Octogenarian freshman pastor

Shawn’s travels with the military

China Japan

Pastor Shawn Moore gives a sunday morning service to both his inperson congregation and also to his congregants watching via live stream. | Photo by Vanna Contreras

The Phillipians

Australia Guam Hawaii

step. The transition from law enforcement to pastor was not difficult for Moore.

This was what he calls his “Moses Moment.”

In the Bible, Moses is an Israelite raised among Egyptians. When the time came for someone to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, Moses was the one called by God. He was in a unique position where he was respected by the Egyptians and the Israelites equally.

“I can say, ‘Not only do I know what you’ve experienced. I’ve done what you’ve done. I’ve done that job.’ So I have a center stage with those that are law enforcement,” Moore said. “At the same time … I’ve been living in Minneapolis my whole entire life. I’ve had bad experiences with law enforcement officials growing up. I have that experience also.”

The similarities between law enforcement and pastoral leadership made the transition easy for Moore. Both the law and ministry have to do with the kingdom of God and the morality of Jesus. He includes rabbis, ministers and senior pastors in his definition of law enforcers.

“The 10 commandments, the covenant, these are all rules and regulations that are supposed to dictate our lives so that we have better outcomes,” Moore said.

As a pastor, Moore has felt called to speak up on the topic of racial reconciliation. He believes that it is important for everyone to be on the same page on what racial reconciliation truly is before it is attempted. “Racial reconciliation is not going back and fixing the broken relationship.”

“You can’t fix something that has been broken from the beginning,” Moore said.

Moore also believes that it is important to realize that you should not be apologizing for the past but that everyone is responsible for their actions.

Moore looks at racism as a brick wall between “you and me.” That wall is kept in place by systems, laws and policies that are still causing harm to people of color. Moore hopes to be a dismantler of this wall, even if he can only take down a few bricks in his lifetime.

“You’re not going to say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry for this system. That’s all screwed up.’ No. You go to the system and say, ‘You can’t be here anymore because you’re putting up a wall between me and the person on the other side, so I’m going to deconstruct this building,’” Moore said.

According to Moore, racial reconciliation is accomplished by deconstructing the systems that are enabling racism. For healthy relationships to grow, the systems must change.

Now the lead pastor at Living Spirit United Methodist Church in South Minneapolis, Moore serves and teaches the same community that he was raised in. He believes that it is important for his congregation to be equipped to serve the communities that they live in.

As a pastor, Moore is able to do exactly what he wanted to do while in law enforcement.

“I was never a part of the healing or closure of any of my cases. I was always an active agent of enforcement, never a catalyst for system change. That’s why I left,”

Moore strives to enable his congregation to not only pour into each other but also into themselves. He seeks to equip them with the power of the gospel so that they can grow personally with Christ and be enabled to look outside the church and make connections with people no matter where they are at.

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