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Flying Forward, Looking Back
Years ago, I attended a conference of Christian Educators with the theme “Sankofa: Flying forward, looking back” and throughout the week we explored what it would look like to equip people in their faith to go into the future without losing sight of the past. The word Sankofa is from the Akan tribe in Ghana that names the truth: it is not taboo/shameful to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”
For the last almost two years, I’ve wrestled with what it meant that just shy of my 25th birthday, the church ordained me as a Minister of Word and Sacrament. I took a vow, to
“be a faithful minister, proclaiming the good news in Word and Sacrament, teaching faith, and caring for people…to try to show the love and justice of Jesus Christ.”
Somewhere in those ellipses is a promise to be active in the governance and discipline of the church as well. I’ve lived into that part of my vows more faithfully than I would like or could have imagined then as a newly minted 24-year-old pastor.
