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The first thing you\u2019ll notice about Steven is his smile. I met Steven over Zoom, after approaching him via email for this spotlight (he was very responsive with his replies, by the way). His smile set a warm and deliberate tone for our meeting. As we made our first introductions, I began to ask a couple of questions about his life and his experience as an alumnus of our program.<\/p>\n
He stopped me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we do all that\u201d he said \u201chow about I tell you my story?\u201d<\/p>\n
And so he did.<\/p>\n
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Steven was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens. His parents were avid church goers and would take Steven and his younger sister along with them. This gave him a sense of two worlds: \u201cEven when living life in the jungle, I had a spiritual orientation and consciousness.\u201d He described himself as knowing how to put on the \u201cshirt and tie\u201d as well as the \u201cbaggy pants\u201d of his New York context. At the age of 11 he was listening to his preacher, David Wilson, exhort the congregation on the topic of purpose. Even so young, Steven felt he was called to something greater. He felt called to preach. Eventually, he voiced this to his preacher, and would preach his first sermon at the age of 16.<\/p>\n
Pursuing his purpose, Steven went to Southwestern Christian College on full scholarship with plans to go back to New York to be a pastor. It was during this time that he felt a need to cast his vision to other places, eventually landing in Philadelphia. During a visit in 2009, he began to fall in love with the city and began making at least one visit a year as a sort of \u201cspying out the land\u201d trip. He recalled having plenty of reasons to go there, but it was a feeling he couldn\u2019t describe that was his strongest drive. This led him to think of church planting in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
As he grew, he felt that he wanted to be free of the more sectarian leanings of his church experience (another reason he felt pulled to church planting). It was during this time, where his first Missional Theology mentor, Pastor Amziah \u201cA.C\u201d Christman, planted a seed that would change the course of his ministry: \u201cGod doesn\u2019t only work in and through the church, but God is also working outside. Let\u2019s go outside and meet with God.\u201d As he then prepared to meet God outside as a missional construct for ministry, he went to Amberton University to get his M.A. in Christian Counseling and planned to attend Pepperdine. That\u2019s where the Graduate School of Theology came in. A strong scholarship and job offer from ACU\u2019s GST brought him to Abilene. He studied heavily under Kent Smith and Chris Flanders, citing them as some of the largest influences on his life and ministry.<\/p>\n
It was also in the GST that his worldview shattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeminary is designed to humble you\u201d he recalls hearing during his orientation. He described to me that, after leaving the GST, he felt that he had more questions than answers. \u201cMy faith was like shattered pieces of glass.\u201d He described his depression, his suicidal ideation, and feeling separated from God.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you read St. John of the Cross?\u201d he asked. I had. \u201cWell, it was truly a dark night of the soul for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he graduated with his Master of Divinity, Steven found his way to the Oak Gardens Church of Christ in Dallas under the care of Dr. Paul Day, the founding Senior Pastor. \u201cWho I was, as an up and coming preacher in the black Churches of Christ, was falling apart and I was in a sort of in-between space.\u201d He mused that he was brought on staff at Oak Gardens because Dr. Day resonated with where Steven was in life, and they bonded over their shared experience.<\/p>\n
Then, in 2014, Steven was listening to one of Russell Simmons \u201cThe Happy Vegan\u201d interviews and decided that he needed something different to cope with the crisis of his internal life. It was here that Steven fell in love with Yoga. Through yoga, he was able to find tools to cope with his depression, and eventually reconnect with God. Steven was able to serve at the Spiritual Formation Pastor and practice yoga at the same time \u2013 it was here where he noticed the harmonious intersection between the two spaces.<\/p>\n
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Of course, as the arch of Steven\u2019s story continued it wasn\u2019t long before he began to feel pulled, once\u00a0again, to Philadelphia. As he was participating in Yoga he quickly began to realize that often he was the only black guy in the studio. He began to feel that this space that had been very life giving to him was not as accessible as he was hoping, and he wanted to see it change. In Philadelphia, he felt like the \u201chappiest man alive.\u201d He started a house church ministry which failed, then God directed him to join The Table Philadelphia, which is a church of house churches that had been in existence for a number of years. All the while, he started Yoga for Philly, a non-profit that uses Yoga to walk alongside people in need, from kids to seniors and to those impacted by poverty, drug abuse, and sex trafficking. \u201cWe use trauma-informed recovery principles,\u201d he says as he describes what it\u2019s like to use the tool that gave him life again, to help other people find new life.<\/p>\n
