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Marci Glass: Ninevite Lives Matter

Marci Glass is one of our three preachers for the 2017 National Gathering. Here’s a sneak peek into Marci’s preaching – here’s a sermon she preached at her church last November. The sermon was originally posted on Marci’s blog, “Glass Overflowing.”

November 6, 2016

by Marci Glass

We humans often have a bad habit of “othering” people. By that, I mean we look at someone’s life that seems very different than our own, and we place them in some category at a remove from our concern. (For a great video series on this topic, check out “Love an other” from Theocademy. Videos here.)

Sometimes we “other” people with observation. Sometimes with judgement. Listen to the difference:

They are different.
or
They are weird.

They eat food that is new to me.
or
They eat food that is gross.

They speak a second language. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to have to get by in a place where I didn’t know the language.
or
I can’t understand them. Why don’t they speak English?

They’re from New York. or Bagdad. or Kuna.
or
They’re from a place without culture or civilization.

or the one that speaks to where we are this week—

They approach politics from a different perspective than I do.
They are voting for that person? Are they insane?

It is appropriate to notice difference, to embrace it, even. We aren’t called to pretend everyone needs to be the same.

Sameness is the darkside of “othering.” Because often when we notice the things that divide, we notice it with a judgment that we would prefer it if the other person were more like us.

The story of Jonah is all about this. God sends Jonah to call Ninevah to repent so they can avoid judgment.

And Jonah won’t do it.

Because he wants Ninevah to be judged. They’ve been a basket of deplorables for so long that he can’t even remember if they ever used to be friends. They are nastydisgusting people, seriously bad hombres. Those horrible articles they post to Facebook. They are fully deserving of God’s wrath. And no way, no how, is Jonah going to preach one of his awesome sermons to them so that they’ll be saved from judgment, which will be yuge, I tell you.

Sound familiar?

So Jonah goes to Tarshish instead. It would be like God calling us to preach to Portland, and we instead drive toward Denver. You can’t preach to the Ninevites if you’re hiding out at your friend’s doublewide trailer in the mountains of Tarshish, now can you?

God will not abide having the message of grace and repentance withheld from any of God’s children, even the nasty, deplorable ones. Until Jonah acknowledges that Ninevite Lives Matterspecifically, God won’t let him get away with saying “all lives matter.”

The ship Jonah escapes toward Tarshish on ends up in a huge storm and Jonah recognizes his culpability. He is tossed overboard and swallowed up by a giant fish. God decides 3 days in the digestive juices of a fish ought to give Jonah some time to think about his choices.

And then Jonah agrees to the plan, and gets spat out on the shore, where he heads to Ninevah to preach.

You can almost hear the glee in his voice when he announces their destruction and doom.
“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Ha! That’ll teach you horrible people! You ought to be in jail, crooked Ninevah! We’ll see how you feel when God’s judgment puts you in your place!”

Jonah delivers the message, gets out a lawn chair and maybe some popcorn, and sits down to wait for a ringside seat of the destruction.

But the people repent. The King repents. The cows repent, for pete’s sake.

This isn’t an isolated repentance of a few people. This is a repentance of all individuals, the government, and even creation.

God’s message of repentance and grace prevails. God shows mercy on Ninevah and doesn’t destroy them.

Jonah’s front row seat to the destruction of his enemies doesn’t turn out the way he had hoped. Despite his greatest hopes for their doom, they are converted. His very success as a preacher and evangelist annoys the heck out of him.

God will choose to be merciful to whom God will choose to be merciful. We don’t get the final say in the people who are beyond the reach of God’s love.

I’ve shared this quote from Anne Lamott before, but it bears repeating:

You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Our job, as it turns out, is not to judge.

Only God gets to do that, and even then, we can’t presume God will hate all the same people we do. God doesn’t “other” people.

There’s a lot of “othering” taking place in the story of Jonah. And not just between Jonah and the Ninevites. On board the ship when the sailors are trying to figure out who’s to blame for the storm, it says “each one cried to his own God.

