Capital Baptist Newsletter-February/March 2023

DCBC SPOTLIGHT

District of Columbia Baptist Convention 1628 16th Street NW Washington, DC 20009

202.265.1526 (office) www.dcbaptist.org info@dcbaptist.org

Office of Executive Director/Minister Executive Director/Minister

Trisha Miller Manarin, Ext. 214 Ministry Assistant

Loretta Polite-Shipman, Ext. 213

Campus Ministries

LeeAnn Carrera

Adrien Ngudiankama

Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator

Jevon Billups

Capital Baptist Editor

Sonia Myrick

Office of Administration and Stewardship

Chief Operations Officer Lashanor Doolittle, Ext. 203

Building Maintenance

Saul Garcia, Ext. 212

Accounting and Administrative Specialist Fam SaeChao Chock, Ext. 206

IN EVERY ISSUE

JBCC Building Coordinator Robin Foulk, Ext. 215

ERT Coordinator James Barbour

Making Our Slogan a Reality

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This familiar refrain by Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us, as people of faith, of our responsibility to promote justice, not only in our communities, but also in the world at large. This is a challenging proposition given the times in which we live. Far too often, justice is interpreted as a “just us” action.

Growing up, I had a front-row seat to the vast injustice perpetrated on people of color in our country. The call for social justice was the foundation for economic, medical, environmental and educational justice along with other areas of disparity that have torn humanity’s moral fabric. The church, at times, was the fortress we could retreat to for protection, the field hospital during the battle, the restaurant for the hungry and rest stop for the weary. These charitable acts help to forge and sustain warriors as they battled for justice.

The church must once again accept the mantel. The injustices in our region are immense. So, how do we bridge the gulf? How do we handle the tension between the liberating justice of God with human justice? Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” indicated that the struggle is real, even within the body of Christ. It has been said that we should not be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good, nor be so earthly minded, we are no heavenly good. We cannot let our search for divine justice blind us to the injustice in front of us, nor can we be so socially engaged that we forget God has the final say. His teachings are the moral plumbline with which all just causes must align. Through our Savior Jesus Christ a seat has been set at the table of justice where all can be seen and heard. Our Convention’s slogan is “One Faith. Many Cultures. Endless Possibilities.”

Together we can make this slogan a reality.

In February, however you choose to celebrate Black History Month, acknowledge the indelible impact Black people have had on our country, our communities and our faith experience. In March, Women’s History Month, take time to recognize the accomplishment of women over the years in a variety of fields. All these contributions, known and unknown, were made possible by our God. Our Convention will have special programming to coincide with each month. Stay connected with us so you don’t miss any opportunities to strengthen your ministry, your church, or the kingdom.

Blessings.

Rev. Patti Fears

Rev. Patricia H. Fears President of the DCBC Board of Directors

Journey with DCBC

January is often considered one of the most difficult months of the year. We are clearly in the midst of winter, the celebrations of the holidays have come and gone, and the cold has set in for at least a month or two longer.

February is a waiting month — many find themselves inside waiting for spring, while others are waiting for the next big event on their calendar — the month to commemorate Black History — we have come a long way but still have much to do It is the month of love, the month of honoring presidents, and for celebrating interfaith relationships. February 22 marks the beginning of the Journey to the Cross and Resurrection Sunday (Lent)

The beginning of March can often feel like a continuation of February, but as the month proceeds, it becomes the month of hope (just as we commemorate Women’s History Month and the hope we lean into for true equality) — the daffodils will soon shine their yellow faces and spring is on its way — the Lenten journey is becoming shorter and each Sunday is a miniresurrection celebration!

What a journey we share! DCBC seeks to collaborate in the call of the Gospel. Sometimes that equates to mourning (as in the case of the ongoing conflict in Myanmar/Burma, the war in Ukraine, our own racial and gender disparities, and the call for God’s justice). Sometimes, it calls us to equip each other (as with Mental Health First Aid and Coach training, the Justice Forum, and Grant Writing). And sometimes, it means getting away for a little while to rest, recalibrate and be restored (as in the case of our weekly prayer gatherings, monthly pastors’ chats, the Clergy Retreat and Sister Circle).

I hope you will join DCBC on this journey, as we believe wholeheartedly that, with God, as we see the face of Jesus in one another, there is more than enough justice! I’d love to visit with you, pray with you, or even break bread or share a cup of tea.

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 5:24 ESV Joy and Grace,

Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin Executive Director/Minister

Journey — Rev. Alethea: Barrier Breaker, Survivor, Bridge Builder

By Rev Dr. Alethea “Roz” Smith-Withers

Idon’t remember the names or recognize the faces of those I went to school with from 8th grade through 12th grade. You see, my memory loss is directly connected to my experiences from integrating my junior high school and my high school. I remained the only Black student in my school until I graduated…

Let me offer a little background for my story. During the years when I was in junior high and high school, my family was the first and the only Black family in Wantagh, a town in Long Island, NY. My parents chose to move from Brooklyn, NY to Wantagh (only 21 miles from Manhattan) because they wanted to live in the suburbs. My mother, Mary Jo — a registered nurse, was born and raised in Cynthiana, a small town in Kentucky. My father, George — a physician, was an immigrant from Spanish Town in Jamaica, WI [West Indies]. Their goals were simple — education and better opportunities for my younger sister, DeBorah, and me. They weren’t trying to break barriers or to be “pioneers.”

On the surface, Wantagh was a dream come true — manicured lawns, low crime rates, and schools with high rankings. They didn’t suspect that de facto segregation was behind every shadow. Neither did they know that Nassau County, the county where we lived, boasted staggering Ku Klux Klan membership.

Even though I don’t remember the names of fellow students, I’ll never forget that my first encounter with the subtle but painful impact of racism was on my first day at school in Wantagh. After homeroom, I went to my science class. The science teacher announced he was giving a test. I was terrified Not knowing what the test was

about, I said a silent prayer and then answered each question to the best of my ability.

When the teacher handed back my completed test, he asked incredulously, “How did you get all the correct answers?” At 12 years old, I didn’t understand the purpose of his question. I was secretly waiting for a congratulatory “Good job!” or a similar expression of encouragement. Instead, my teacher’s suspicion was confusing and demoralizing, to say the least

In 9th grade, I recall how my American History teacher would pause and gaze at me whenever he uttered the word “slaves.” No doubt, he was suggesting that the legacy of

slavery negatively defined who I was. But at 13, the teacher’s behavior left me feeling uncomfortable and marginalized. When I told my father how the teacher looked at me, the teacher’s motives were glaringly obvious to him. My Jamaican father was irate. He instructed me to go to class and confront the teacher’s ignorance with facts. My father said, “You must stand up and educate the teacher!” So, the next day I literally stood and gave a recitation naming 10 prominent African Americans beginning with Marcus Garvey. My dramatic classroom performance was met with stark silence. My teacher didn’t proffer a question or a comment. The following day, the lesson about slavery ended without explanation.

