Inclusion: More Than Just a Rainbow
First Church marches in the 2025 Portland Pride Parade with a contingent of other metro UMCs.
“Your paperwork is a little off balance.”
A dozen of us sat at the conference table. Perched to my right, a silent advocate. To my left and around the table, members of the Board of Ordained Ministry. We were there for my written and oral doctrinal examination to be commissioned as a provisional Elder in the Texas Annual Conference, one of the many steps along the way toward being ordained.
At commissioning, the Board focuses on your theology. At ordination several years later, the Board wants to see the fruit of your ministry. This was theology time. A member of the Board remarked with gentle criticism on my paperwork, having noticed that it contained three times more on inclusion in the church than on the nature of the Holy Trinity. Whoops!
This was not an unintentional mistake on my part (mistake though it may have been). The Trinity is a wonderful, holy mystery, whirling about in perichoretic dance. It is beautiful, spiritually exciting, and theologically foundational. But the church universal knows what it thinks about the Trinity; we’ve been writing on this for centuries. You could write a paragraph or a whole library’s worth: I chose the paragraph. Inclusion, on the other hand, is sticky, underdeveloped, and with great disagreement across the tradition. A much better space to tend my words!
Years later when I applied to serve in the Greater Northwest Area, I was asked to summarize the three most prominent themes evident in my speaking, teaching, leading, and living. I listed inclusiveness, liberation, and the “and.” I ponder and speak on many topics and themes, but these were the throughlines (I’d be curious to hear what you think those themes might be now that several years have passed)!
When our church explored our vision and core values last year, this was essentially the question that we asked the Task Force and congregation. We ponder, speak, teach, lead, and live many different faithful values. Our task was to find the ones we felt were the throughlines in this specific time in our community.
“When we take the whole of who we are, what values have the strongest representation across the congregation?” we asked.
The answer came: inclusion, justice, community, worship, and service!
Throughout the month of August we’ll take another look at these core values, sharing stories about how we live them and what they mean to us as disciples on the journey. During this series you’ll hear not just from the clergy team, but also from layfolks around our congregation. We won’t have skits or scripted lines, but instead will share in genuine and authentic conversation- sometimes from the chancel, sometimes with one another in the chapel chairs or pews.
This Sunday we’ll return to that sticky and ever-present value: inclusion.
I count myself fortunate every day that I get to serve with a congregation who have also spent the last few decades wrestling and working with what it means to be inclusive in the body of Christ.
This congregation has had quite the inclusion journey. There is plenty left to journey still!
When many think of “inclusion” as a cultural or ecclesial buzzword, the queer community is the first to come to mind. Rainbow flags, PRIDE parade, fighting for trans rights and visibility. This are all important! But this is only part of what it means to be inclusive.
At its core, inclusion absolutely includes every part of the queer community. And, it includes many, many, more. Being an inclusive church means much more than putting rainbows everywhere (though this is an important and visible witness toward the inclusion of those the church has systematically excluded and harmed).
Consider this foundational statement from the Reconciling Ministries Network that we belong to:
“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to journey in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.”
You’ll notice that for inclusion we are most concerned about those who have been historically or are presently excluded, with particular attention to the aspects of who we are as God has created us, experiences we have had, and the circumstances of our lives (rather than our opinions, political leanings, or what we think). Despite good intentions, the go-to phrase of the past, “All Are Welcome,” does not speak to the fullness and specificity of this theological value.
We cannot mistake a commitment to inclusion as “anything goes,” or “all opinions are valid and encouraged.” Those postures are rather wishy washy and diluted; in trying to be ‘accepting’ of all, we end up not being able to advocate well for any. No, our celebration of all the varied many of God’s people is not wishy washy. It is intentional, theologically driven, and doctrinally firm. Just ask my commissioning paperwork!
To be inclusive we are to learn more about what it means to belong to God and belong to each other in a way that all have a place at the table with Jesus. It means that we celebrate each identity and the multitudes we contain. To be inclusive is to be charged by the radically inclusive love of God to consider those unconsidered, see those unseen, and love those unloved.
Look back to the reconciling statement above. When you think of your own thoughts and actions and then also consider the words and actions of our church, where do we do inclusion really well? Where do we miss the mark?
I invite you to ponder these questions as we prepare to worship our inclusive God together this Sunday. We’ll see you there!
Peace,
Pastor Karyn