Even though they are all dying in the same storm, they are not together.

There’s a lot of “othering” taking place in our world. I know we’re all waiting for this election to be over, but unless we have our own repentance and changes of heart, it won’t all get better the day after the election.

The things that divide will remain. The ways we disconnect ourselves and our well being from the lives and welfare of other people will remain.

It is up to us to tell a different story.

Or maybe to claim an old one. To remember who we are and whose we are.

We’ll be coming to the Table this morning, and it is here that the contrast between God’s Kingdom and our kingdom is most apparent. We speak of all people being invited to this Table. And I’m sure we mean it. But not all the people who should be at this Table are in this room. Our religious life is not exempt from “othering.” in other words. The most segregated hour of the week is Sunday morning worship. Somehow, despite God’s message of radical inclusion and grace, we still divide into sanctuaries of sameness, where the only lives that matter are the ones like ours.

We have systems in place in our culture that make racism and sexism, and the other ‘isms’, ingrained and invisible to us. So we can say “all are welcome” but until our divisions become more visible to us, until we can face our privilege with both honesty and grace, until we bring our very woundedness to the Table, how can we know of the fullness of God’s mercy?

That’s what Jonah faced at the end of his story. God calls him to awareness of his privilege. “I care about you, Jonah. Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, as well?”

Jonah has to tell himself a different story.

When we come to the Table, we say we “remember” on the night Jesus was betrayed…. We weren’t there.

Our remembering is recalling the story of our past in a way that “re-members” it,
re-orders it for the present.

We remember that Jesus was betrayed by one of his own. And we remember Jesus still offered his betrayer bread. We remember the body of Christ, broken for us. And we look around at the body of Christ and realize, remember, that is still broken today.

What story of our life, of our faith, and of our nation do we want to remember? How can we tell it differently in the days to come?

One thought is to remember the Table. Because it is here, today, in this very room, that Trump supporters and Clinton supporters will gather. Together. In unity despite their differences to share a feast. Around a Table which has room enough for all.

Can we remember the Table as we go out into a fractious and divided world? Can we remember being fed together and nurtured by each other, trusting that if the mercy of God is wide enough to include us, it is wide enough to include people who would vote for the candidate from Ninevah?


Marci Auld Glass is the pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho and blogs at www.marciglass.com. She co-moderates the board of the Covenant Network, and serves on the boards of Ghost Ranch, Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy, and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.  She and her husband, Justin, have two sons, Alden and Elliott. Marci is a professional espresso drinker, bourbon snob, labyrinth walker, and lapsed cellist who voluntarily listens to opera.

Tamara John and Hope for Life

As with previous years, our 2017 National Gathering will feature testimonies from a variety of church leaders undertaking innovative work in their communities. This year, Tamara John, director for the Hope for Life Chapel RV ministry, and Tom Cramer, presbytery leader for vision and mission for the Presbytery of Los Ranchos, are teaming up to deliver a testimony.

Want to learn more? Here’s a sneak peek into Tamara’s RV ministry:

Learn more about the 2017 National Gathering and register today!

Transformative Learning at the National Gathering

by Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott

For the last several years, NEXT Church has been inviting its National Gathering participants into a new way of thinking about and doing church, challenging us to live into Christ’s calling in ways that are life giving and life affirming. NEXT Church is not about change for change’s sake as much as it is about missional change, rethinking what it means to be the church in the 21st century.

This year, we are National Gathering attendees to re-think – or at least consider – what it might look like if we used our time together to practice a new way of being with one another.

We won’t give you a system or process or list of do’s and don’ts. (We hate that kind of stuff personally.) As pastors and yogis, we have been processing how we bring the most transformational elements from our yoga practice into our work as ministers. We wonder what might change if we thought of our faith as a practice rather than a set of beliefs?

During our time together, we will introduce you to a simple yet transformational way to re-think our work in the church. How would our meetings or worship services be different if they began with a clear intention that moved us into engagement and on to reflection that did more than evaluate what was done, but really challenged us to go deeper and shift our original intention?