Perhaps, the memory that stands out the most for me is when my home was vandalized. The large picture window in the front of my home was shattered while my sister and I were home alone. Miraculously, we remained asleep through the entire episode (my father was out of the country and my mother worked the night shift at a local hospital). A few days after the vandalism, my mother convened a community meeting in our home. Members of the school board, police officers, and neighbors filled our living room and dining room — my mother wanted these people to see the damage to our home and reckon with the jeopardy her children were in. My sister and I peeked from the hallway as our 5-foot 2-inch mother made her case. For days thereafter, a police car was stationed in front of our home.

All too often, when Black children are in the minority in their school, they are too young and emotionally ill equipped to identify or adequately convey the types of discrimination and bias they encounter. It’s amazing that so many Black children even survive the challenges they face in biased academic settings! It is imperative that the educational goal for Black children must be for them to thrive — and not just survive Though none of my white classmates or teachers ever hurled racial epithets, I still suffered academic and social marginalization and faced incalculable psychological violence.

In his 1952 literary classic, Invisible Man, the iconic Black novelist Ralph Ellison gave voice to the disillusionment of many Black Americans. Ellison describes what it’s like living in a white-dominated world when he wrote, “Oh, I am an invisible man, simply because people refuse to see me….To be unaware of one’s form is to live a death.”

For me, Ellison’s words help to explain why I forgot most of my high school classmates. I wasn’t seen in Wantagh schools! I’ve learned that my amnesia was an adolescent coping mechanism, a subconscious choice to forget the scorn that reduced me to an Invisible Girl. Thankfully, my friends who didn’t attend my school and my loving family were a divine hedge-ofprotection. I was visible and seen by them.

Jesus saw children and welcomed all of them. He didn’t render them invisible; he knew they came bearing gifts. The Gospel of

Sixteen-year-old Alethea Smith graduate of Wantag High School, Wantagh, New York

Mark 10:13-16 says: And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’….And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Yes! That’s what the Bible says, and what the Bible means to me is that ALL children are to be protected from doors being shut in their faces, or being devalued, or rendered invisible! In Wantagh schools, I should have been seen as a child of God and recognized as worthy of the kingdom of God and I should have been valued!

The bottom line is that parents and educators must remain alert vis-à-vis racially motivated behaviors that impact the lives of Black children and Black adolescents.

Given the challenges I experienced when I was a vulnerable adolescent, I’m enormously blessed that the perils of racism didn’t hold me back. In fact, I believe that God used my circumstance of being the only Black student in Wantagh upper schools for 5 years and being the first Black graduate from Wantagh High School to prepare me to be a barrier-breaker and bridge-builder in my adult life. I was the premier clergywoman to serve as an Associate Minister at the historic Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. With the congregation’s encouragement, I became one of the first women to be the founder of a Baptist church

in Washington, D.C., that has thrived more than 20 years and is affiliated with the DC Baptist Convention. I was also the first Black woman to be the chair of the board of directors of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), a national interfaith reproductive justice organization. In short, God’s Word has been a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.

Above all, I thank God that I embrace a theology of liberation. Knowing Jesus as liberator anchors my soul to the truth that justice is more than a social mandate: justice is a divine imperative. Indeed, I believe there are divine whispers in the wind that alert all of us to a collective assignment to create equity and embrace justice in every generation.

Black lives mattered in the 60s and Black lives must matter, today, particularly the lives of Black children — they are our future.

Dr. Smith-Withers is the founder and pastor of the Pavilion of God Baptist Church in Washington, D C., www.PavilionofGodDC.org She is also a pastoral counselor trained in Imago therapy. She has earned the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Howard University School of Divinity and was a Pew Foundation Urban Ministry Fellow. Dr. SmithWithers serves as the National Chaplain for Alpha Pi Chi National Sorority, Inc. In addition, this woman of God is a wife, mother, and grandmother.

District of Columbia Baptist Convention

Office of Administration and Stewardship

WRITING WORKSHOP

MARCH 13 - MAY 8, 2023

The DC Baptist Convention (DCBC) is offering an Intensive 8-week Grant Proposal Writing Course! Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

Compose a grant or contract proposal that has a high probability of being funded.

Demonstrate knowledge of the funding landscape within public and private sectors

Demonstrate knowledge of program development using logic modeling, forecasting, budgeting, asset mapping and environmental scans.

MONDAY EVENINGS!

6:00pm - 8:00pm

March 13

March 20

March 27

April 3

April 10 (No Class)

April 17

April 24

May 1

May 8

REGISTRATION OPEN NOW

FEE: $80

DCBC Justice Forum: ‘Is There Enough Justice to Go Around?’

By Rev. Michelle Nickens

The concept of justice has gotten a lot of bad press recently. In the media, powerful political pundits and talking heads often smirk as they denigrate people they derisively call “social justice warriors.” These media figures imply that the struggle for justice has already been achieved! They mistakenly assert that those who still cry out for justice are merely angry, entitled whiners.

At the grassroots level, various groups seeking justice are pitted against each other as they jockey to draw attention to their particular plight over and above others’. They fall prey to the belief that justice is a scarce commodity, so we must fight over it like crabs in a barrel.

Neither of these positions are aligned with God’s understanding of justice. God’s Word calls us to enact justice, not just once but over and over again. And God’s justice economy is not based on scarcity, but on abundance. He cries out through the prophet Amos: Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like a mighty stream!

So let’s come together on February 25 to consider what God says about justice. There are hundreds of passages in the Bible that make clear God’s desire to protect and lift up those who are downtrodden and vulnerable. Jesus spent much of his earthly ministry healing those who had been

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

cast down and cast out. He affirmed those who had been overlooked or rejected, and He restored them to wholeness. So, how might we, as His people, do the same? How can we undam the mighty river of justice so that it flows to all?

We’ve been told that the DCBC is one of the most diverse regional Baptist conventions in the United States. Our slogan states that we are One Faith, Many Cultures, Endless Possibilities. Is this slogan true, or is it merely lip service? The Justice Forum is an opportunity to lean into that identity as a united people who love and work together for the realization of the Beloved Kingdom.

So what are the goals of the forum? I can imagine three things:

• First, we must come together and truly see one another. We must bear witness to the diversity of needs and the diversity of gifts within our DCBC circle. What resources exist in our midst?

• Second, we must listen to each other with open hearts, and by doing so come to understand the commonalities of our experience that cut across our differences. This allows us to embrace each other as allies for justice rather than competition. What new insights will the Spirit reveal as we reason, learn, laugh and pray together?

