Meet Rev. Gabrielle Kennedy
If you had told Rev. Kennedy twenty years ago that she would answer a call to ministry, go to Seminary, and become a faith leader in her own right, she would have laughed in your face. But that was just what happened, one step at a time.
A Lay Leader In Every Sense of the Word
After 25 years growing her career and raising her family in Kansas City, Gabrielle returned home to St. Louis, where she was born and raised. Little did she know that something unexpected was waiting for her in St. Louis: Her call to ministry.
Looking back, maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised. A helper by nature, Gabrielle was always deeply involved in her church. She grew up in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod – conservative and very white. It wasn’t until she was in college when a friend invited her to join a Sunday worship at an African Methodist Epsicopal (AME) Church that she truly experienced Black ministry in its full power, with a woman preacher at the helm. It was an extraordinary experience, and Gabrielle has been AME ever since.
At her congregation in Kansas City, Gabrielle did “everything a good AME could do”: choir, serving on the finance committee, working with church youth, and teaching Sunday school.
“The period of my lay ministry laid the groundwork to open me up to hear my call. But I wasn’t open to Seminary yet.” – Gabrielle Kennedy.
Instead, she got her MBA, and began to build a career in nonprofit management.
“Facing the Conversations I Was Having with God”
Upon arriving in St. Louis, Gabrielle joined Ward Chapel, an AME church in Florissant, which was at the time headed by Rev. Dr. Karen Anderson. She continued to participate in lay ministry in the Young People & Children’s Division, but this time was different. Rev. Anderson was a pastor who had a real heart for God’s people, and took an interest in developing their leadership within the church.
“Rev. Karen and others saw my call before I did. She encouraged me to live it out in places where my gifts made room for me to grow in my formation, and accept the conversations I was having with God. That began to prepare my heart for the move that God was making in my life.” – Gabrielle Kennedy.
For Gabrielle, saying yes to her call happened in stages. It was all well and good when it was just between her and God, but the stirrings of her call escaped into the world, and she knew she had to face it. She answered each step of her call one at a time, not always ready to accept what was coming next. The Board of Examiners, Seminary, Pastoring. Each came in their own time.
“Things were happening so fast there were times when I was praying for a plateau. That continues to this day, but now I’m not so foolish. I know that there are ebbs and flows to this thing and I’m grateful for that.” – Gabrielle Kennedy
Belonging at Eden
When it finally became clear to Gabrielle that Seminary was in her future, the choice to go to Eden came easily. Eden was recommended to Gabrielle by leaders including Rev. Dr. Anderson and Rev. Traci Blackmon. And when she arrived at Eden, her choice was affirmed time and time again.
“In those first days of orientation, I was almost mad at myself, like ‘this is where you were supposed to be the whole time!’ I said to my pastor, ‘I just don’t understand why it took me so long.’ But Rev. Karen said, ‘What I’ve come to learn is that God calls who’s needed in the moment. Maybe God needed someone more seasoned in life for such a time as this.’” – Gabrielle Kennedy
It was the fall of 2016, and in Eden’s hallways and classrooms, Gabrielle saw faces like hers. On the tails of Ferguson, St. Louis was witnessing a pivotal moment in history. Many folks who had been on the frontlines of the response in Ferguson, making sure that churches were supporting the community, were now entering or graduating from Seminary at Eden.
“I felt like I was part of a wave of a development for social justice to show up aligned with the word of God. I wanted to be immersed in the process.” – Gabrielle Kennedy
Rev. Kennedy graduated with a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Black Church Studies. She gravitated toward classes that helped her understand, academically and theologically, the Black church, aligned with her own experience. For example, a class on Christianity in African Context affirmed her belief that Christianity made it to the Continent in ancient times, long before a colonizing, Romanized version of Christianity forced its way into the African consciousness.
“I believe deeply that God can’t be put in a box, and that is part of why I believe we gravitated toward Christianity; it was the continuation of a conversation we’d already started with God. We’ve blended fatih and culture together and made it a way of life. Indigenous faith and Christianity have been melded together in many contexts. So, when you say ‘Black Church’, you’re talking about ‘Church,’ but you’re also talking about Culture.” – Gabrielle Kennedy
Contextual Education: The Bridge Between Seminary and a Career
Like all Eden students, Gabrielle participated in the Contextual Education program, which ultimately pulled her in the direction of her post-seminary career. She began pastoring during her last year in Seminary and became the executive director of Faith and for the Sake of All, an organization that grew into Faith Health Equity Alliance for Living Sacredly (Faith HEALS). She served in that role for several years before launching her own consulting practice, where she blends her nonprofit and ministry experience to help develop people and organizations in social enterprise. She now helps “church folk” take advantage of secular tools and secular spaces to find the beauty of church culture to help them reach their goals.
This journey led Rev. Kennedy back to Eden, where she has led and shaped the development of Eden’s Educational Partnership Program, a new initiative that expands on Eden’s hyflex model and calls alumni and community members into the educational process.
“What does it mean to pour back into the church? That’s what Educational Partnership does. We’re helping congregations access resources that don’t drain them, resources to support the laypeople – the people who make the ministry go.” – Gabrielle Kennedy