As people in ministry, our personal and professional lives overlap, so the questions of the heart, our intentions, our engagement and our personal and professional reflection have much to inform each other.

What do you wonder about? Bring those thoughts with you. Share them with others. Be open to meeting new friends and having a few heart-to-heart conversations – ones where you are listening to connect and grow through sharing with others.

Someone once proclaimed to Maya Angelou, “I am a Christian,” to which she replied, “Already?” We wonder how our churches might change if we focused on loving people into discipleship with the challenge of living out our faith on a daily basis, worrying less about what that looks like, and more about a fresh appreciation of wonder.  In essence moving from the ‘how’ to the ‘wow.’

This is what happened to the woman at the well. Because she was open, because she listened and wasn’t afraid, she had a conversation that transformed her life. Indeed, it transformed not only her life, but the lives of others – and is one that can continue to transform our lives even today. You are still welcome to come to the National Gathering with your to-do list and set of tasks for learning that you wish to accomplish. But we also hope that you will come with an open mind, an open heart and a desire to connect deeply with others.


Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott are pastors, spiritual directors and yoga practitioners who love Jesus, are passionate about the church and will be inviting all attendees of the 2017 National Gathering to consider a different way of being together during our plenary time at the conference this March.

The First-Ever Crowdsourced NEXT Church Band

It started, in true NEXT Church fashion, with a “what if….”

What if Tuesday morning worship at the NEXT Church National Gathering in Kansas City was predominately music, with some stories and liturgical pieces added in?

And…. what if the music was entirely from the “non-church” genre – the kind of stuff you’d hear on the radio (if you still listen to the radio)?

AND….. what if the band for the worship service was entirely crowdsourced from NEXT Church conference attendees?

Welcome to the first-ever crowdsourced NEXT Church band!

We are looking for musicians and singers who are willing to try something pretty “next-y,” don’t have a problem being up in front of people, are pretty darn flexible and can “roll with it,” and can learn songs from a chord chart (sorry, no musical score will be provided). Steve Lindsley will work beforehand with interested musicians and singers to familiarize them with the songs that will be played, and we’ll have one group rehearsal on Monday before Tuesday morning comes.

In particular we need:

– Guitarists and others from the acoustic family (mandolin, banjo, uke, etc)
– Bass
– Violin, brass and anything from the woodwind family
– Percussion
– Piano
– Rappers (yep, you heard right. Rappers!)

Other instrumentalists are welcome, but those are the main ones needed. And you’ll need to bring your own instrument or make arrangements to use one already in KC. Except piano. We’ll have one there. That would be nuts of us to ask you to bring your own piano.

Questions? Interested? Shoot Steve an email.

Get excited!

NEXT → PLAY

NEXT → PLAY 
Integrating ministry practice through improvisation

Date: Wednesday, March 15-Thursday, March 16—noon to noon

Facilitator: Lisa Kays, LICSW—Licensed Clinical Social Worker, improv instructor and improviser

Wrap up your time at the NEXT Church National Gathering with an additional day of debriefing, learning, and play! We know the “church that is becoming” will be flexible, dynamic, and agile. Improv can be an indispensable tool for leaders as we step into God’s future for the PC(USA).

Lisa Kays has worked with groups of clergy and mental health professionals in the Washington DC area, helping them approach their work with creativity, collaboration, and vision. Lisa will help us process what we’ve experienced at the National Gathering and give us tools for our work back home. And we’ll have lots of fun as well! No experience in improv necessary—just a willingness to come and say “yes” to a little bit of play.

Lisa will be joined by Paul Vasile, a freelance church musician, consultant, and composer based in New York City. Paul will be offering workshops at the National Gathering, and we’re excited to have him stay on to help lead NEXT → PLAY.

This event is a grassroots effort spearheaded by MaryAnn McKibben Dana, a member of NEXT Church’s strategy team. Thanks to a generous grant from an anonymous donor, cost for participants is just $75, plus meals and the additional night’s lodging.

