TRANSFORMED ON THE MOUNTAIN

Ministry Leader's Handbook

Marcella Reid Figueroa

Copyright © 2024 Marcella Reid Figueroa

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89315-043-8 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-89315-061-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

My God Is God

The Princess Who Escaped the Devil

Chapter One

Chapter One: Welcome and Introduction to Ministry Leader Handbook

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Baptist Identity: Baptist Faith Traditions and Denominational Blues

Chapter Three

Chapter Three: Leadership Studies: Congregational Church Governance Decent and in Order

Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Methods of Ministry: Doing a New Thing

Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Vocational Studies and Bivocational Blues

Ten practices for nurturing the next generation of pastoral leadersAdopt the practice of regularly and consistently inviting young people to consider pastoral ministry as a profession.Take the initiative to speak directly to a young person about their gifts for ministry.Use confirmation class as an opportunity to ask the question, What will you do with your life in the light of your faith?Give young people the opportunity to know a pastor well, the opportunity to see the person within the persona.Put them into opportunities for ministry, then say the opportune word.Develop eyes for the unlikely candidate (the most biblical of these practices!).Be the one to hear their story—the way that they interpret and make sense of their experiences.Help young people to understand and negotiate the obstacles along the path to ordination.Trust the movement of the Holy Spirit and trust that God will provide leaders for the church.Develop a sense for who is truly gifted for pastoral ministry and who simply needs a deeper experience of discipleship.Chapter SIX

Chapter Six: Theology Up Close and Personal

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Social Theory and Call to Social Change

Appendix

Community Board Information

Community District Profile

Overview of Community District

Top Three Pressing Issues Overall

Summary of Community District Needs and Budget Requests Health Care and Human Services

Youth, Education and Child Welfare Public Safety and Emergency Services

Core Infrastructure, City Services and Resiliency Land Use, Housing and Economic Development Transportation

Additional Information and Other Budget Requests

Summary of Prioritized Budget Requests Table of All Capital Requests

Resources and Recommended Books60

Transformed on the Mountain (TOTM) Bibliography

About the Author

My God Is God

The Princess Who Escaped the Devil

©1992

A Short Story of Christian Experience

The day of reckoning has come; I have found the courage to endure this retelling and reliving of my faith journey. It is a story of the good, the bad, the wicked, and the blessed. Through prayer, meditation, introspection, and reflection, the veil has been lifted, and many things have been revealed to me. I have learned about myself, about ministry, and about God's will. God said, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things, and it does not yet appear what shall be.

In 1973 an associate and I were asked to begin a dance program in the St. David's Episcopal Church of Cambria Heights, Queens. The request came from Father Leo Malania. I was seventeen years old, and my associate was sixteen years old. We met on Thursday evenings in the old church basement. We had schoolteacher friends who transported children from deprived or low-economic neighborhoods and schools to the tiny church basement. There we danced, laughed, shared our souls and talents with the fortunate and the unfortunate. You see, everybody looks the same in leotards and tights—just body, soul, and spirit. We were not aware that a ministry was taking place. We simply enjoyed each other and the gifts of creative expression.

The program flourished, and by the second year, there were too many of us to fit in the tiny church basement. We needed more space; we needed more days. We began to work out of two locations, the church during the week and a local elementary school gymnasium on Saturdays. By 1976, we had grown tired of the gypsy-caravan style; we wanted a space where all activities could take place under one roof. We were gaining momentum. We had given well-attended concerts, and we now had well over two hundred students, plus a waiting list. We found a community center called New Horizons, where we were able to schedule classes and rehearsals virtually at will. We had to get serious. These owners wanted rent. Rent! We thought, what's that? Well, we found out what rent was, and we began charging dues to the participants. By now, there were staff demands as well.

