, and media-engagement training and education for LGBTQ community members, corporations, and advocacy organizations desiring to accelerate acceptance for the LGBTQ community. Ross has secured national media interest in stories that bring examples of LGBTQ equality across diverse communities in America, with a specialty in the relationship between religion and LGBTQ people. Ross is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with a specific calling to advocate for LGBTQ people and to bridge LGBTQ and faith communities. He is a producer for the Yass Jesus podcast, a faith and sexuality affirming podcast that believes you don't have to pick between gay and God. In 2014, he was named one of Mashable's "10 LGBT-Rights Activists to Follow on Twitter."
