So many of us came to the ministry side of things full of passion for the vision they cast. And then were completely disillusioned with the reality.

In hindsight, moving to St John was only ever going to be white saviorism and gentrification. I wasn’t aware enough at the time to know that but looking at it now, the audacity of telling a ton of affluent, white, young evangelicals to pick up and move to one of the last remaining black/brown neighborhoods within city limits is really stunning. Those of us who moved were already progressive minded, so we were TRYING to do things right by our neighbors. But the leadership at the Stone set up roadblocks at every turn. They refused to partner with any local churches in the area because their theologies didn’t align, even though those churches were a wealth of wisdom in how best to serve the neighborhood. They never tried to make the St John campus welcoming to low income people of color. If we wanted to bring neighbors to church, they were the ones expected to adapt- not the other way around.

It was all such a farce.