Mark 2: Strengthening Inter and Intra Personal Relationships

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner

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I didn't grow up in the church. In fact, I was resistant to the "church". I was raised in eastern New Mexico and west Texas where fundamentalism not only ruled the church but dominated our culture as well. I didn't get involved in religion until my mid-twenties when I became involved with a community development ministry in Albuquerque, NM. The ministry focused on the moral obligation of "love your neighbor" and offered more of what I thought "church" should look like than the fundamentalist churches of my youth. 

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I loved following the Way of Christ and living a life of discipleship (or at least attempting to) but I still didn't fit in/belong with the conservative Christians who sponsored the ministry. I felt like an outsider, not good enough, not educated enough, not from the right class, and certainly not the right gender to be in leadership. 

I felt called to leadership in ministry and decided to leave my community after years of discernment. I discovered strong female Christian leaders like Sarah Bessey, Rachel Held Evans, and Nadia Bolz. These women introduced me to a whole/holy new world of Christianity and helped me to recognize the God-given leadership within myself. 

I followed my calling and entered the Master of Theological Studies program at St. Norbert College. Through these experiences, I found my healthy sense of self, provided by God. However, I had yet to find my community. Just one semester into the MTS program, I discovered First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque. This beloved community took me in, offered a place of belonging, and allowed me to bring my whole self to the table. It was within this community of love, with the grounding of who I am in God, that I began to flourish. 

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This experience of self-discovery and community belonging led to my Master's Thesis project- "Encountering Her: Reclaiming, Revisioning, Reforming. Intersectional Theology in Praxis". "Encountering Her" was a series of four retreats at First Congregational UCC that explored and reflected upon the experience and impact of imagery of God as Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC). 

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Please click on the links below to view the full paper "Encountering Her: Reclaiming, Revisioning, Reforming. Intersectional Theology in Praxis and the worship service which I led and preached at on July 25, 2021.

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