Saturday, November 28, 1998

Gracious in rejection, a pastor instructs

By DAVID WATERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Eighty-six men received an invitation.

The invitation came to them in the form of an application. A female minister, Sybil Mitchell, asked to join their all-male Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association.

The application was rejected.

The invitation was refused.

The association is the city's largest group of African-American ministers. It has more than 400 members. Only 113 voted.

Eighty-six men said "No."

No Women Allowed.

Mitchell is a gracious 42-year-old associate pastor at Springdale Baptist Church.

"They just aren't ready for it," she said after the vote.

Too bad for the men. They missed quite an opportunity.

Mitchell wasn't just asking these men to let her join their clubhouse.

She was inviting them to join her in a bigger house.

"In my Father's house are many rooms," she would have told them, if she had been allowed to speak.

Mitchell's application really was an invitation.

Dear Sirs, it might have been worded.

By accepting this application, you are cordially invited to:

-- Show the women of your congregations -- who fill most of your pews and do most of the work -- what you have learned from their faithfulness.

-- Show your sons and daughters that in Christ there truly is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

-- Remember what your mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, taught us all: Discrimination based on physical differences is unacceptable.

-- Go boldly where too few men have gone before: Embrace a woman's soul rather than her body.

-- Demonstrate to your white Baptist brethren that leaders of faith should be judged not by the color of their baby clothes but by the content of their character as adults.

-- Set an example for Orthodox Jewish men, Roman Catholic men and Muslim men by showing that bodies worthy of giving birth to fathers of faith are worthy of leading bodies of faith.

-- Accept the gifts of this minister, particularly her gracious spirit, and be willing to accept the gifts of other black female ministers as well.

-- Stand up for this woman of faith and, thus, all women of faith, women such as Harriet Tubman, strong as Samson; Sojourner Truth, wise as Solomon; Rosa Parks, defiant as Daniel; Fannie Lou Hamer, who had Amos's thirst for justice.

-- Send a message to believers, and especially to non-believers, that the same Bible once used to enslave black men will not be used to subordinate black women.

-- Show us all that you have the strength to change, the power to include (rather than exclude) and the humility to serve (rather than be served).

Respectfully yours.

RSVP.

Eighty-six men received an invitation, an invitation they refused.

But, as Sybil Mitchell will tell you, God is good all the time.

Her God is a God of forgiveness and mercy.

Her God is a God of redemption and transformation.

Her God is a God of second chances.

Someday, these 86 men will receive another invitation.

Maybe, given a second chance, they will accept.

(David Waters may be reached by e-mail at waters(at)gomemphis.com or by mail at The Commercial Appeal, P.O. Box 364, Memphis, TN 38101-0364.)