How to register:

  1. Secure your lodging for Wednesday night! NEXT Church’s negotiated rates are still in effect, but rooms may be limited.
  2. Register on Eventbrite (please note this is a separate registration page from the National Gathering. That registration info is here).
  3. (Optional but recommended) Join the Theology of Improv Facebook group to connect with other folks interested in theology, ministry and the spiritual life.
    See you in Kansas City!

NEXT PLAY Planning Team
Ryan Bradney, First Presbyterian Church, Winchester KY
MaryAnn McKibben Dana, free-range pastor, Reston VA
LeAnn Hodges, Oaklands Presbyterian Church, Laurel MD
Chris Keating, Woodlawn Chapel Presbyterian Church, Wildwood MO
David Westerlund, Tierra Nueva, Burlington WA

Into the Night

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, we continue to post a series curated by Sarah Dianne Jones and written by our workshop leaders at the 2017 National Gathering. What excites them about the Gathering? What are they looking forward to sharing and discussing during their workshop? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Matt Moorman

War is sin. Whether it’s necessary or just is a different post. Those who’ve served in the military, and take seriously Jesus’ call to love our enemies, fundamentally understand that, whatever the politicians or historians say, war is sin. We begin there: we’ve all inherited a world at war.

But many of us in the church live as though the world’s not at war. There are hosts of human beings suffering through unimaginable violence, oppression and disaster, yet in America, I’m blogging in my socks on the couch. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, but let me pose this question to myself: when was the last time I was willing to suffer for something? Or, more to the point, when was the last time I was aware of the suffering that’s already around me? You can bet your ass I’ll be in church this Sunday singing about “peace on Earth,” though.

I think we avoid suffering because we intuitively know suffering changes us. It’s a one-way door. There’s no going back to an existence before suffering. I’m OK with some discomfort, as long as I’m on the couch by nine to watch “The Walking Dead.” But suffer? I’ll pass.

The April 8th, 1966 Time Magazine cover asked, “Is God Dead?” The issue’s debate covered the controversial “Death of God” movement of Thomas Altizer and William Hamilton. In March of 1965, the first American ground troops deployed to Vietnam. Until that point, America’s national mythology remained relatively intact: we were the “city on the hill,” and the omnipotent God was clearly on our side. The God whose death was in question in 1966 was this American God. If there was such a deity, he didn’t survive combat in Vietnam.

Chaplain Bill Mahedy said, “For great numbers of veterans, duty in Vietnam was a journey into spiritual darkness–the very darkest night of the soul.” And, for most, their faith was destroyed. The God of “Jesus and John Wayne” was either evil or nonexistent, mostly the latter. After the great sin of the Vietnam War, suffering the loss of their faith, they became American scapegoats. For most Americans, the almighty national God was very much alive, so Vietnam wasn’t his failure — the soldiers failed. The Vietnam veterans were alienated, and in many ways that’s the experience of veterans today.

Veterans don’t think they’re innocent, because they’re not; but many Americans think we’re innocent. That’s the problem that sent us to war and created the suffering in the world: the God of “Jesus and John Wayne.” Perhaps it’s time the American church listened to veterans who’ve fought our wars, who’ve witnessed the death of this idol. Perhaps it’s time the American church suffered the way Jesus calls us to: God-forsaken on a cross. Perhaps then resurrection and repentance will actually mean something.  Until then, we’ll suffer through the dark night.

Radical Theology and the Experience of War and Military Service” is offered on Monday during workshop block 1 of the 2017 National Gathering.


Matt Moorman is, among other things, an MDiv student at Union Presbyterian Seminary Charlotte, an inquirer for ordination in the PC(USA), Church Educator at the Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill and husband to Emily.  He has worked in the field of youth work and advocacy in some form for over ten years, in places like Raleigh, Philadelphia, and Dublin, Ireland.  In addition, he is an Air Force veteran and serves on the Board of Directors of Centurions Guild, an education and advocacy organization committed to resourcing church leaders for ministry with veterans and service members of faith.

