I don't always attend church on Sunday, but when I do, I prefer Glide Memorial Methodist Church...
Just under a year ago I heard a broadcast by KQED's Michael Krasny featuring Cecil Williams that caught my attention. The expose entitled "First Person," highlighted the work of Rev. Williams and called attention to the active role that the Glide Memorial Methodist Church has taken in its San Francisco community - specifically the Tenderloin neighborhood. As counterintuitive as it sounds, what I found unique was quite simple:
Fellowship and worship services open to all people regardless of their appearance or lifestyle choices, coupled with impactful social services delivered at-scale, on an ongoing basis in the communities within which they operate.
My church-going has been shall-we-say "limited," but I recently attended a service with my mom on Mother's Day, and much to my surprise, I did not spontaneously burst into flames upon entering the sanctuary. The message, the music, the culture, and the people were authentically human in my view...
After experiencing it for myself and meeting Rev. Williams in-person, my hypothesis is this:
If the famed "Most Interesting Man In The World" were to call any church home, I suspect that it would be very much like Glide...