Steven also started The Gathering, which he describes as \u201can ecumenical move. It\u2019s an inter-people initiative. No matter who you are or what your worldview looks like, you\u2019re welcome here.\u201d He sees it as a way to reimagine socialization and human connection in a world that is so easily divided. \u201cI wanted it to become an example of love in the context and face of diversity. Like, what does it mean to love someone, really love someone, who is different than you?\u201d<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t all. Steven also started his own cannabis business called Hii Brand<\/em>. This endeavor, at least in part, he hopes to use to help black folks find their way into the business that is dominated by whites, even while many black men and women remain incarcerated for the practice in other contexts. He also works with the local police department as a member of the Police Department Advisory Committee<\/em> for his neighborhood. In addition, Steven volunteers with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund. \u201cI help bail people out when they need it and I help keep them out. I\u2019m in direct contact with my neighborhood, our police captain, and fellow freedom fighters making change in the City.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would do it all over again,\u201d he said to me when I asked him about how he felt about attending the Graduate School of Theology. \u201cIt\u2019s something I really appreciate now. It\u2019s an experience that\u2019s meant to challenge you, to grow you. Even when things were at their worst I knew something good was going to come from it. I just had to weather the storm.\u201d For Steven, he has a hard time imagining what his ministry would look like without the likes of Kent Smith, Chris Flanders, Mark Hamilton, and Fred Aquino. \u201cDid it suck? Yes! But it was through all that that I learned, really learned, that Jesus is on the ground with me. I don\u2019t have to dress up or have it worked out to be with Jesus. I can be who I am, and not put on a costume.\u201d<\/p>\n It would be easy for me to only highlight the benefits of seminary (or of the ministry vocation as a whole, really) and avoid the costs. However, if I truly believe what we do is important and worthwhile, I should be able to present a clear picture of it in hopes that its merits would stand on their own. In the process of being formed for ministry it can be easy to neglect how painful some of that process might be. To be confronted with the prospect of formation is to be confronted with change and change, even for our benefit, is not necessarily a comfortable enterprise.<\/p>\n We talked for over an hour about his life, the struggles he\u2019s had, and the costs he\u2019s paid to be a minister in the context he\u2019s in. \u201cIt cost me a lot. It cost me my reputation with the black Churches of Christ. I wrestle with these insecurities: Did I do the right thing? Did I make the right decision? Does anything I do even matter? But I do the work I do so that my kids can live in a better world. I continue the work of my ancestors, MLK, Malcom X, Shirley Chisholm, Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, my grandma, and those who are alive, like my parents, Angela Davis, Louis Farakkhan, and others. Miles Monroe says that ‘the richest place in the world is the cemetery because many people go to the grave with their gifts and dreams.'” In response, Steven continues, \u201cI answered the call so that I don\u2019t take any of my purpose or any of my dreams to the grave with me. I want to live fully so I can die empty.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking at Steven and hearing his story, I can\u2019t help but see the reflection of Christ. The Christ that fought for the poor and the oppressed, for widows and orphans. The Christ who, himself, was poor and challenged the rich to value the proper things. The Christ who challenged the religious leaders of the time to rethink their conceptions of religious practice and the God they believed in.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Steven is both challenging and encouraging. His journey, bumpy as it has been, exemplifies a man who has been willing to follow the call he hears from God wherever it goes. Someone that, in his humanity, has given everything he can to the cause. Steven reminded me that ministry is something that encompasses the whole of one\u2019s life, from our relationships to our education. That everything we do, from leisure to business, flows from our commitment to a living God.<\/p>\n To young seminarians and leaders, Steven left me with this: \u201cKnow that it costs to follow Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/files\/2020\/12\/20201108-_DSC8498-Edit-228x300.jpg\")
It\u2019s difficult to describe what it was like talking with Steven. It is no secret that Steven\u2019s journey into ministry would be considered \u201cnon-traditional\u201d by some, and perhaps scoffed at by others. There is an obvious, knee-jerk reaction to stay away from a story like his that places our work as a seminary at the center of his biggest faith crisis. Which is perhaps why I think stories like his are so important.<\/p>\n
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