• Third, we must begin praying and visioning about the work of justice so that those visions can become reality. Most likely, all of our congregations are doing something that promotes justice, whether it is sponsoring a food pantry, providing sanctuary for immigrants, creating enrichment opportunities for

youth, visiting prisons, engaging in public protest or registering voters. As members of the body of Christ, this is one situation in which the right hand definitely ought to know what the left hand is doing. So let’s identify how our singular congregational activities contribute to fulfilling the wider needs in our region, our nation, and our world. Is God calling us to collaborate on something new?

I invite every DCBC pastor to encourage a group of your congregants to attend a oneday Justice Forum, titled “Is There Enough Justice to Go Around?” and hosted by DCBC, on Saturday February 25 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church (4606 16th St., NW, Washington, D.C.). Think about who in your congregation should be part of this conversation, and get them registered at https://dcbaptist.wufoo.com/forms/kx02tqx0 6mcj1e/! Registration is $27 for DCBC members and $37 for non-DCBC participants. Lunch is included in the registration, and we have an excellent slate of workshop topics and presenters that should lead to lively discussion and deep fellowship.

I have great expectations for this forum. I believe that God will move among us on February 25. I believe we will leave blessed, aware, inspired, empowered and emboldened to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly together with our great God. I hope you will plan to be a part of this experience.

Rev. Michelle Nickens is the Pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, Virginia and also serves as the current VicePresident of American Baptist Churches USA

Baptist Women in Ministry

We’re inviting you to take the next step in affirming, valuing, and elevating women in ministry among Baptists in March 2023! In addition to inviting a woman to preach, we also encourage you to engage in one of the forms of advocacy listed below during March, which is also Women’s History Month. Both churches and individuals can participate. As you participate, please use the form below to share your participation with us!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN BWIM MONTH OF ADVOCACY

During Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) Month of Advocacy in March: Invite a woman to preach (or encourage your church leadership to invite a woman preach) AND choose one of the following to further your advocacy.

• Advocate for the ordination of women in ministry in your church

• Advocate for pay equity, paid paternity leave, and professional development opportunities for women in ministry in your church

• Evaluate ministerial titles for women in your church and advocate for equality with men’s titles

• Advocate for women to be elected to community and denominational boards and committees

• Give a scholarship to a college or seminary woman preparing for ministry

• Schedule sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault training for leaders in your congregation

• Donate to support a woman missionary whose work benefits women

• Find a tangible way to encourage the women who serve as chaplains in various fields such as the military, healthcare, and other settings

• Engage biblical support for women in ministry and women’s equality in Bible studies, sermons, and youth/children’s lessons

• Implement spiritual formation resources that are empowering to women and girls

• Start a book club with your church staff or Bible study group about the challenges that women face in the church

• Host an experienced woman in ministry to visit with younger women about discerning a call to ministry

• Evaluate the art in your church and add pieces which include women

• Evaluate the songs and liturgies used in your corporate worship and add pieces that have inclusive language for people and expansive language for God

• Evaluate and restructure lay leadership in your congregation to intentionally include women in all levels of leadership (deacon body, church council, committees, etc.)

• If you are a male minister or leader, find one opportunity that you have been given which you might be able to share with a woman instead of accepting it yourself

• Partner in the ways Baptist Women in Ministry advocates for women in ministry by giving an individual or congregational donation or by becoming a Salome Community monthly donor

If you would like recommendations or help in implementing these or other avenues of advocacy for women in ministry, contact the BWIM staff for assistance or recommendations.

Find Resources from BWIM Month of Preaching

Sunrise Vigil Features Prayers to Commemorate

January 6 Anniversary

By Jeff Brumley

Christian leaders gathered for a sunrise prayer vigil at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the 2021 insurrection and to seek divine guidance and protection in the struggle against the ideology of Christian nationalism.

Event co-organizer Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism, said the Jan. 6 anniversary should be a reminder that the threat to democracy did not end with the attack on the Capitol.

“Tragically, Christian nationalism intensified the attacks on Jan. 6, 2021, and Christians bear a special responsibility in continuing to draw awareness to Christian nationalism as a threat to our democracy and to showing how it is a gross distortion of the Christian faith that we hold dear,” she said.

Co-sponsored by Faithful America, the “Sunrise Prayer Vigil for Democracy” featured prayers from about 15 clergy from a wide range of Christian traditions, with many more in attendance.

“This morning we are providing a counter-witness, a way to bring our faith into the public square in productive ways, knowing we claim a right to the public square as do people of all faiths and no faith as well,” Tyler said.

February – March 2023 | Capital Baptist Newsletter 14

Sojourners magazine

founder Jim Wallis offered a prayer connecting the anniversary of the insurrection to the Christian holy day of Epiphany, which concludes the 12 days of Christmas and is celebrated annually on Jan. 6.

“We are here to reclaim Jesus on this day of epiphany, calling Christians to stand up and condemn white Christian nationalism in all its heretical forms as not only wrong and dangerous, but also unholy,” said Wallis, currently chair in faith and justice at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

“This false epiphany, this false religion, this false gospel of white Christian nationalism was certainly present on that Epiphany Day of 2021. But true religion, the true gospel of Christ, must be part of any response to this day as well. The best answer to bad religion is truth,” Wallis said.

Barbara WilliamsSkinner, convener of the National African American Clergy Network, thanked God for divine presence during the Capitol attack.

“Lord, today we reflect today on the January 2021 insurrection, knowing for sure

that if you had not been on our side, we would have perished along with our fragile democracy,” she said. “Thank you, God, for holding back the tide of … white supremacy that shamefully includes white Christian nationalism in an increasingly diverse America.”

Williams-Skinner offered praise for divine power over the efforts of Donald Trump and his supporters on that day: “Thank you, Lord, for exposing the lie that a defeated former president won the election and for saving the overpowered law enforcement, lawmakers and a vice president whose very lives were threatened by the mob he inspired.”

Mary Novak, executive director of Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, echoed parallels between the events of Jan. 6 and Epiphany, which in Scripture came at a time of rising political violence that had to be navigated by the magi who visited the infant Jesus.

“Like those wise people, God grant us your insight and wisdom in the face of disinformation and conflict,” she prayed. “Help us find the courage to reject unholy and harmful ideologies, those of white supremacy and Christian nationalism. And we pray to not be silent about the crisis of our democracy. Grant us, we the people of the United States, the strength and the wisdom to do the hard work of shaping the future of our precious and fragile democracy.”

Jim Wallis

Barbara Williams-Skinner

Mary Novak

nationalism is

stay focused on Christ instead of using him to advance political and social agendas, said Faith in Public Life CEO Jeanné Lewis. “We know that Christ invites everyone to the table, and that every one of us is equally beloved in your eyes.”

Cassandra Gould, senior faith strategist with Faith in Action, opened her prayer with words of grief.

“We come mourning the loss of life on Jan. 6 at the hands of those who don’t believe that democracy belongs to everyone,” she said. “We come this morning because the blood of our siblings continues to cry out from the ground, not just from two years ago today, but from the very founding of this country.