Three Lessons This Christian Learned from Yoga

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, we continue to post a series curated by Sarah Dianne Jones and written by our workshop leaders at the 2017 National Gathering. What excites them about the Gathering? What are they looking forward to sharing and discussing during their workshop? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Jen Kottler

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about “The Yoga Workshop”:

No, this workshop is not just for yogis (people who practice yoga).
Yes, if you would like, bring your mat.
No, you don’t have to have any prior experience with yoga to attend our workshop.
Yes, do dress comfortably.
No, we won’t make you sit on the floor (if that is uncomfortable for you), but we might encourage a bit of exploration.
Yes, we will ask you to breathe.

Phew. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…

I do yoga almost every day. It keeps me sane. And it gives me hope. It opens my heart.

This is not why I started doing yoga. I started doing yoga because, well, you know, it seemed the thing to do, right? I’m a pastor, but the “not serving a church right now” kind of pastor, and since I work from home, I settle into a new community by finding a place where I can go to work out – preferably within walking distance of our home. (My husband is an interim pastor/mid-council leader in the PCUSA, and when we change jobs, we usually move. Often, it’s to a new state or a place that we have not lived before.)

So while it started out as an exercise class, it’s become much more than that. As my yoga practice has deepened, my Christian faith has deepened. My prayer life has deepened. And I’ve learned many lessons about Christianity and yoga and life that I’m looking forward to sharing at the 2017 NEXT Church National Gathering. Here are three:

  1. Christianity is a practice. I’ve learned that rather than a set of beliefs, Christianity is more about how I live out my day to day life. One of my yoga teachers taught me to remember that in every moment of the day begins the practice of yoga. In the same way, I am reminded in everything that I do as I go about my ministry and my work, that I am practicing Christianity. I am living it out. Some days I live it out better than others, but each day is a new beginning.
  2. Patience can be learned. Anyone who has tried yoga knows, crow pose wasn’t built in a day. In fact, most of the poses in yoga take a lifetime to master, and so we continue to practice. And we continue to breathe. Even when it’s hard and you really would rather escape the pose and run to the bathroom, you don’t. You remind yourself that it will be easier tomorrow and you just continue to breathe.
  3. Meditation opens us to the voice of God. I like to think that prayer is when I talk to God, and meditation is when God speaks to me. It’s hard to hear what God is trying to say to us when we rarely get quiet enough to listen attentively to the still small voice. Learning to be still allows us to be still and know.

We are looking forward to sharing so much more during our time together! See you there. Namaste.

Diving into the Well: Yoga Practice and Christian Praxis” is offered during workshop block 3 on Tuesday of the National Gathering.


Rev. Jennifer Hope Kottler is a spiritual director and a certified clergy leadership coach (ACC) focusing on vocational discernment, women’s empowerment, self-care and congregations/leaders in transition. A daily yoga practitioner, Jen encourages others to try yoga and other mindfulness practices to deepen their spiritual journey. She will be leading the session, “Diving into the Well: Yoga Practice and Christian Praxis” with Rev. Leslie Mott.

The Fruit of the Spirit in a Polarized World

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Sarah Dianne Jones is curating a series written by our workshop leaders at the 2017 National Gathering. What excites them about the Gathering? What are they looking forward to sharing and discussing during their workshop? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Alice Tewell and Roger Gench

In this post-election season, we are all grappling with the question “What is next?” And in our polarized context, “What is our calling as Christians to witness to our faith?” How do we embody the virtues of the gospel message as we live out our faith in a public way in the world?

In this workshop at the 2017 National Gathering, we will explore such questions. We contend that there is no more important task for Christians at the present time than to embody the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — as political virtues.

