Wild Goose

It’s another new day and the Wild Goose community again comes together. Bryan Johnson and the Trinity UCC Choir will lead and Otis Moss, III will speak.

Otis Moss III is the Senior Pastor of the 8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, “preaching a Black theology that unapologetically calls attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice, and economic inequality.” As a recipient of the 2016 NAACP Chairman’s Award, Dr. Moss was named one of 5 trailblazing leaders under the age of 50 who have “given voice and vision to the mantra that black lives matter.” With a unique gift to communicate across generations, Dr. Moss’ creative Bible-based messages have inspired young and old alike. He is highly influenced by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Howard Thurman, Jazz, and Hip-Hop music. The work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the pastoral ministry of his father, Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio, have been primary mentors for his spiritual formation.
www.trinitychicago.org

Bryan Johnson is the Executive Director of Sacred Music and Movement at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. Under Bryan’s direction, all genres of African American sacred music – from the drums and complex harmonies of West Africa; to the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of the West Indies; to the jazz and blues influences of the southern United States; to traditional, contemporary, and neo-soul forms of American gospel – are performed by Trinity’s choirs and liturgical groups. He is the executive producer of “Stay Connected,” Trinity’s latest music project, which debuted earlier this year at number five on Billboard’s gospel charts.

A native of Chicago, Bryan received his Master of Music Education from VanderCook College of Music. His family roots from Jamaica, Barbados, and Louisiana helped form the foundation of his musical prowess. He is heavily influenced by gospel greats such as Charles Clency and Thomas Whitfield. Additional musical influencers include Dave Grusin, David Foster, and other jazz, rhythm and blues, and soul artists.

How can the wildness of the Wild Goose become more a part of our local congregations? Why is bringing needed congregational change so hard? What are the essential components of a healthy change process? What kinds of pushback and struggle are inevitable, what are avoidable, and is it worth it in the end? Anna and Brian will talk about the challenges that make change a matter of survival for our churches, and we’ll spend some time in personal reflection and interaction about our experiences as change agents in the past and present. But honestly, we’ve also learned some important things over the years about instituting such change, so we’ll take a few moments to summarize and discuss the literature and lore of congregational change. Most importantly, let’s look at a template for change and discuss simple and adaptable options for guiding your congregations or organizations through a change process.

John Pavlovitz is a writer and pastor from Wake Forest, North Carolina. In the past three years, his blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said has reached a diverse audience of millions. A 20-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John’s mission is to help the Church become a more compassionate, loving environment for all people. He serves on staff at North Raleigh Community Church and his first book A Bigger Table, was released in October. http://johnpavlovitz.com/

This panel will introduce W/, a collective of empathy building faith organizations.

Carla Ewert is the director and founder of She Is Called, a national conversation for women who lead. She hosts the Holy Writ Podcast and is a regular panelist on the Christian Feminist Podcast. Carla lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where you might find her on a summer day in cycling on the city trails or playing at Lake Harriet with her daughters. The long northern winters give her plenty of time for her other diversions: coffee, bourbon, and books.

Joshua Adam Scott has been the lead pastor at Morgantown Community Church (mcconline.org) for more than 12 years. He’s also a husband, father, U2 fan, coffee enthusiast, and an avid highlighter. You can find out more about Josh at joshuaadamscott.com

Doug Pagitt is a pastor, an author, a convener who seeks to be a goodness conspirator & possibility evangelist finding creative, entrepreneurial and generative ways to enlist people to join in the hopes, dreams, and desires of God for the world.

If you seemed at all interested in all that professional stuff I might include that I do that work by being the pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, speaking and writing on spirituality and leadership a
www.dougpagitt.com

Rev. Dr. Paula Williams is a nationally known speaker on gender equity and transgender advocacy. She is also the Pastor of Preaching and Worship at Left Hand Church in Longmont, Colorado, and the president of RLT Pathways, Inc., a non-profit providing counseling and coaching services. Paula serves on the board of the Q Christian Fellowship, the Union of Affirming Christians, and the WITH Network of progressive churches. As a transgender pastor, Paula has been featured in the New York Times, the Denver Post, NPR and The Huffington Post. Paula’s TEDxMileHigh talk on gender equality has been viewed over a half million times on YouTube. For more information visit paulastonewilliams.com.

I love the Bible, but not for reasons you might think. I love it for its ancient, ambiguous, and diverse weirdness. When those qualities of the Bible are allowed to shine through, rather than clinging to the safe code words our tribe might expect us to use, we will see the Bible’s true depth and life-giving character. The Bible is not an owner’s manual of timeless information used by God to helicopter parent us, but a book that is set up to give us an “invitation we can’t refuse”—to accept for ourselves the sacred responsibility of reimagining God here and now rather than simply repeating the past.

Pete Enns is a Bible professor at Eastern University, but is nevertheless a semi-interesting person who loves animals and binge watching great dramas with his wife Sue. He writes a lot about dealing honestly with the messiness of the Bible and the reality of doubt in the life of faith, and his two most popular books are The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our “Correct” Beliefs. His popular blog and podcast, The Bible for Normal People, can be found at peteenns.com.
https://thebiblefornormalpeople.podbean.com/

Perhaps no one is more rooted in history, engaged in the present, and leaning more intentionally into the future than Ruby Sales.

Ruby Sales is a public theologian, historian, activist, social critic, and educator. She first answered the call to social justice in the 1960’s as a teenager at Tuskegee Institute to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and work on voter registration in Lowndes County, Alabama. Among her many great achievements since then, she is one of fifty African Americans from the Civil Rights Movement to have her oral history spotlighted at the Library of Congress. She also founded, and still directs, the SpiritHouse Project, a national nonprofit organization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Sales

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1000-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, and fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQ equality. Her work has included co-founding The Middle Project, an institute that prepares ethical leaders for a more just society. She has also written three books, hosted a television program, been a frequent contributor to MSNBC, and taught at seminaries across the country.

Jacqui earned her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and earned a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Jacqui is the first African American and first woman to serve as senior minister in the Collegiate Church, which was founded in New York City in 1628.