From Left To Right: AWAB donors Tom & Dianne Bayes, Board Member Erica Saunders, Executive Director Rev. Dr. Brian Henderson, with Board Member Rev. Dr. Cliff Matthews, Pastor of AWAB Member Church, St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, and his associate Minster Rev. Demi McCoy and partner Nayazha Coleman.
Dear Rainbow Circle,
Rounding out my Fall travel itinerary included a weekend visiting congregations in Canada, a trip to Napa, California, where Crosswalk Community Church celebrated its commitments to welcoming and affirming ministry, as well as a soul-filling time with St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC. I continue to be grateful for the honor it is to represent AWAB in so many ways, in so many places, and with so many people.
Your support is making it possible for AWAB to keep growing and expanding its ministry AND your generous giving is touching more and more lives creating hope for folk who thought because of who or how they are, that there was not a place for them in a local church.
During my weekend visit to Napa, California, Pastor Pete Shaw took me on a tour of local vineyards. I thought I knew a few things about wine, but after this experience, I was reminded how much I don’t know. At one of our stops, Pastor Shaw and I were enjoying a flight of reds. Upon sipping one particular Zinfandel, I said out loud, “I think I just tasted heaven.”
CrossWalk Community Church’s Pride Progress Flag!
In truth, this Fall, with all of my travels, I have seen “glimpses” of heaven wherever AWAB congregations are. Yes, don’t get me wrong, I’m ordering some of that Zinfandel I enjoyed in Napa, but it’s been beyond enjoyment to see how people in different places, with different life experiences, younger and older, LGBTQ+ folk and allies, with little and many resources, in blue, red, and purple oriented political spaces, it’s beyond enjoyment to see how welcoming and affirming ministry within Baptist life is allowing folk to not only taste something of heaven, but to fully experience it too.
On one of my visits, an older woman asked if she could sit with me as the morning worship service was about to begin. More than sitting with me, I discovered, what she really wanted was to tell me some of her story. This saint of a person, well into her ninth decade of living, wanted to share her truth. She shared how she has lived life identifying as someone who is bisexual. She never thought she’d find a church, no less a Baptist community, where she could be fully who she is and share her gifts and life-experiences with such an affirming faith family. Far too many people had told her over the years how she couldn’t be and what she couldn’t do. Until, with more than a few ounces of courage, she walked into an AWAB congregation who embraced and affirmed her for simply being who she is.
Honestly, that Zinfandel I tasted was incredibly good but sitting with this saint of a person was so, so, so much better. AWAB, along with the remarkable ministry of many churches, is most definitely making a difference in significant ways.
And as I began above by acknowledging, I conclude with saying thank you once more for helping us make possible welcoming and affirming spaces where people are included no matter who or how they are. Yes, your support is making glimpses of heaven a reality for folk who thought such spaces could never exist. May this continue to be so.
– Brian