What an amazing day in worship as we celebrated the baptism of Mary (Molly), Ethan + Luke AND welcomed Jack + Ariel McKee into our Glendale Family! We are so thankful you chose us to nurture your family’s faith + provide a safe + loving community for your kids to grow up in.
A little bit about them: “Jack grew up in Albuquerque, NM and was baptized into a Baptist church as a young child, but has never had a church home. As a sober alcoholic with six years in April of this year, spirituality is a huge part of my life and something I value for my children as well. I’ve been looking for a place to experience God outside of the rooms of AA for a long time.
Ariel grew up and was baptized and confirmed in Nashville UM churches. After being asked to leave until my queerness was under control, I’ve been without a solid church home for almost twenty years. Seeing the shirts at Pride that read, “I’m sorry if the church hurt and failed you” felt like such a balm on a wound that has been aching most of my life.
We welcomed Molly in August 2019. On our 2 year anniversary we found out we were pregnant with Luke. Three weeks later we got a phone call that Ethan had been born to a woman Ariel did street outreach with and was being removed from her custody. We jumped at the chance to bring this tiny guy into our family and were delighted to bring him home.
Seven months later, Luke was born, and we found out Ethan was Deaf. Our whole family is studying ASL, and a huge part of our return home to Nashville is the abundance of resources for him and for us as parents of a Deaf child.
We are very familiar with the amount of work it takes to create a safe and welcoming environment, especially when the dominant narrative is one of exclusion and dismissal of marginalized voices and experiences. As a cis white couple with financial means, we are deeply aware of the amount of privilege we hold and believe that Christ calls us to use that privilege to elevate the experiences and voices of those without that. Glendale feels like a place where we can be of service to our neighbors and finally find a home that allows us a deep exhale of security and faith.”