My associates and I could not teach everyone in the time allocated. We were still students ourselves! Slowly a system was worked out. We moved again in 1977 to an even-larger facility on the St. Albans Naval Base grounds. Finally, in the summer of 1978, we made one more move back to Cambria Heights, into our own facility, not a sublet

The group was in demand. What could have been better? Through many performances before thousands, we gained much popularity and much support. I was now a college student at the time. My associate and I had many differences on which way the business should go. The year 1978 was a year of diet pills, anorexic tendencies, raw nerve, and much accomplishment. Tensions continued to mount, emanating from petty jealousies, greed, lust for power, fame, and fortune. We thought we were bigger than life! Through the urging of several advisors, we were forced to wear harnesses. I became administrator; my associate became artistic director. My personal experience at that time was one of subordination, alienation, and frustration. Ideas were constantly stolen from me, and I was made to feel inferior as an artist. I strived to better myself. I took classes everywhere, read anything and everything I could find. I was going to show everybody! In spite of put-downs and mean-spirited competition, I trained many young people and was quite in demand as a teacher.

When I approached my junior year at City College of New York, I joined the cooperative education program. I worked full-time one semester and went to school full-time the next. I needed to help my family to pay for my education, and the business at the time did not afford me the luxury. I was hired in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Social Security Administration and was trained as a service representative. I worked for two semesters in this capacity. I continued to teach evenings after work and made performances on the weekends when gigs were available. After graduation in 1979, I was trained as a claims representative (social insurance representative) in the SSI program. I was sworn to work for at least one year after graduation, and so I did. I never truly enjoyed this work, but I learned a great deal about compassion, organizational discipline, and helping others. I learned to serve the public. Still, the thought of this as a life's work left me cold and unfulfilled. I knew that this place was not my calling, although it was part of my preparation.

During this time, my diet doctor, who was also a licensed therapist, gave me a warning: Watch out for one of your associates. She may try to put cyanide in your coffee or something. Watch out! You see, he was her therapist and my physician. He and I talked on a monthly basis, but their talks had been more frequent. Indeed, a fatal accident had been planned and attempted. As usual, my own naivete would not allow me to recognize it for what it was at the time. I had also missed the hand of God saving me. You see, someone wanted me out of the way.

It was 1979. I worked at Smalls Paradise in Harlem on the weekends. It was the Pigmeat Markham Revue! Here comes the judge. Here comes the judge. Everybody knows that he is the judge! The judge was coming, alright, but it wasn't Mr. Pigmeat Markham. A turning point was due. I had met a wonderful man back in 1974, and here we were in 1979, engaged to be married.

I was stressed out from my two jobs. The squabbling with my associates in the dance program had gotten to me. I was ready to give it up. I longed to be free from everything that kept me bound. I offered to leave the program and my associates behind, taking nothing—on one condition. I requested a severance amount be paid in installments for a period of one year. This would allow me time to reestablish myself. I wanted to go to Julliard. Little did I know that a plan had already been set in motion to take the business, its assets, and everyone connected with the business—everyone, that is, except me.

I made another decision in August 1979 to leave my parents' home. Why not? I thought. I am a college graduate. I have money, a good job. I'm getting married in fourteen months. Why not try life on my own before marriage? I moved into a two-family house. It was the upstairs apartment. At first, everything was great until slowly strange things began to happen. The older woman with the smiling face became one of the worst oppressors I had ever met. She was my landlord; she made my life a nightmare. She kept a dog on vigil outside the house and a chain on the only gate that gave me access in and out. The chain and dog never blocked my entering, only my leaving. She tormented me by telling me things like, You'll never get out of here! She called me a hyena. She harassed me during the night by calling me on the phone at all hours and shouting at the top of her lungs, The water is running down my walls. You're flooding my place! when no water at all was on. I didn't understand. I began to pray. She harassed me more. No one visited me, and no one called me. I felt like a trapped animal. I was afraid.

I asked my fiancé to come and sit in the apartment while I was at work. I was sure she had been coming in after I left for work. He said, Sure, and he came. I went to work, and when I returned, he was not there. Sometime later, he explained to me what had happened while he was there. He had seen the sign, 666, on my calculator that I kept on the coffee table. He had been pushing buttons randomly. When he saw the sign, he told me he was compelled to leave immediately. He did not reveal these things to me until after I had moved and we were married. In the meantime, I was puzzled as to why even he would not come to visit me there and why our relationship during those months was maintained over the phone. It was as if everyone knew that I was at war with the devil.

