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■ New Queen Esther ■ Holy Trinity ■ St. James Snow Hill ■ Mt. Olive Salisbury
Bethel Chestertown ■ Bethel Easton ■ Oak Street ■ Shiloh ■ Mt. Olive Worton ■ Evergreen ■ Tyree ■ Adams Chapel
Union Chapel ■ Collins Temple ■ St. John Pocomoke ■ St. Paul Crisfield ■ Williams Newark ■ Union Bethel Cecilton ■ St. John Bishopville
■ New Queen Esther ■ Holy Trinity ■ St. James Snow Hill ■ Mt. Olive Salisbury
The Authentic Church: Building Bridges to Liberation and Social Justice in a Divided World
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund | Black Lives Matter | Poor People's Campaign
Dear Beloved:
There’s an extremely popular reality show on television called “The Profit” and perhaps you’ve seen it. The show features a highly experienced business turnaround consultant or “fixer” who travels to various cities to bolster and bring back failing businesses to life and profitability. This young man is what I call a “straight shooter.” He tells the bottom line truth to business owners and has no regrets for letting them know what they are doing wrong (no soft peddling), and that if they don’t straighten up and fix their financial and staffing problems, that their retail business will be done, over, finished, store front shuttered. He doesn’t put a pretty spin on what it will take to change their weaknesses. He just “tells it like it is – lays out a specific business plan to be followed, sort of "tough love.” What I like about him is that he follows up on his promises and expectations, has critical dialogue with owners and staff alike, asks probing, insightful questions to understand attitudes and beliefs. He cares not just about profits, but also values all people. He’s authentic and credible – doesn’t mince words, and the real deal. Once The Profit has evaluated and assessed the financials and credit rating of the company, he decides if he’s going to invest his own cash for a piece of the business. If the owner is lax or can’t change his/her ways, the Profit will oftentimes pull out of the deal altogether.
Well, Beloved, the more things change, the “more they stay the same.” Only this time, the story is not a scripted show on CNBC. It is historical and is documented in the holy scriptures. During his second missionary journey, in the summer of 50 A.D., the apostle Paul leaves Athens and travels to Corinth. The Apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarses. Thank God for Paul. An inspired leader who came into an upside-down, divided and often confusing world in Corinth – a diverse, Christian, Jewish, and still idol-worshiping community riddled with “holier-than-thou” or legalistic theology; immoral living; a lack of brotherly and sisterly love and arrogant positioning for status and influence by church leaders. But Paul didn’t leverage his personal investment with a threat to pull out of the deal. No indeed. Paul was in it for the long haul and was about to turn things around by building bridges -- armed with the strongest building materials known to humankind: The Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul affirms the goal of becoming “all things to all people” when communicating the gospel. “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).
Paul built bridges to Christ – bridges constructed with God’s power and might – not his own -- that provided the solid foundation for lives then – and now. These bridges were constructed over oftentimes wide and dangerous gulfs and chasms of problems and mistrust between diverse peoples in such a way that transcended their religious beliefs and practices. He spoke truth to power. Didn’t mince words when he saw wrong, was authentic, the real deal, credible, reliable and trustworthy. Paul laid down the facts to the Corinthian Church – that walking with Christ may appear to be "foolishness" but is the absolute key to the saving grace, power and wisdom of God. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
These bridges became connectional spans that brought together diverse peoples, not by demanding conformity to a specific ideology but by promoting the freedom to be who God made them to be, through dialogue, and reaching across bridge spans sharing love as expressed in the life and death of Christ and brought into being by the Holy Spirit.
And, so Beloved, as sons and daughters of God, we must earnestly continue to construct bridges to love, social justice, equality, liberating freedom and compassion. No doubt there have been and will continue to be critical construction decisions when we face very troubled waters and crevices of divisiveness, racism, hatred and mistrust. But with building materials made from the “power of the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, we will prevail. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
The Reverend Ernest L. Montague, Sr.
Presiding Elder, Baltimore District, Baltimore Conference
There’s an extremely popular reality show on television called “The Profit” and perhaps you’ve seen it. The show features a highly experienced business turnaround consultant or “fixer” who travels to various cities to bolster and bring back failing businesses to life and profitability. This young man is what I call a “straight shooter.” He tells the bottom line truth to business owners and has no regrets for letting them know what they are doing wrong (no soft peddling), and that if they don’t straighten up and fix their financial and staffing problems, that their retail business will be done, over, finished, store front shuttered. He doesn’t put a pretty spin on what it will take to change their weaknesses. He just “tells it like it is – lays out a specific business plan to be followed, sort of "tough love.” What I like about him is that he follows up on his promises and expectations, has critical dialogue with owners and staff alike, asks probing, insightful questions to understand attitudes and beliefs. He cares not just about profits, but also values all people. He’s authentic and credible – doesn’t mince words, and the real deal. Once The Profit has evaluated and assessed the financials and credit rating of the company, he decides if he’s going to invest his own cash for a piece of the business. If the owner is lax or can’t change his/her ways, the Profit will oftentimes pull out of the deal altogether.
Well, Beloved, the more things change, the “more they stay the same.” Only this time, the story is not a scripted show on CNBC. It is historical and is documented in the holy scriptures. During his second missionary journey, in the summer of 50 A.D., the apostle Paul leaves Athens and travels to Corinth. The Apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarses. Thank God for Paul. An inspired leader who came into an upside-down, divided and often confusing world in Corinth – a diverse, Christian, Jewish, and still idol-worshiping community riddled with “holier-than-thou” or legalistic theology; immoral living; a lack of brotherly and sisterly love and arrogant positioning for status and influence by church leaders. But Paul didn’t leverage his personal investment with a threat to pull out of the deal. No indeed. Paul was in it for the long haul and was about to turn things around by building bridges -- armed with the strongest building materials known to humankind: The Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul affirms the goal of becoming “all things to all people” when communicating the gospel. “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).
Paul built bridges to Christ – bridges constructed with God’s power and might – not his own -- that provided the solid foundation for lives then – and now. These bridges were constructed over oftentimes wide and dangerous gulfs and chasms of problems and mistrust between diverse peoples in such a way that transcended their religious beliefs and practices. He spoke truth to power. Didn’t mince words when he saw wrong, was authentic, the real deal, credible, reliable and trustworthy. Paul laid down the facts to the Corinthian Church – that walking with Christ may appear to be "foolishness" but is the absolute key to the saving grace, power and wisdom of God. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
These bridges became connectional spans that brought together diverse peoples, not by demanding conformity to a specific ideology but by promoting the freedom to be who God made them to be, through dialogue, and reaching across bridge spans sharing love as expressed in the life and death of Christ and brought into being by the Holy Spirit.
And, so Beloved, as sons and daughters of God, we must earnestly continue to construct bridges to love, social justice, equality, liberating freedom and compassion. No doubt there have been and will continue to be critical construction decisions when we face very troubled waters and crevices of divisiveness, racism, hatred and mistrust. But with building materials made from the “power of the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, we will prevail. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
The Reverend Ernest L. Montague, Sr.
Presiding Elder, Baltimore District, Baltimore Conference
Quick Links
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Second Episcopal District Lay Organization • The Christian Recorder • 2nd Episcopal District Evangelism
Women in Ministry • Mother Bethel AME Church