“We come this morning calling forth an America where all of God’s children are welcome, all of God’s children are protected, all of God’s children are served, all of God’s children have a right to voice and vote without impairment.”

Gould pleaded that justice would prevail: “We pray that wicked rulers will not have control over the wisdom that is to take place

in the people’s house. We come this morning because the identity of Christians was stolen and paraded around on the steps and in the house two years ago today. So, we come this morning to reclaim our identity.”

Leslie CopelandTune of the National Council of Churches thanked God the Jan. 6 insurrection didn’t escalate into an even more serious situation. “We give you thanks today that because of your mercy we were not consumed. As bad as it was, it could have been worse. But we also give you thanks … for fortitude and resistance to white supremacy and Christian nationalism.”

Another minister described the vigil as an act of protest.

“We are up on our feet this morning, standing up for justice. We come back to take back what the devil tried to take from us,” said Thomas Bowen, minster of social justice at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “We come here to take back what it means to be Christian in our walk and in our talk. Help us all to be Christian, not just on our resume, but in our day-to-day actions.”

The key to rejecting Christian

to

Jeanné Lewis

Cassandra Gould

Leslie Copeland-Tune

Thomas Bowen

Courage was the prayer request of Emily Holladay, pastor of Village Baptist Church in Bowie, Md. “As the sun rises around our Capitol this morning, remind us of the new day that is dawning because of your creative work. Help us to join you in action toward justice so that our country might see the transformation that we know is possible because of you.”

Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, urged that Jesus be remembered as the friend of the outcast, the liberator of the oppressed and as the inspiration of peacemaking. But he also requested discernment in seeing harsher realities.

“God, we ask you on this anniversary of Jan. 6, as so many wolves continue to clothe themselves in sheep’s clothing, help us to recognize those who masquerade as Jesus in their symbols and slogans, but whose hearts are filled with hate and rage and whose tongues spread lies and violence.” Raushenbush also prayed for light to dispel the darkness of deceit and delusion: “Liberate us from those who would subjugate and bring justice to those who continue to attack our fragile democracy and our nation’s most vulnerable even as they wrap themselves in the American flag and wield the cross that crucified our Lord.”

Trisha Miller Manarin, executive director of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, simply prayed for the strength to

continue pushing back against Christian nationalism.

“May we not grow weary as we go about your good and sometimes dangerous work, that justice might roll, that kindness might prevail, that truth will be told,” she said.

Author, historian and Simmons College of Kentucky Professor Jemar Tisby offered a prayer declaring white Christian nationalism as evil.

“We come here praying you would protect this delicate democracy and we pray not just for Christians, but we pray for all people in this land,” he said. “We

acknowledge their dignity and that they should have a voice in the way this nation is governed. We pray for your help in building a multiracial, inclusive democracy that is helpful for all.”

Shane Claiborne of Red Letter Christians read a passage from Galatians in which Paul admonishes his readers for abandoning the

Emily Holladay

gospel of Jesus for a fake, perverted gospel.

“Christian nationalism is a perversion of the gospel of Christ, and we pray today, O God, that you would deliver us from this perversion of your gospel,” he said. “I do come from evangelical tradition, and we believe in being born again. So I pray that those who have embraced Christian nationalism would have a born-again experience. … I also come from the charismatic tradition, and I pray against the principalities and powers and the authorities in high places that are trying to stand against your love. We call out those principalities of racism, xenophobia, fear, white Christian nationalism and we declare that your love

called to break down those systems not just here at the marble steps of the Capitol, but also in our own churches, in our own actions, in our own choices.”

Nathan Empsall, an Episcopal priest and executive director of Faithful America, concluded with prayers for those going to work at the Capitol that morning and for those whose loved ones were injured or killed there on Jan. 6, 2021. Then he moved on to the ideology that helped fuel those tragedies.

“We know that white supremacy and Christian nationalism are not Christian, and yet the people who espouse this ideology are our fellow Christians,” he said. “Help us always remember this that we may not be corrupted by hate.”

Empsall also asked that the spiritual truth of Epiphany be visited upon those who espouse the ideology of Christian nationalism: “We ask you God, 2,000 years later, to send another Epiphany to all those who use your holy name to spread election denial and the runup to Jan. 6, and to all those who would take away rights in your name, and who would seize power in your name.”

triumphs over them.”

Alyssa Aldape, an organizer with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, prayed that opponents of Christian nationalism would remember to examine their own shortcomings in the ongoing struggle.

“We who stand here, let us also look inward. Let us also look at the things within us that perpetuate that power and let us be reminded that that power should not own us,” she said. “Let us also remember that we are

Jeff Brumley is Senior News Writer for Baptist News Global. A veteran newspaper reporter, he lives in Jacksonville, Fla., with his dog, Nosey.

Alyssa Aldape leading in prayer

HEAR YOUR CALL HERE AND NOW

Five Keys for Vocational Discernment

The “Great Resignation” is affecting all sectors, including the Christian church. It’s clear that questions of vocation, call, and how to persist in ministry are alive for leaders at every stage of ministry. Hear Your Call is an invitation to listen for God’s call in your story at this present moment.

This free, one-hour webinar will introduce key considerations for discernment at any stage of life, as well as invite participants to a cohort learning experience, Listen to Your Life (Feb 27–Mar 27, 2023), designed for those who wish to explore their vocation in greater depth.

February Is Interfaith Harmony Month in the DMV

For the fourth year in a row, IFC is convening “Interfaith Harmony MonthDMV” in which we present a month’s worth of interfaith programs and events in our region. Previous partners have included Mosaic Harmony, Rumi Forum and Washington Theological Consortium, which offered their own events that we copublicized. Examples of past events include interfaith: service projects, studies of sacred texts, dialogues, shared meals, and concerts. The only requirement is that you demonstrate cross-faith collaboration in your program.

If you are part of an organization engaged in interfaith work, consider offering a special "Interfaith Harmony" program or event in February.

Harmony Through Art

The arts have long been a means of bringing diverse peoples together, including from different faith traditions. Following a tour of the museum exhibition Prayer and Transcendence, participants will engage in reflection and dialogue. The conversations will take place among Anne Lindberg's sitespecific installation what color is divine light?

Thurs, Feb. 23 @7 PM

The George Washington Museum & The Textile Museum

701 21st St. NW

Washington, DC 20052

IFC Offers Religious and Cultural Literacy Workshops

To be fully prepared to engage in today’s diverse society, whether as a professional, a member of a religious or spiritual community, or simply as a resident of the DMV, one needs to be knowledgeable about the different beliefs, practices and cultures that exist within the greater Washington area. To better bridge the differences that too often keep us apart, IFC offers different types of religious and cultural literacy workshops aimed at increasing understanding and respect for all who live here.