These virtues are central not only to our personal lives of faith, but also to how we live out faith in the public sphere. We will share spiritual practices we use at The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., that help us cultivate these virtues in our own lives of faith. When these spiritual practices take root in us, they nurture an engaged spirituality that guides us in our justice work as we seek to address the profound polarizations in our country and world. We believe that by embodying these spiritual practices, we are empowered to seek a radical reconciliation that pursues justice for the oppressed, standing up for and with the most vulnerable in our midst. They cultivate non-violent resistance to the “power over” politics of our world in order to bring about healing, justice and love.  

New scholarship on the apostle Paul has provided new angles of vision for reflection on Galatians and the fruit of the Spirit as political virtues. We will explore biblical scholar Brigitte Kahl’s brilliant reimagining of Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia (Galatians Reimagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished, Fortress Press, 2010), which offers a dramatic vision for Christian imagination for us today. Kahl shows that if we put the politics of the Roman Empire in the foreground of Paul’s letter, what emerges is a dominating social and political milieu for integrating subjugated people into the Roman colonial mentality that Paul calls the “other gospel” (Gal. 1:6): the gospel of Caesar. In such a world, Paul’s stunning baptismal declaration in Gal 3:28 (“there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”) was a revolutionary statement that turned the world upside down. Kahl contends that for Paul, the entire imperial model of “divide and rule” was drowned and washed away in the waters of baptism.

Using Kahl’s reimagining of Galatians and its implications for our cultivation of fruit of the Spirit, we will share with you how The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church is engaging these virtues today to empower children, youth, and adults toward reconciling, healing and justice-seeking Christian living.  

We will have time for conversation as well, in which we hope to engage these questions:

  • Where do you encounter the polarizing, demonizing politics of our day?
  • What does it mean to be in, with, and for others — losing oneself in order to gain a self (a fuller self) in others?  
  • How does one “wash away” polarizing “us vs. them” mentalities so prevalent in our world?  
  • Is there another alternative to winners and losers?  Or should we develop another vocabulary? (Even “win-win” is the language of competition.)

Join us.

The Fruit of the Spirit in a Polarized World” is being offered during workshop block 3 on Tuesday of the 2017 National Gathering.


Roger Gench is senior pastor of The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. He has conducted spiritual retreats for lay people and clergy on spiritual disciplines (especially St. Ignatius), spiritual uses of the Bible, interfaith dialogue, politics & religion, and faith & ethics. He serves as clergy leadership of the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN).

Alice Rose Tewell is associate pastor of The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. Alice is an accomplished educator and facilitator of young adult ministry.

Map, Message and Mission

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Sarah Dianne Jones is curating a series written by our workshop leaders at the 2017 National Gathering. What excites them about the Gathering? What are they looking forward to sharing and discussing during their workshop? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Beth Utley

The answer is contemporary worship. That’s what people want. That will bring people into the church. And, for some, it did. Until it didn’t.

The answer was mega church. Until it wasn’t.

The answer was emergent church. Until it wasn’t.

The answer is missional church. The jury is still out…

I think the answer will be the same. Mission alone won’t save God’s church.

Most of our congregants have lived through a religious anomaly. In our lifetime, most everyone belonged to a church. Folks who didn’t were looked upon with pity or suspicion. Every politician, every businessman (gender purposeful), every good mother and wife belonged to and participated in a faith community. Protestant was privileged at the time, but if you had to be Jewish or Catholic, we could understand, though we prayed for you.

This was our world. This shaped our assumptions and our understandings of who we were as church people and how we interacted with our neighbors. It’s not our world any more, thanks be to God. But, it’s no wonder we don’t quite know what to do with our declining churches.

Being a disciple of Christ had a particular focus in the first century, quite a different focus during the reformation. The in-our-face-challenge today involves being part of a people who were “trained” in one religious culture but find themselves neck deep in a different one.

We may feel like we are at the beginning of a Mission Impossible movie. “If you choose to accept this assignment,” the tape says, only we really don’t have a choice — not if we want thriving, meaningful communities of faith.

The answer will not be some kind of magic evangelism…but we are learning to ask the questions. We are better understanding our current culture and its need for God’s good news of transformation, redemption, and reconciliation.

