Pastors' Panel

We asked religious leaders for their reflections on ministry in light of this issue’s lead article. Here is what they told us.

THE PANEL

The Reverend Jasiel Hernandez Garcia (MDiv’18) is associate pastor for mission and engagement at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Reverend Kathy Lee-Cornell (MDiv’16) is a pastor serving in Grace Presbytery.

The Reverend Alex Patchin McNeill is executive director of More Light Presbyterians.

Has there been a time in your ministry when the power of words has seemed especially salient?

Jasiel Hernandez Garcia: During these past fourteen months of the pandemic, it has become important to define what we mean when we pray for healing. Unlike cure, healing does not make the daring promise of reversing or eliminating that which compromises the stability of the body, mind, or spirit. The power of using the word “healing” in our intercessions for one another resides in its ability to include the things we hope for, but without forgetting that there is not an expected result. When we pray for healing, we are reminded that there is a multitude of ways for God to make us whole once again.

Kathy Lee-Cornell: People look to faith leaders and the church to speak most often when they themselves are at a loss for words. Whether it is in the face of deep personal loss or in the aftermath of a global event or disaster, my position comes with the unique responsibility to acknowledge the pain of our hearts and the suffering in this world. In doing this, publicly acknowledging the frailty of the human condition, I believe there is an invitation to gather in community, where our presence is often more powerful than our words, and we make the journey together towards our collective healing through the power of God’s tender love and abiding presence.

Alex Patchin McNeill: In my ministry as executive director at More Light Presbyterians, which for over forty-five years has worked to ensure the visibility, participation, and celebration of LGBTQIA+ people in the PC(USA), I have seen firsthand that words have the power to give language to the shape of our identities, to affirm (or deny) the love of God, and the Belovedness of all God’s creation. Every day I hear from people who are just discovering or claiming language to name who they are and who they feel God is calling them to be. I also hear from those whose pastors and faith leaders used words to strengthen (or sever) their connection to God and to their communities. I counsel many pastors who worry about whether they have the right words, concerned they don’t know all the terminology for those in the LGBTQIA+ community to be able to articulate their support. Some confess they have chosen silence instead, thinking it’s better to be quiet than say the wrong thing. However I believe silence, in its lack of words, creates a space for the harmful words of the world to take root and take over. This ministry has convinced me that our words have the power to create inclusion or to sow disillusion and exclusion.

Are there ways in which you have needed to use words or language differently in various ministerial contexts?

Lee-Cornell: I am often engaged in some version of code-switching as I interact with various individuals, groups, and communities within and outside of the congregation. Code-switching is defined as “the process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.” Particularly around issues of social justice, I encounter individuals situated at varying levels of knowledge and understanding of topics such as migrant and refugee resettlement, LGBTQIA rights, and systemic racism and poverty. Unfortunately, many people these days are only learning about complex issues from media soundbites or clickbait headlines. By code switching among different contexts, I hope that I am better able to meet people wherever they are and to accompany them as they increase their level of understanding, empathy, and curiosity to dig deeper into the issues that are relevant to those whose lives and circumstances may be wholly different than our own, but whose fullness of life matters to God, and so it ought to matter to us as well.

McNeill: I stand in a lot of church fellowship halls offering definitions of words of identities, clarifying the syntax of a sentence of affirmation, and building the case for why LGBTQIA+ inclusion is urgently needed in our faith communities as well as the incredible life-giving impact it can have within them. I choose words carefully there so that others might shed scales of fear to be able to see and believe.

I participate in a lot of conversations with my LGBTQIA+ siblings, planning worship and liturgy in joyful affirmation of God’s diversity of creation, attentive to the movement of the Spirit to further expand the bounds of inclusion, aware of Christ’s call to the work of justice. Our language shifts from justifying the presence of LGBTQIA+ people in the life of the church to centering the experience and wisdom LGBTQIA+ people bring to our understandings of faith and our life with God.

Was there a time in your ministry when you were frustrated by an inability to find the right word?

Hernandez Garcia: In my current ministry setting we have not been able to agree on what to call the group in charge of taking the lead on addressing issues related to social justice. Finding the right words for what we call this particular group often feels like an impossible task. At first, the name Dismantling Racism Task Force was selected. However, upon further reflection we realized that the word dismantling implies that there is an end to racism and injustice, and we concluded that systems of oppression are not easily terminated. We then switched to Anti-racism Task Force. While this change affirmed our main objective, it also demonstrated a sense of combativeness and negativity. Therefore, in an effort to emphasize the good that comes out of this group’s work, we are now considering the name Task Force for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as a more comprehensive solution to this dilemma.

Is there a particular word choice that you have seen as especially important as you have shaped the character of your ministry?

McNeill: One of the defining words of my ministry is "abundance," characterized by the belief that God is abundant—bigger and more expansive than we could imagine. God is bigger than all the words we’ve ever used to describe who God is. As people created in the image of God, we, too, are abundant, bigger, and more expansive than we’ve often had the words to describe. Faith in an abundant God is a powerful antidote to the myth of the scarcity of God’s love for a select few and a reminder of the unforeseen possibilities that arise when we faithfully follow the call of the Holy Spirit. A belief in an expansive, abundant God gave me the courage to understand my gender transition ten years ago as an act of faith. It has given so many faith communities the guidance to make visible and tangible inclusion a cornerstone of their ministries. Belief in an abundant God gives us new language to be reformed in our understanding of our identities, our ministries, and our calling as God’s people.

Hernandez Garcia: The phrase “people experiencing homelessness” has shaped how I minister to those who lack housing opportunities. Before serving in my current ministry setting, I was not aware of the complexities of using the word “homeless” to describe people who are struggling to find a permanent housing solution. It was only through conversations with those who are facing this social issue and through engaging more fully with housing policies that I realized how homelessness is not a final state of being, but a description of an experience that is caused by many factors—many of which originate from social, financial, and labor injustices. Referring to someone as homeless makes their lack of housing their defining feature. If we say that a person is experiencing homelessness, their story, their interests, and their hopes are then recognized and lifted up. Only then do we see them not as a problem to be solved, but as a beloved neighbor we can work alongside to make a lasting difference.

Lee-Cornell: My calling to ministry has always been centered around the word "mission." I long for churches to remember what it means to be a missional church. If you stop by any congregation and ask them about how they are involved in mission, you will likely hear a list of service projects, like supporting a food pantry, tutoring with the neighboring public school, and trips taken to visit global partners and support their efforts to build sustainable communities. I have certainly been complicit in guiding people of faith to see their involvement in mission as being sent out into the world to serve the poor with love and compassion. There is certainly something of value in doing so, but I still wonder if what God desires for us is not simply to be sent out but to be open to the sending of God’s Spirit into our own lives and communities so that we might be transformed into more sustainable communities. What buildings, programs, budget items, staff and yes, traditions, might we release out of our grips to openly receive the transformation needed in our lives and in our churches to where mission was no longer our act of charity but our worship?