All of our workshops are designed to educate and equip participants to engage in religiously diverse settings. Topics to be addressed may include: creating a religiously equitable environment; addressing common misconceptions of different faith traditions; and modeling complex conversations around religious and cultural differences.

Coffee & Chat

Invitation: Sophia

Theological Seminary

The Faculty of Sophia

Theological Seminary and Sophia Farms invite you to learn about our re-imagined community — a seminary supported by a produce farm.

2023 Interfaith Calendar Available Now!

A joint project of IFC and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington, this useful tool helps increase knowledge and respect for the diverse religious observances of our friends and neighbors in the DMV!

Tuesday, March 21 10 a.m. at the Baptist Building

1628 Sixteenth St NW, Washington, DC 20009

Come and consider how we can become partners in this work on and with God’s good creation.

‘Amazing Grace’ Is 250 Years Old This Week

By Mark Wingfield

This week [the first week of January] marked the 250th anniversary of the first time “Amazing Grace” was sung.

What has become one of the world’s most-beloved Christian hymns debuted on New Year’s Day 1773 at the Anglican parish church in Olney, England.

Its words were written by the parish pastor, John Newton, who wrote from his personal experience as a participant in the Atlantic slave trade.

A special New Year’s Day Service was held at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church last Sunday. Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, bishop of Dover, was the preacher and a combined choir from area churches performed. The service was themed around the message of “Amazing Grace.”

Other groups have been celebrating the anniversary in advance and will do so for the next six months. Some of those celebrations are highlighted at the Cowper and Newton Museum, which has online and in-person resources about Newton and “Amazing Grace.”

Newton and poet William Cowper together wrote a large number of hymns, often new ones for each service, that later were published in a collection called Olney Hymns in 1779. “Amazing Grace” was in that collection.

Althoughnotpublisheduntil1779,thehymnhadbeensungattheOlneychurchonNewYear’s Day 1773, to accompany Newton’s sermon on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17:

And David the king came and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God.

February – March 2023 | Capital Baptist Newsletter 22

Historical analysis by the Cowper and Newton Museum highlights the likelihood that Newton was speaking that Sunday of his own experience at sea, where he had a profound conversion experience during a storm while carrying slaves — an experience that “saved a wretch like me.”

The museum analysis also suggests Newton could have been thinking of his friend Cowper, who suffered severe depression, when he wrote these words: “’Tis grace has brought me safe this far, and grace will lead me home.”

What most Americans do not realize is that the popular final verse of this beloved hymn was a later addition not written by Newton. His original fifth and sixth stanzas are rarely sung today in American settings.

What Americans today know as the final verse — “When we’ve been there ten thousand years …” — apparently was attached to “Amazing Grace” by the composer E.O. Excell in the early 20th century.

Across the world, “Amazing Grace” has become one of the most recognizable Christian hymns of all time — used in worship services, funerals, special events, and recorded by artists of all genres.

Newton served as curate at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church from 1764 to 1780. He worked with William Wilberforce, who become the greatest advocate of the abolition of the slave trade. They also worked together to establish a home for freed slaves in Sierra Leone.

Newton was raised without religious conviction. As a young man, he entered service in the Royal Navy. After a series of misbehaviors that led to his expulsion from the Navy, he was consigned to work on a slave ship. His spiritual conversion likely began on a storm-tossed night when he genuinely feared for his life but played out over several years as he turned from an impetuous and foul-mouthed sailor to someone who later sought theological education and ordination.

Newton was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and became curate of the church in Olney, which at the time was a small town of about 2,500 people, mainly poor and illiterate. He was known there for his confessional sermons in which he identified with the sinfulness and suffering of the people to whom he preached.

The vicerage in Olney where Newton wrote “Amazing Grace.”

He later helped found the Christian Missionary Society, which held its first meeting Jan. 16, 1783.

Although the text to “Amazing Grace” dates to 1773, the tune most often associated with the hymn today came later. It is not known what tune might have been used on that New Year’s Day 1773 or whether any tune at all was used. The congregation could have chanted.

Over time, the text was sung to 20 or more tunes — although largely forgotten in Britain and only recaptured in America during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century.

In 1835, American composer William Walker set it to the tune “New Britain,” the version best known today.

The modern version of “Amazing Grace” first was published in 1910 and after gaining widespread acceptance in the United States spread across the world again.

Hymnologist Michael Hawn has written that “the greatest enigma of this hymn is that ‘Amazing Grace’ speaks globally of the mystery of salvation without mentioning the name of Jesus. … The universality of this hymn lies in our awareness of the wretchedness of the human condition and for a hope deeply embedded in humanity at large

Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He recently served 17 years as associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Prior to that, he spent 21 years in denominational journalism. His latest book is Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality (Fortress Press). He and his wife, Alison, are parents of two adult sons and live in Dallas.

Reprinted with permission from Baptist News Global © 2023 Baptist News Global. All Rights Reserved. Article can also be accessed here

that we may be ‘saved’ from that condition by something beyond ourselves.”

St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church in Olney, erected between 1330 and 1400.

Accountable for Doing Good: Willie Pearl Mackey King to Receive a Women Making History Award

By Sonia Myrick The History

Racial tensions were at an all-time high across the country in the 1960s as Black Americans made known their intolerance for the second-class citizenship and resulting discrimination of segregation. The intensity of that tension was evident in Birmingham, Alabama, known at the time as the most segregated city in America. Several bombings and numerous cross burnings had taken place there over more than a dozen years, also earning the city the unflattering nickname “Bombingham.” It was here that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Counsel (SCLC) chose to launch their Project C (for confrontation) campaign in April of 1963. Through peaceful demonstrations, such as sit-ins at lunch counters, marches and boycotts, Dr King and the SCLC, wanted to, as he stated, “create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”

After a month and seeing no tangible results from these actions, Dr King and his supporters decided to defy a recently passed city ordinance that prohibited public gatherings without an official permit Dr King knew that doing so would get him arrested, but he saw it as a way to draw attention to what was happening to Black Americans. He had even requested beforehand that he not immediately be bailed out by supporters. Following his arrest, he was thrown into solitary confinement and initially denied access to his wife and lawyers. Someone (likely King’s lawyer Clarence Jones) was able to smuggle him a copy of the April 12 Birmingham newspaper that contained a very critical letter from several local Christian and Jewish clergy decrying the confrontational tactics of Dr. King and his supporters.

Willie Pearl Mackey King

Their letter would be the catalyst for what became known as King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” — a seminal document of the Civil Rights Movement — written on pieces of paper, provided to King and smuggled out of his jail cell by his lawyer Clarence Jones. Those notes were given to Wyatt Tee Walker, Executive Director of the SCLC, who worked with his personal secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, over the course of about three days (during which they got very little sleep) to piece together and type up Dr. King’s words.

