“The gospel of Jesus is about reconciliation—reconciliation with God and reconciliation with one another.”
— John M. Perkins
I am grieving the death of Dr. John Perkins.
Dr. Perkins died on March 13, 2026, at the age of 95. My heart is filled with gratitude for this remarkable human being whose life bore witness to the reconciling power of the gospel.
Though I never had the privilege of really knowing Dr. Perkins personally – though I did get to meet him a couple of time – and got to hear him preach. His life and work have deeply shaped my theological imagination and my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in the world. For decades Dr. Perkins stood as a living signpost pointing toward a gospel that refuses to separate personal faith from social healing.
What strikes me most about Dr. Perkins is not simply what he taught, but how he lived. His vision of what he called the “three Rs”—relocation, reconciliation, & redistribution—was not merely theoretical. He embodied it. He moved into struggling neighborhoods, endured violence and imprisonment, and gave his life to building communities where the love of God could be experienced in tangible ways.
Born into the brutal realities of Jim Crow Mississippi, Dr. Perkins’ life story reads almost like a parable of redemption. After the murder of his older brother by a town marshal, he fled the South as a young man. Yet years later, after encountering Christ, he returned to the very place of his trauma—Mendenhall, Mississippi—determined to live out the gospel through community development, racial reconciliation, and the pursuit of justice.
Many leaders speak about justice. Dr. Perkins lived it in the slow, costly work of presence.
His writings—Let Justice Roll Down, Beyond Charity, One Blood, and many others—continue to challenge the church to imagine a gospel large enough to heal both souls and societies. In a time when Christianity in America often feels fragmented along political and racial lines, his voice remains prophetic: calling the church back to the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us in Christ.
Today I find myself grateful for the long witness of this faithful servant. Dr. Perkins reminded the church that the gospel is not merely something we believe—it is something we embody together in the places where we live.
In the coming days many tributes will be written honoring his extraordinary life and legacy. For now, I simply pause to give thanks for a man whose courage, humility, and faithfulness helped many of us imagine a more faithful way of following Jesus.
May his memory continue to call us toward the beloved community he spent his life pursuing.
Rest in Peace Dr. Perkins, dwight
