Cumberland Road

Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God, this is Cumberland Road. I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. Today, Elea Forrester joins us on this podcast. Elea is from Memphis, Tennessee, and she's a history major at Maryville College, and she is discerning a call to ministry. Now, when she has spare time, she enjoys playing the guitar, going on long walks, and laughing at inappropriate times.

So let's let's start there. What would be an inappropriate time to laugh?

Oh, gosh. I hate to say it, but in church, my mom and my sisters and I have a bad habit, and sometimes we can't control it.

Now I'm a minister, so I would hear that as in, oh, no. If I was preaching, I looked over and you were laughing. I would think it was the delivery or the content of the message.

It's usually not during a sermon. Don't worry. It often has nothing to do with what's actually happening.

Oh, okay. Alright. So you're you're gazing at people's what they're wearing on Sunday, what they're doing? If they're off.

I do know. It's it's spontaneous.

Well, I like to start our conversations about journey and about our life experiences. So can you recall an early experience with God?

So it's a little hard to pinpoint because I was raised in the church, and that's really all that I've ever known. But I think if I had to pick like the earliest, I think it is when my grandfather died, I was really small. And so I'm sure I was not old enough to really grasp everything that was going on. But I remember my mom explaining to me that pop was with God and God is with us. And after the funeral, I remember my family spending a lot of time together playing cards and telling stories.

And I am sure I felt God in that, in those moments. So that's probably the earliest, but just growing up in the church and going to Sunday school and always hearing the words that God loves everyone and me unconditionally. That is sort of the root of my experience with God when I was a child and and older.

Yeah. Kinda that message of love and acceptance seeps in, you know, pretty early on. Mhmm. And I'm glad you had that early experience with your with your family. So tell me more about your relationship with with Christ and and what that looks like for you at school and just kind of in your daily life.

Okay. When I think about my relationship with Christ, I think about a communal sense of faith. Saying liturgy together with a congregation or singing hymns together in one breath, my faith is really connected to the body of the church. And so anytime I am in a group of people who's discussing matters of faith or justice or where we see Christ in the world, like, in a group of people is where I feel most connected. So obviously, that's a bit difficult in this pandemic.

Who

are some people in this community of faith that have had a great impact on you?

I think first, my family, my parents especially, and in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Germantown, which is my home church, my Sunday school teachers, my pastor, my extended family. And then when I got older, I started going to camps and the Cumberland Presbyterian Youth Conference, which is where I met Nathan Wheeler and Samantha Hassell. And those two people really had a great influence on me. And then when I went to college and I met more folks, and I started meeting regularly with a group of students who also identified with the LGBT community. And we spoke every week on matters of faith and our sense of vocation.

And so those other students also really helped me think about myself and my call in in new ways.

What are some of the maybe a keywords or or phrases that really resonates with you and helps you to identify with the Christian faith?

What's coming to me is light in the darkness and binding up the brokenhearted. Those are the two phrases that come to mind when I think about Jesus and what Jesus comes into the world to do. And especially after this year, 2020, which felt like it had a lot of darkness, That's where I see Christ playing a role.

So each of our journeys has, you know, traveling and traversing. What is happening in your life now?

Now I am entering my last semester of college, and I am starting to apply to seminaries. And I'm still discerning what my call to ministry might look like. And I think that journey started several years ago, but it is feeling more tangible. And I feel like I'm gathering more concrete information about that process. So that's really exciting, but also pretty scary.

And it's meant asking trusted people a lot of questions about what that process looks like in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and in my presbytery, especially.

So exploring ministry, if you were called to ministry right now today, what form do you think it would take? Or if you had that magic wand you could just wave it and say, okay. This is the ministry that I've been called to. What do you think it would look like? And you're not held to this forever because ministry changes, and our understanding of ministry can change.

Right. So right now I'm really interested in clinical pastoral ministry or other forms of chaplaincy. That's really resonating the most with me. The idea of being present with people as they are experiencing great life change or grief or loss, and sort of helping them reflect on their own journey. I think that's really where I'm feeling led at the moment, But I know that that might change in a few months or years.

Several years ago when I was I'm not sure how old I was, but I was at the Cumberland Presbyterian Youth Conference and I was asked to read a devotional for the morning worship. And it was really short and I don't really even remember what it was about. But afterwards, Samantha Hassell came up to me and said that God is calling you to do something, and I'm not sure what it is, but it is all over you. And that has stuck with me all of these years. And even when I hadn't been sure what that call is, having that sense of affirmation has has sort of kept me seeking.

Yeah. That's where the community of faith comes in, to affirm and to we hold one another accountable when we need it and Mhmm. And encourage, gosh, things that we couldn't do by ourselves, we can do together as a covenant community. Earlier, you had mentioned light and darkness and how Jesus represents the light for you and especially in this 2020. Where do you see God working in your life today?

I mean, you're exploring and preparing for the next stages of your life. How does God fit into all of that?

Well, I think of God as a transforming power and a God that amplifies voices that are not always heard. And I think maybe just because of the current social political reality, that's where I'm thinking about God's place in the world. And I'm wondering how I fit into this changing social dynamic as a white person who has a good bit of privilege and as a Christian in the South, that also adds another layer of privilege. So if the God is, I know is a God of love and transformation, then I'm still looking for ways to help that happen.

Mhmm.

That's not super clear. But Well all I have.

The the love doesn't stop at a moment, neither does the transformation. So it's always ongoing as we churn, accept it, maybe even push it away

Absolutely.

At moments.

Right.

Alright. You've made mention to the kind of the times and the era that we are currently in. Where do you see God working in the world today?

I see God in my home congregation. They started a food service in the middle of a pandemic. And they have faithfully facilitated services every week virtually. And they just show such a great commitment to the work of God in really difficult circumstances. And it makes me a proud member of my church.

And I see God working in grassroots organizations in Georgia that have been working so hard to make sure that people are able to fully participate in their communities and to make sure that people are fully represented as well in our government. That's the two that are coming to my mind right now.

Let's shift gears a little bit. We've talked about the present, Ellie. What ideas and hopes do you have for the church in the future?

I believe that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has a really great ability to live into its identity as a who whosoever will may come church. And I think there is a lot of room to grow for our denomination in that way, to become more welcoming and loving and dynamic and so I would love to see our church reach out more to communities that have not always been included in the church because that is that is what God calls us to do.

Alright. Well, it will always be a work in progress for us as a community to remember those and see those that are not often remembered or seen. I hope our church can live up to those expectations and responsibilities as as we're called to. Ellie, how can we continue to follow your faith journey?

I don't know. I'll be graduating in May and then in the fall. I am not sure where I will be headed yet. It might be Memphis Theological Seminary, but I I will let you know.

Elea, I thank you for your time. I I really thank you for sharing your faith journey and open up that door for us at Avenue so that we as your family, your church family, as Cumberland Presbyterians, we can continue to be that that community to support you, encourage you along the way as you enter enter into ministry and where that may take you. So thank you for for sharing your time.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a Friend and join us next time as we travel on Cumberland Road.