The Honoree

Fast forward some 60 years, and Willie Pearl Mackey, now Willie Pearl Mackey King, is being honored for her part in helping to puzzle out and record this important document. On March 31, the National Women’s History Museum, during its “Women Making History Awards” gala, will present this award to Mrs. King for her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. On June 5, 2021, Mrs. King’s life story was recorded as part of the Women’s History Museum’s “In Their Words: Oral Histories” project. In that interview, along with recounting about her experience in the spring of 1963 in Birmingham, she shared a guiding principle for her life which she credits to her maternal grandmother, “the epitome of a good person,” and her father’s uncle, Enos Mackey, whose message was that we all should be accountable for doing good.

Mrs. King has been an integral part of the DCBC since around 1980 during the tenure of Rev. Dr. James A. Langley, who served as Executive Director from 1970 through 1991. She served on the

organization’s Personnel Committee, three times on the Executive Director Minister Search Team, and on a team that worked to sell DCBC’S parking lot. She also worked with Margaret Smith and Cheryl Jones on campus ministry projects and directly with Dr. Langley speaking to interfaith groups.

DCBC recently connected with Mrs. King, and she briefly shared some of her thoughts about that pivotal time:

DCBC: What were your thoughts when you were asked to type up what became Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”?

Mrs. King: When I was asked to type from scraps of paper, toilet paper and newspaper edges, my thoughts were this is impossible. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker and I would never be able to put this together.

DCBC: When/How were you given the transcript of the notes?

Mrs. King: The scraps of paper, toilet paper and newspaper edges were given to me by Rev. Walker and the lawyers, mainly Clarence Jones, who slipped the scraps out of the jail under their suit jackets.

DCBC: What was running through your mind as you typed up the letter? Did you intuitively feel that it would become an important part of the Civil Rights Movement?

Mrs. King: I was wondering when Rev. Walker would say it is impossible for us to make sense of these scraps. He just said this letter is very important to Dr. King, and we have to get it finished. Rev. Walker worked very closely with me figuring out the order of what Dr. King wrote. By the time I received the papers, there was no order to them. It was

a jigsaw puzzle. It was a great response to the Ministers, but there was nothing to indicate that the document that I was typing would become an important part of the Civil Rights Movement.

DCBC: Were you privy to the discussion about what to do with the letter once you finished typing it up?

Mrs. King: It was my responsibility to find addresses for the Ministers [who had been critical of King’s tactics] and mail the letters. I had to make copies of the letter on a mimeograph machine and type a press release. Dr. Walker mentioned to me that the letter was not getting very much response. After “Bull” Conner used the fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators we received lots of request for the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”

DCBC: There is a timelessness to Dr. King’s letter. How would you say it speaks to our country today?

Mrs. King: Dr. King’s letter speaks about ‘love. equality and justice.’ Today these words have lost their meaning. I think he would be saddened by how little progress we have made. We have moved backwards in many areas. There is still too much brutality and violence in the African American community. Illegal drugs and guns are still being dumped into the Black community. People are still encouraged to accept welfare as a way of life rather than being trained for a job. Unarmed black men are still being murdered by law enforcement at an alarming rate and voting rights are being suppressed. I still believe that there will not be any peace and no justice until there is peace and justice for all. The time is now. We can’t wait.

Sonia Myrick, Editor, Capital Baptist Newsletter.

The theme for 2023 National Women’s History Month.

Top: Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jovita Idar, Maya Angelou; Middle: Gerda Lerner, Gloria Stein e m, Winona La Duke, Lillian Hellman Bottom: Betty Soskin, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, Marjory Stoneman Douglas

American Baptist Churches, USA African American History

A few highlights

A freed slave, pastor, goes to Jamaica following American Revolution and founds Baptist churches there.

Shaw University founded. First Historically Black University in the Southern United States

1st Black Univ. founded

1778 1821

Born a slave and became a leading educator and missionary with ABHMS, called for a separate Black Convention- NBC in USA

The first African American to lead national program board of ABCUSA.

1865 1886 1961 1999 1973 1866

Missionary Convention

The first black Baptist missionary appointed to Liberia.

Consolidated American Baptist Missionary Convention founded by African Americans

Progressive National Baptist Convention Organizes in Cincinnati, OH.

George Lieile

Lott Carey

Wm. J. Simmons

PNBC

William McKee

Trinette McCray

Washington, D.C. African American Baptist Churches

The early years

First African American Baptist Church founded in Washington, D.C. 19th St. was the church of Nannie Helen Burroughs.

19th St. Baptist Church

Founded in 1863 by 21 former slaves. In 1880, Shiloh joined the Columbia Association of Baptist Churches (now DCBC). In 1897, Shiloh hosted the meeting where the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Society was founded.

Shiloh Baptist Church

Established in 1865 to educate African Americans (merged in the late 1800s with Richmond Seminary to form Virginia Union Theological Seminary).

Wayland

Gave her speech –“How the Sisters are Hindered from Helping” at the National Baptist Convention

Nannie Helen Burroughs

Second Baptist Church

Founded in 1848. Pastor William Bishop Johnson was the first managing editor of The National Baptist Magazine.

Metropolitan Baptist Church

Founded in 1864. In 1961 Metropolitan hosted the meeting where PNBC incorporated.

Mt. Carmel Baptist Church

Founded in 1876. Pastor William H. Jernaginhosted the first gathering of National Fraternal Council of Negro Churches in 1933.

From 1970-1991, 22 African American Churches joined DCBC. In 1998, DCBC became aligned with PNBC.

ABCUSA General Secretary Search Committee

After a year of research and extensive analysis of survey results, in-person meetings, and focus groups the General Secretary Search Committee is pleased to announce that the Position Description for a new General Secretary of American Baptist Churches USA is available on the ABCUSA website. The position description and required application materials will be available for six weeks, from January 17 – February 24.

As we enter into this time of decision and discernment the committee requests the prayers of the denominational family to lead us to the person that God is preparing to assume this vital role in our denominational life.

Please remember these dates: January 17 – February 24, 2023. View past updates from the General Secretary Search Committee here.

American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.

Important 2023 Financial Data You Need to

Know...

New IRS Mileage Rates for 2023

Effective January 1, the 2023 mileage rates issued by the Internal Revenue Service are as follows:

• 65.5 cents per mile driven for business use

• 22 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces

• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations; the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged from 2022.

New Minimum and Living Wages effective January 1, 2023

DC: The living wage has increased to $16.50 an hour.

MD: The minimum wage has increased:

• for employers with 15 or more employees, to $13.25 an hour.

• for employers with 14 or fewer employees, to $12.80 an hour.

Montgomery County – The minimum wage

• for employers with 51 or more employees is $15.65 an hour.

• for employers with 11-50 employees is $15.00 an hour.

• for employers with 10 or fewer employees is $14.50 an hour.

VA: The minimum wage is $12 an hour.

