We stand at a crossroads
By Donna Claycomb -Sokol*
I allowed my Twitter feed to pour into my day like hot coffee following a sleepless night throughout the Rev. Frank Schaefer’s trial. I watched anger, heartache and hopefulness being expressed through 140-character tweets. I also fed the fire by questioning how any pastor could possibly say “yes” to the denomination and “no” to his children.
No one wins through this process of putting ministry on trial. Rather, our denomination continues to lose. We are losing faithful pastors, deeply committed disciples, and the chance to be in ministry with the 80 percent of the population living around us that does not regularly come to church to worship.
It was a very specific prayer that led me from my role as a seminary director of admissions to the local church:
“God, take me out of my place of comfort and success. Give me a heart for hurting and broken people. Make me more prophetic.”
God answered this prayer in ways I could never have imagined when I was appointed the pastor of Mount Vernon Place UMC, a church in the heart of pain. Victims of sex trafficking stand just outside the entrance of our parking garage when I arrive at 7 a.m. Two dozen people lay down their mats just outside the doors of our building each night. Individuals are regularly rummaging through trash bins looking for food when I make my way to lunch. There is heartbreaking injustice all around us. But nothing has broken my heart more than the stories I’ve been told by men and women who have been pushed outside the doors of God’s church, leaving them to question if they’re also outside God’s all-encompassing love and grace.
Part of my deepest call as a pastor is to seek to enter into the hurt of others – to pay attention to where Jesus is breaking my heart and trusting that those spaces are the places where Christ can use me the most. Paying attention to this pain has been instrumental in creating a beautiful expression of the Body of Christ in downtown Washington.
Together, we all come to a table on the corner of 9th and Massachusetts where all are fed and no one is turned away. We have the privilege of entering into an authentic community where all receive the same welcome, the same grace, the same Savior and the same blessing. One of the greatest gifts we offer as pastors is a blessing. It’s an extraordinary gift entrusted to us, and I cannot imagine withholding a blessing from some people in my congregation while freely lavishing it upon others.
We are at a crossroads as a denomination. Many historians are predicting a split. Is there a faithful way forward?
I find the power of real community in Ephesians 4:11-16, where Paul writes about the diversity of gifts – specific roles that are needed for building up the body so there might be unity of the faith which leads to maturity that enables all people to see Christ. We’re not to be tossed to and fro by doctrine. Rather, we are to speak truth in love, growing more like Christ.
But our body is hurting.
One of the greatest gifts of the Baltimore-Washington Conference is our diversity. We are geographically, racially, theologically and economically diverse. I am reminded every time I am with our colleagues of how diversity is essential if we are to effectively minister in the rural communities of Western Maryland and the inner city of Washington, not to mention the island of Bermuda.
At the core of a pastor’s heart is a desire to reach more people and build the body. It takes different types of people to reach different types of people. Our calls and our gifts are thankfully not the same.
Can we honor the diversity found in our clergy, in our laity, in our communities? Can we honor the different ways we are building up the body, and commit to allowing Christ to be our guide rather than being “blown about by every wind of doctrine?”
People are hurting. Trials will lead to more hurt. Our conversations might also hurt. But I believe having conversations with the goal of building the body until we look more like Christ is the only path forward.
*Rev. Donna Claycomb-Sokol is pastor of Mount Vernon Place UMC in Washington, D.C.
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