Introducing Contradictions Not Final. A Vertical Adventure: Navigating Your Gifts and Talents.

“I cannot help but think of my ‘birthwrongs’ and the many occasions in my life when the ‘who I am’ met with total and complete contradiction —standing in a world that would seek to determine ‘the who I should be’.” (Barbara Woods Riles Washington, ‘Faith of a Mustard Seed’).

Gordon Road Church, Atlanta, Pastor.  Bethel UMC, Brooklyn, Pastor.  Salem, Harlem, Associate Pastor.  Central, Atlanta, Associate Pastor.  Greater Bethel, Nashville, Bible Study.

The original African woman in America was stripped of her father’s house sense of security and forcefully made to submit her most intimate life to foreign sovereignty.  An immediate result of which is first generation African born in America women among whom are those whose  slave master father’s house she would never be privileged. The unattended generational life patterns of this phenomenon has yielded a direct correlation to 1) the alarmingly high number of African American single women heads of households; and 2) a multi trillion dollar Sex Industrial Complex. (Historical Overview/Mission: My Father’s Mansion Ministries to Women).

From my roots in Cleveland Ohio…  I found in mama’s effects my senior year report card with only three classes to remind me of the end of my high school career: an A in Trigonometry; an A in Algebra II; and a B in Advanced Math. This ‘Left Brain’ has taken me to position as an Ordained Deacon and Elder in the United Methodist Church; as well as now an 18 year Weekly Columnist for the Nashville Pride ‘the voice of a proud African-American Community’ the oldest surviving Black community newspaper in Nashville.

But my ‘Right Brain’ has never been left behind.  From crocheting Kelly Doll Dresses, BW Dezines for Kelly that landed my dolls in the June 2005 Barbie Bazaar Magazine; to Quilting. Becoming the first black Quilter —full exhibitor, filling the ‘overseer cabin’ in the Sam Davis Quilt Show 2011.  To my 2017 vision for The Rev’s Denim as the Nashville Fashion Week on Jefferson Street became a reality. After which I was chosen a ‘RAW Artist’ and showed RAW Nashville 2017 and RAW Atlanta 2018 in Underground Atlanta.  It is a wonder to me how creation flows from The Head and The Heart… into The Hands!  It is for certain as Maya Angelou has said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

“But when knowledge comes the whole world is turned upside down.” (Howard Thurman)

Tennessee State University. Boston University. Interdenominational Theological Center. Gammon Theological Seminary.  Atlanta University Center.  Drew University.  Bennett College. New York University. Vanderbilt University.

That day when I was putting my 93 words per minute typing skill to work in the personnel offices of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta , I received ‘The Call’ to go to Grady’s Chapel and fall on my knees in despair.  I returned there some years later to mount the stairs to preach in the hospital Chapel Service when I had been appointed as Pastor to Gordon Road.  Somewhere in between I was chosen by my seminary for the Howard Thurman Educational Trust “intensive seminar discussion on the grounds and the meaning of religious experience.  You will be one of Ten young people from different sections of the United States all of whom have two things in common 1) the nerve center of consent has been given to the religious life as a personal commitment and 2) each one is black.”

March on Washington —for Jobs and Freedom.  I could not in this space began to know how, other than by the Hand of God, I came into the legacy of Central Church, Atlanta. I wrote my first Pride Column in 2007 on my path into seminary. “I also found myself sitting in the Pulpit of Central Church at a time when Dr. Joseph Lowery was at the height of his leadership as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He told me my second Sunday there “reach in the closet and get a robe, grab a Bible and read… I said ‘huh?’ (I did tell you that I hadn’t been to church in seven years). He said: what part don’t you understand? Robe? Bible?  Again I said ‘huh?  He said: you gon be a preacher or you gon be a chicken?”  My Central Church legacy includes being summoned to their home that day in 1979 when Evelyn Gibson Lowery shared her vision for the SCLC/W.O.M.E.N. positioning me as a founding member.

Master of Divinity.  Cheerleader.  Seminarian.  Pastor.  Teacher.  Preacher.  Scholar.  Revivalist. Youth Minister.  Children’s Minister.  Women’s Ministries.  Administrator.  Computer Technologist. Fashion Designer.  Columnist.  Life Coach.  Author.  Quilter.  Podcaster.  Journalist.  Historian.  The Contradictions Not Final is a vertical adventure purposed for self knowledge. Join us on Zoom, Wednesday evenings in dialogue.

All inquiries By email: talk2therev@icloud.com. “Contradictions Not Final” Wednesdays on Zoom. 6:00 pm CST 7:00 pm ESTz. Join the Dialogue at my “Swellcast”.  At all times: https://SWELLCAST.com/therev