pastors : mackenzian

I posted this note earlier today in a closed discussion group for people who support women in ministry and promote their full affirmation in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. I’m re-posting it outside the group so that I can share it with the person I wrote about.

Thank you, Ann, for your encouragement, rooted-ness, patience, and service.

Photo of Ann Roda's January 10 weekly column. — Pr. Ann Roda specializes in ministry to families and children at New Hope Adventist Church, Fulton, MD.¹ This was her weekly column in the January 10 bulletin. Click the image to read at full size.

“Every week, Pr. Ann Roda writes a short column that’s part of our congregational bulletin. This was this week’s column. (It fits in with the ministerial team’s sermon series on discipleship for January-February.)

“When I say ‘I support the ordination of women in Adventism,’ I have ministers like Ann in mind. And on those occasions when I’m tempted to abandon the wider Adventist community—this is my family and my family knows exactly how to wear a sister out—I imagine not knowing people like Ann, I shudder a bit, and I take a nap instead.

“I would challenge [Ann] on describing any role in the Church as 1st/2nd/3rd place since I think that’s arbitrary social value talking, but I get the bigger point. And she’s lived that bigger point in her own life: she traded a great corporate job to study and serve in a denomination that’s still arguing whether she’s qualified to do the work she does. She answered the call and is doing the work regardless.

“As the apostle Paul wrote, not all parts of the body draw praise, and because of our own skewed value systems we don’t rank them equally, but they all serve a function, and they all have merit. All of them.

“I support the calling, training, ordination, and work of women in Adventism because I support the effective ministry of every believer, in every role, through every office, and in the exercise of every spiritual gift for the purpose of the maturation of the entire Body and the transformation of the world God made and ‘so loved.’

“It’s not just about the mini-organization I call my family and not just about the ‘clergy.’ I support women in Adventism because I support all of us.” —Keisha E. McKenzie

After J. David Newman retired in 2012 and Kumar Dixit emigrated to Vancouver in 2013, New Hope welcomed two new ministers: Mike Speegle (from Washington) and Jason Decena (from Pacific Union College). Ann Roda has been one of the congregation’s notes of continuity through all of this change.

Today, Mike told us that the pastors have been discussing the guiding vision they hold for the work they do together. They shared it today and I am so here for it. It is, simply:

To help you live out the kingdom of God wherever you are.

This vision seems perfectly aligned with how these pastors actually interact with congregation members, so I don’t expect to see whole new sides of them. But I feel good for them and for the congregation that their pastoral philosophy is now explicit. I hope they’ll go on to articulate this vision in more detail, and I will comment here when they do.

^{[1] This is my fifth year intersecting with New Hope as a regular visitor, and it’s my first as a member. ↩}

“The Way of Openness” is a short documentary on a conversation series featuring a range of Los Angeles ministers including Hollywood Adventist pastor Ryan J. Bell. The conversations allowed these ministers to reflect on and share stories with each other in the aftermath of California’s Proposition 8 initiative. Prop 8 is under review at the Supreme Court this month via the case Hollingsworth v. Perry.

While we often hear institutional statements from churches and denominations about sexuality, we haven’t heard much from the point of view of ministers who had and still have active congregations in LA. I appreciated hearing from people across the spectrum on how damaging the acrimonious environment was, pre- and post-vote, and what the city’s way forward might be.

The Way of Openness | Human Relations Commission of the City of Los Angeles

Dr. Neil Thomas, Founders Metropolitan Community Church, Los Angeles: Most of us go into a conversation wanting to win. And when you come to the dawning that you don’t need to win, that there’s nothing to win… When you and I rub shoulders with each other, we realize that we have so much more in common that we could actually work together on that would change the face of this world.

Fr. Alexei Smith, Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese: And the opportunity for us is to realize that, and work to set aside certain dogmatic differences… and to work together for the common good. Think of what a marvelous effect it would have on the city of Los Angeles alone.

The dialogue and documentary were both sponsored by Los Angeles’ Human Relations Commission and the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy.