Title: Alvin Jackson installed at National City Church
Date: October 9, 1998
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
98a-63
WASHINGTON, D.C. (DNS)
-- National City Christian Church here was filled to capacity as the Rev. Alvin O’Neal Jackson was installed Oct. 4 as senior pastor of a historic church sometimes referred to as the Disciples’ "national cathedral."Jackson preached his first sermon at National City Church Palm Sunday. Among the early visions Jackson shared with his new congregation was growth in membership
— tripling or quadrupling the size of the present 462-member congregation within five years.But the new pastor elevates a mission that goes far beyond filling pews with warm bodies. "I see a diverse, multi-cultural congregation of white, black, brown, primarily middle class, but also rich and poor people of God. A national church with an international flavor. A denominational church with an inter-denominational spirit. An inner city church with a suburban appeal," he wrote to his new congregation.
"Alvin Jackson is the right man at the right place at the right time," said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, at a pre-installation banquet. Jackson, she said, is called to serve in a church "in a city with tremendous challenges
— to bear witness to a nation that needs models of inclusiveness."Hundreds of persons from Disciples congregations, regions, general ministries and Disciples institutions of higher education filled the sanctuary. The Rev. Chris Hobgood, Capital Area regional minister, pointed out there are 26 Disciples congregations in and around Washington, D.C. "National City Christian Church is not the only Disciples witness in the nation’s capital," he said. But "this should be the flagship church of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
— through example, through being a teaching church, as a prophetic national pulpit, as a model of inclusive ministry. …The opportunity for National City is unparalleled. It stands at a remarkable moment of potential for our larger church, not only in this region but across the nation and world," Hobgood said.National City Christian Church is unique among the nearly 3,900 congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Established in 1926, it is the church that Disciples forbear Alexander Campbell envisioned when he wrote, "We ought to have the largest meeting house in Washington City, and there
… stand in the presence of kings and earth’s nobility, and proclaim the gospel. …"National City is supported, in part, by Basic Mission Finance, the "family treasury" of the denomination. The congregation’s local affairs and programs are managed by the pastors and conventional church board. The National City Christian Church Corporation, a separate body representing the whole church, owns the property and manages resources for the maintenance of the historic sanctuary, its related buildings and property.
The Rev. James A. Forbes, Jr., pastor of Riverside Church, New York City, preached the installation sermon. "We have to do the work that God sent Jesus to do. Jesus’ work
— what is it? It’s liberation. Oh, we know the litany: it is life, it is light, it is to seek, to see, to heal, to save, to relieve, to charge, to focus, to also express a kind of outrage at blindness that’s willful, ignorance that insists on its way and arrogance," Forbes exhorted.Forbes, referring to a new pastor’s challenge to lead a congregation in new directions, looked about the capacious sanctuary and quipped, "This is a mighty ark here
— and it takes a lot to turn — I mean, I’m talking about an ocean liner and this is an ocean liner. And it takes a long time to turn an ocean liner around."Forbes, addressing members of the National City congregation, said growth would rely on the talents and resources of veteran and new members. "If the old-timers and the newcomers can figure out the significance of being here is that they all were sent, then you can get on with the work," Forbes said.
Jackson’s longtime friend and colleague, the Rev. T. Garrott Benjamin, Jr., Indianapolis, admonished all of those present that Jackson could not approach the future alone. "This
… is a mutual commitment, and all of us share in that commitment. This church belongs to us all." Benjamin predicted that Jackson would declare war on the "demons of homelessness, hopelessness, demons of violence, racism and greed. …"Benjamin, pastor of Light of the World Christian Church, called for support from the whole church for his friend and former associate, "We should not expect any more from Alvin O’Neal Jackson than we are willing to do. He is fragile, he is finite, he is one person, and our expectations are off of the map. If it is going to work, all of us are going to have to share the burden and the blessing.
… We are in covenant. Our job as a church is to pray — for him, for National City Church, for the city of Washington, for the National City Corporation — to pray that God’s will will be done."-- end --