Questions, need assistance? Contact Mrs. Lashanor Doolittle.

Two Years into Military Coup in Myanmar/Burma

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 marked the second anniversary of the Military coup in Burma (Myanmar). Since the coup in 2021, thousands have been killed, more than 10,000 have been arrested and over half-amillion people have been displaced. Many churches from various backgrounds have been destroyed, and there continues to be a great need for humanitarian aid.

The Burma Refugee Commission members have worked with other groups to ensure the passage of the Burma bill, a U.S. government bill signed into law on December 23, 2022. In a December 16, 2022, American Baptist News Service release, General Secretary Emeritus Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, chair of the Burma Advocacy Group, stated: “This bill is of great importance as it contains provisions for substantial humanitarian aid, support for the democracy movement, and sanctions against those persons/entities funding the unlawful regime. Our efforts began last year with the theme ‘Pray and Act for Burma.’ Each has been essential in securing the passage of this bill. When we had felt it was all but lost, God heard our prayers and the bill was given new life when Rep. Gregory Meeks, in an unforeseen legislative move, gave it new life.” American Baptists continue to work alongside partners to advocate for freedom, peace and justice in Burma.

Remembering God’s call to intercede for those who suffer, we will continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Burma, as well as those here in the metropolitan area. (More than 8 percent of DCBC member churches are from this part of the world). A prayer service was held during the June 28-30, 2022, International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington D.C., a summit dedicated to religious freedom for everyone, everywhere and all the time.

In addition to the D.C. Baptist Convention Burma Work Group, the Burma Refugee Commission is a commission of the American Baptist Churches (ABC) USA Board of General Ministries coordinated out of the ABCUSA Office of the General Secretary. It includes representatives from International Ministries, the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, the Regional Executive Ministers Council, Burmese Baptist Churches USA, Chin Baptist Churches USA, Chin Baptist Association of North America, Kachin Baptist Churches USA, Kachin American Baptist Association, and the Karen Baptist Churches USA.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Mental Health & Youth Mental Health FirstAid Certification Trainings: February 2023

Mental Health First-Aid (MHFA) takes the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance use problems by improving, understanding, and providing an action plan that teaches people to safely and responsibly identify and address a potential mental illness or substance use disorder. Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is designed for adults assisting adolescents. When more people are equipped with the tools they need to start a dialogue, more people can get the help they need.

There are three (3) upcoming classes, and for more information click the links below:

 Feb. 4, 2023 — First Baptist Church of Silver Spring, MD

 Feb. 11, 2023 — Village Baptist Church, Bowie, MD

 Feb. 18, 2023 — YMHFA at Mt Moriah Baptist Church, Washington, DC

DCBC would like to partner with your congregation to bring MHFA to your church or community. For more information about hosting or attending a course, email communications@dcbaptist.org.

Talk to DCBC — Give Us Feedback

We want to hear from you. Send us your ideas, suggestions, church news, concerns, favorite scripture, complaints, etc. Want to volunteer with us?

If you want to say it or do it, we want to hear it.

Talk to US

DCBC Coaching Ministry at Work

By Lisa Banks-Williams

In 2018, the DCBC Equipping Leaders workgroup met to explore and develop a program to bring mentoring, counseling and support to new pastors and those with major challenges in ministry. The intention was and remains for retired or retiring pastors to mentor, encourage and support new and upand-coming pastoral leaders.

In 2021, the original group expanded to include additional clergy, and the DCBC Coaching Ministry was established with a two-fold purpose: equip new pastors and create a cadre of trained, certified coaches to support their respective ministries.

After careful consideration, we determined that some additional tools were needed to better equip those we intended to serve. DCBC leadership engaged the services of the Coaching Approach to Ministry (CAM) organization under the direction of Rev. Dr. Ken Kessler. Coaching is not counseling, consultation, psychotherapy or mentoring. According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), “Coaching honors the client as the expert in his/her life and work; the client is creative resourceful and whole. Standing on this foundation, the coach’s responsibility it to

• Discover, clarify and align with what the client wants to achieve

• Encourage client self-discovery

• Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies

• Hold the client responsible and accountable”

Due to a generous DCBC Foundation grant and other donations to the cause, we have been able to provide, at reduced cost, two introductory courses: CAM 501, Foundations for Christian Coaching and CAM 502, Establishing a Dynamic Coaching Relationship, to be accompanied by followup mentor and peer coaching. To obtain firstlevel ICF certification additional coaching sessions, along with a prescribed number of coaching hours are required.

To date, we’ve trained 17 clergy and lay leaders. Beginning in January 2023, we hope to provide a coaching ministry to any DCBC pastor, clergy or member who would like to have a series of sessions with a trained and certified coach.

For more information about trainings, complete a Coaching Ministry registration. A Coaching Ministry members will contact you directly. On behalf of our Ministry Leader, Rev. Gerald Martin, we wish you well and look forward to hearing from you.

Rev. Dr. Lisa Banks-Williams, Student Care Coordinator Wesley Theological Seminary

Coffee & Chat Invitation: Sophia Theological Seminary

The Faculty of Sophia Theological Seminary and Sophia Farms invite you for a conversation over coffee about our re-imagined community: a seminary supported by a produce farm.

Our name, Sophia, derives from the Greek for “wisdom,” and the seed of Sophia grew from a recognition that, in a changing environment, theological education needs wise and creative reimagining. The dream-turning-into-reality of Sophia is an environmentally and financially sustainable community in which faculty and students’ shared labor on the farm produces the resources for the seminary’s operating costs; thus our students will not incur the usual costs for tuition or housing. The Sophia community has been farming with volunteer support since the summer of 2020, and we are now looking forward to our first group of entering students this summer.

Join us, Tuesday, March 21, at 10 a.m. at the Baptist Building to learn more and consider how we can become partners in this work on and with God’s good creation.

DCBC shares the following notable events in the lives of its members…

We congratulate the following congregations and individuals celebrating anniversaries, installations, ordinations and other accomplishments:

 Ryan Wise (center) is pictured during his December 6, 2022, ordination council meeting with (from left to right) Rev. William Young, Pastor, Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. Thuam Cin Khai, Pastor, Siyin-Chin Baptist Church; Rev. Ryan A. Wise, Metropolitan Baptist Church; Rev. Carmella Jones, International Ministries (which is also known as American Baptist Foreign Missions Society); Rev. Dr. Daryl Roberts, Pastor, 19th Street Baptist Church; second row: Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin, DCBC Executive Director/Minister; Rev. Emmitt Drumgoole, Pastor, Montgomery Hills Baptist Church.

 Riverside Baptist Church, in Washington, D.C., which welcomed Rev. Mia Michelle McClain (pictured at right with Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin) as its new pastor on September 1, 2022, and celebrated its 165th church anniversary on September 25.