One night, as I was sleeping, I began to tremble. There was a hideous creature in my dream. It was circling around and around. Then suddenly I heard loud knocking, like someone knocking on a door. It was coming from the wood floor underneath my bed! It woke me up. I heard loud conversation underneath me in a strange language that I could not understand. It was the lady! She was fighting with someone or something. I heard the dog, I heard her, no one else. She was being thrown against the walls and knocked about. I was growing more hysterical by the second. I couldn't move. It got louder. I had to find someone to talk to.

Finally, I called my fiancé. I was hysterical. We began to talk. I told him what was going on. He tried to calm me. He told me of an old expression. The devil was riding you, he said. We continued to talk until daybreak. The noise had stopped. I went to work. I began looking for another apartment during my lunch hours. She gave bad recommendations. Finally, I was able to convince the renters where I wanted to move that the lady was a liar. They believed me, and in January 1980 I was freed. We left the door open and threw the keys to hell as far as we could. I had lived there for five months. Sometime later my pastor told me that the Lord had proven to me that He would never forsake me. I married Steve Figueroa on October 25, 1980.

On a warm, summer day in 1981, I opened the studio to find that it had been emptied of everything. Files, mailing lists, equipment, and most of the furnishings were gone. I was left with the name Dance Explosion and a legacy of debt and doubt. As I stood there with tears welling up in my eyes, a still small voice said, Be still. Stay here. Right there in the wilderness, the Potter began to fashion His clay. I had been judged, and I had been sentenced. The Lord seemed to say to me, My child, you have been judged and found guilty of poor stewardship of all that I have given you. You will do penance here in the wilderness. You will be tested by fire until I have fashioned a new creation, a good steward for My purposes. In the days to come, I would learn fear and trembling of the Lord as I witnessed the fate and end of my so-called associates.

Today I can truly say, the dues I've paid have been service for the Lord. I was baptized in May 1982 after hearing a dynamic message preached by the Reverend Dr. James C. Kelly, then stationed at Calvary Baptist Church. The message was entitled Partnership with God. After receiving and acknowledging the outer call to ministry, I knew that seminary was the place for me. Gradually, the Lord revealed that I had been called, anointed, and appointed. I drove to the seminary with tears of joy and acknowledgement as God continued to reveal His presence in my life. I am here today only because of the goodness of God. I thank Him for His mercy every day. Now I can testify to anyone willing to listen that God is real. I know Him for myself.

Minister of Fine Arts

Chapter One

Chapter One: Welcome and Introduction to Ministry Leader Handbook

Welcome and Introduction

Ministry Leader Handbook

Fertile ground for conflict provides abundant opportunity for ministry.

 Scripture note:

1 Corinthians 12:12–31

Tension is a term musicians often use to describe the condition of the strings on instruments like the violin, the cello, the harp, or the guitar. Musicians know that the tone or pitch produced by the instrument is greatly affected by the tension of the strings carrying the sound. The outcome of good tension is good-sounding music; while bad tension produces sour, flat, or sharp sounds that are unpleasant to listen to. There is good tension and bad tension in church as well. One task of effective leadership is to discern good and bad tension within the church. The outcome of good tension is success in achieving the goals and objectives of the ministry. Bad tension can result in chaos, complexity, confusion, and contradiction. Bad tension freezes a ministry in time, with no productive movement, no common ground, no unity, and an endless array of activity spiraling into uselessness.

When each member of the church discovers his/her own God-given abilities to express love for God through the service of humankind, the result is not unlike a symphony of diverse instruments, chords, and sounds all making a joyful sound in peaceful coexistence. Bad tension creates a stench in God's nostrils. It is the task of every Christian to embark upon a journey of discovery that ends in a God-given ministry niche or place of service. God calls every Christian to God's own hands to be broken, melted, molded, filled and used to the glory of God. Leaders are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

How does a vibrant and healthy congregation balance the need for stable leadership with the need for change? How do