It will take all of us in the conversation, all of us committed to exploring the issues, all of committed to “throwing spaghetti against the wall” until we discern God’s will and way in our time.

We invite you to come and throw spaghetti with us at the National Gathering.

Map, Message and Mission is offered on Monday during workshop block 1 of the 2017 National Gathering.


Beth Utley is the director of Christian formation at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church in High Point, NC. She has worked in faith formation for almost 20 years. Her work with skeptical youth and young adults and her congregation’s commitment to evangelism honed her knowledge and skill. 

Toward the Purple Church

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Sarah Dianne Jones is curating a series written by our workshop leaders at the 2017 National Gathering. What excites them about the Gathering? What are they looking forward to sharing and discussing during their workshop? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Dan Lewis

“It wasn’t always this way,” she said.  

I’d called to check in on her, a longtime member of our church. I wanted to see how she was doing after the presidential election. She was ok, she said, “Trusting in God.” But had I noticed, she asked, the deep sense of uncertainty around the church? Had I felt, as she had, a real reluctance to engage in conversation about these things? I had. “It wasn’t always this way,” she went on. “Not so long ago, we’d pull into that same parking lot, one car with blue bumper stickers and another with red, and it wouldn’t be a problem at all. We’d joke with each other, even around election time, poking fun. And then we’d head off to Bible study or worship together, laughing. Now we just stay quiet most of the time. And angry.”

What changed? Surely we’ve always had disagreements in the church as in the nation, different viewpoints and preferences concerning politics, theology, and such. But why is it that these differences now seem profoundly debilitating? Why are we so unable, or unwilling, to be around those with whom we disagree?

The answers to these questions are surely complex. Sociologists and historians will point to any number of factors, including increased immigration and globalization, as well as the gradual weakening of public institutions – including the church – that had once served as a kind of American cultural glue.  

But we in the church of Jesus Christ do not think of ourselves as simply another institution, do we? We are a body – a living, breathing “enfleshing” of God’s purposes in Jesus Christ. He is, the scripture says, our peace, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility between us. For us, the problem of division is far more than a mere frustration – it is an existential threat. We cannot not seek unity in the church of Jesus Christ and still be the one body of our Lord. Our witness demands that we push back against the division, and actively work for new unity.

Yet it must be said that there are no easy solutions. Inasmuch as the apparent unity of yesteryear was just that – apparent – it is no model for the church of today. The unity we seek cannot be achieved through the silencing of dissent and the marginalizing of minority voices – both of which were a part of the church of the 1950’s. We seek a deeper and more organic unity now, something founded on surer stuff than the sameness of days gone by.

This March, my friend Pen Peery and I will be leading a workshop at the NEXT Church National Gathering called “Toward the Purple Church.” We are both ministers serving churches striving to find a new middle way through the current divisiveness in politics and theology. We want to talk about ways to move toward the church that is less clearly red or blue in its orientation, but more purple – that is, more representative of the diversity of our great nation and church, more reflective of a coming kingdom that we know must supersede all ideologies and platforms. The key word here is toward, because we must admit we all “see in a glass, dimly” regarding these things. Pen and I simply want to share a bit of what we’ve learned in church-based research projects aimed not only at examining the various causes of our many divisions, but also exploring new unity in Christ. Will you come and join the discussion? See you in Kansas City!

Toward the Purple Church” is being offered on Tuesday during both workshop blocks 2 and 3 at the 2017 National Gathering.


Dan Lewis is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Statesboro, Georgia. His DMin project, “Stories to Bridge the Gap: Postliberal Preaching in a Changing University Town,” uses the theological perspective of Hans Frei, applied to preaching, to speak to a diverse and growing congregation.

Pen Peery is senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. His DMin project, “Identifying Suspicion as a Way to Move Forward in Hope,” challenges a large and ideologically diverse congregation to find new unity in celebrating, rather than flattening, difference.