Leslie Alford Mason (FBC DC)

Some of the ministers who attended the January 6, 2022, sunrise prayer vigil, commemorating the second anniversary of the insurrection, at the Capitol Building (read more about this event on page 14). Pictured (from left to right) are Shane Claiborne (author, speaker and co-director of Red Letter Christians); DCBC’s Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin; Rev. Emily Holladay, Father Patrick from New England, Rev. Sean Roberds (Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Baptist Foundation and First Baptist Church Herndon); Rev. K Scary (The Dinner Table), Rev. Dr. Robert Wallace (McLean Baptist Church), Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell (First Baptist Church DC), Rev. Dr. Eric Mathis (FBC DC) and

Church Mission Giving

For the Twelve Month Ended December 31, 2022

The Convention recognizes that the giving cycles of each church are different. Some give monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Church Mission Giving

For the Twelve Month Ended December 31, 2022

The Convention recognizes that the giving cycles of each church are different. Some give monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Why DCBC Needs Your Annual Church Report

Annually, each DCBC affiliated church is required to submit its Annual Church Report (ACR). The ACR plays an essential role in the life of the Convention and our member churches. Not only do the reports provide the Convention with the church’s attendance, ministry offerings, the number of lives impacted by Vacation Bible School (VBS), salvations, ministry leaders, financial information, notifications of those who have gone on to be with the Lord, and a snapshot of your yearly highlights, but they also allow us to report on the strength of the Convention and plan next year’s DCBC budget This translates into additional finances for the Convention that allow us to continue to provide services and training to our member churches. In addition, the church’s annual highlights (joys, victory, and challenges) become part of the history of the Convention. They are included in the Convention’s Annual Reports, which are on file with the various Baptist Libraries. Your reports help us tell the story of what the Lord is doing in the lives of the DCBC churches. The reports are due by Friday, September 8, 2023, and can be downloaded from the DCBC website at www.dcbaptist.org/forms. The Convention staff is available to assist you at 202.265.1526.

National Church Group: ‘Our Mission Is to Protect Your Mission’

National Church Group (NCG) Insurance Agency started as a one-person operation in a drafty old houseindowntown Leesburg,Virginia. OnJanuary 1,1984, GregWigfieldtackedhis business sign on the front porch of that building, and NCG was born. At the time, Greg was the Chaplain to the Washington Redskins, a nonpaying job. He started his business to finance his ministry. Greg understood that approach to ministry as his father and grandfather both were bi-vocational pastors in underserved communities. Following his six-year stint with the Redskins during the Joe Gibbs dream era, Greg and his wife planted a church. Greg recently stepped down from pastoring that church after 22 years of ministry, and during that time, he never took a paycheck from the church. NCG was instrumental in paying his salary and giving financially to the church.

Today, NCG is headed toward its 40-year anniversary. With well over 30 employees and almost 4,000 churches and faith-based ministries insured, NCG is one of the largest privately owned church insurance agencies in the nation. NCG has also evolved into the world of insuring schools, colleges, daycares, camps, and nonprofits. The agency is licensed and doing business in all 50 states.

Their motto is “Our Mission is to Protect Your Mission.” NCG takes that statement to heart. In this day and age of cultural disruption, churches and other faith-based organizations are the target of attacks from those who would want to cause harm to the church and related ministries. So, NCG has worked hard to offer the insurance protections that are needed. These protections include coverage for pastoral counseling, sexual molestation and abuse, religious freedom, directors and officers, crime, cyber exposure…whatever the church or organization needs.

NCG has created ways to protect faith-based organizations that needed specific coverages that did not exist. For instance, as the agency saw the huge influx toward homeschooling, there was a unique need for insurance for homeschool co-op groups. NCG developed this program, and now more than 2,000 homeschool co-ops get their insurance from NCG’s Homeschool Insurance Solutions.

In2009,NCGformedaPartnershipProgramwiththeDistrictofColumbiaBaptistConvention. NCG values this partnership, and for these almost 15 years, they’ve made many friends in the Convention. NCG is thankful for this relationship.

In addition to the mission of protecting faith-based missions, NCG has been able to fund other missions through donations and dividend programs that now amount to more than $5 million.

Greg and his family continue to lead NCG, and they have implemented a family plan for the next generation to do the same. Before NCG became a business, Greg decided that the agency would be a kingdom venture, so he and the agency leaders see themselves as stewards, not owners. When the leaders and employees get this vision, it gives everyone a better perspective and purpose for work.

National Church Group Insurance

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NATIONAL CHURCH GROUP PROVIDES…

PROPERTY AND LIABILITY INSURANCE FOR CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, CAMPS, AND NON-PROFITS

WE MITIGATE RISK ISSUES SUCH AS EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES | CYBER CLAIMS | WORKERS’ COMPENSATION | SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ABUSE | CHURCH SAFETY & SECURITY TEAMS ISSUES

OUR MISSION IS TO PROTECT YOUR MISSION

FOR OVER 35 YEARS, OUR TEAM MEMBERS HAVE BEEN DEDICATED TO MEETING THE DIVERSE NEEDS OF CONGREGATIONS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR CHURCH IS NOT A “ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL” ORGANIZATION. THAT’S WHY WE OFFER HIGHLEVEL, POLICY SPECIFIC PROTECTION THAT FITS YOUR NEEDS.

For More Information | Bjorn Waldron (703) 840-7425

bwaldron@ncginsurance.com www.ncginsurance.com 25 Greenway Drive SW Leesburg, Virginia 20175

WE CAN HELP YOU PROTECT YOUR CHURCH, YOUTH AND WORSHIP EXPERIENCE, SO YOU CAN FOCUS ON YOUR MISSION.

2023 Publication Schedule & Article Deadlines

Issue Article Submission Deadline

April – May 2023

June – July 2023

August – September 2023

October – November 2023

December 2023 – January 2024

Wednesday, March 1

Monday, May 1

Monday, June 26

Friday, September 1

Monday, October 30

Article Submission Guidelines.

• All submissions should be sent as a Word document with one-inch margins on all sides. No PDFs, please.

• All articles should be typed in 12 pt. font, double-spaced and limited to 400 to 600 words.

• All articles should feature original content and be previously unpublished, unless reprint permission is provided Please also provide a brief author bio in the following format: “[Author name is [job title] at [name of church/org. (email address or social media handle –optional).”

• Please provide a photo credit in the following format for any images you provide to help illustrate your article: “Photo courtesy of [name of photographer or owner of image].” Please provide the names of all persons featured in a picture listed from left to right. Please also provide background information about the image: the who, what, why, when, where.

• All articles are subject to editing and may be held for a future issue.

• Article submissions that do not meet the guidelines may not be accepted or will be returned for appropriate editing.

• Please email article submissions to cb@dcbaptist.org. Address questions/comments to Sonia Myrick, Capital Baptist Editor at cb@dcbaptist.org