Fighting for the Work to Get Done by Carla Jones Brown

There’s one in every crowd. You know the one. The one who sometimes stands behind the most important person in the room with a self-assured stance and an earpiece that provides timely instructions in case of an emergency. In a very specific case, we refer to them as the Secret Service. In less formal settings, we refer to them as the friend who is always ready to fight for a cause, for a friend, or just because it’s Tuesday. Playing on a cultural reference, I am often the one at a WomanPreach! event who threatens to “take out my earrings” when things don’t go as planned and we have to advocate effectively to ensure that we have what we need for the program to be successful. Sometimes, even in the best of circumstances, we still have to fight to get the work done.

 The work of preparing, gathering, documenting, and executing is not without its challenges. We have arrived at venues where things were not set up as we expected. Having to set up a room in a way that is conducive to the work is not always challenging but convincing the person on site who is responsible for managing the space can often result in tense conversations. This is one example of how we may have to fight for the work to get done. It is often important to have the right communicator on site to facilitate these conversations and I’m a witness that sometimes, you must send your least diplomatic representative to help resolve an issue. These are the moments when I take off my earrings and with the finesse of a Baptist Church Usher, help our partners see the value in “having a seat” and allowing the work to go forward. Everyone has a role, and we often take turns facilitating the fight for the work to get done.

Fighting for the work is not limited to literal confrontations but it also extends to the fight against the ghosts that haunt us with notions of what cannot be done because it has not been done before. We fight the ghosts that tell the lie that women cannot and should not preach and therefore, this work is irrelevant. We fight the ghosts of scarcity that spread the lie that the cost for this programming is too high. We fight against the distractions that tell our participants that they need not be fully present for all of the sessions as advertised. We fight the discouraging feelings that come when the registration numbers are not what we expected. We fight longstanding and harmful traditions, and we fight the insecurities that obscure our gifts. We fight our fears and our shame and the structures that reinforce those fears and that shame. We fight the urge to pray the one-word lament, “SERIOUSLY?” and instead, we fight to pray, “Okay Jesus. I’ll trust you…again.”

The fight is part of the work that goes unseen by the participants who often remind us that it was all worth it in the end. WomanPreach! provides incredible programming and creates the opportunity to form new communities and to reflect on and appreciate what God sounds like in our throats. Having to fight for what we believe in is not new to us. We know that this work is resistance work. We resist the distractions and the obstacles so that we can resist mediocrity in our pulpits. Board member, Reverend Dr. Leslie D. Callahan described this work as “Stomping out bad preaching, one preacher at a time.” As long as we have strength, breath, and the will to fight, we will keep fighting for this work to get done! (And I will continue to take out my earrings as needed to accomplish that end!)

The Reverend Carla A. Jones Brown is the Senior Pastor of Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA. She is the first African American and first woman to hold this position in the church’s 166-year history. Carla enjoys good food, good friends and good preaching!