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Transcript

LeQuita Porter · Called to Serve

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  Hello and welcome to Called to Serve.
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  Each week on this podcast, we share stories from women who
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  have been ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic
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  Canada. We have spoken with almost 100
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  pastors, chaplains, missionaries, and community
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  leaders as we learn what it's like to be a woman in ministry
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  today, you'll hear from Laquita Porter.
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  Laquita is a trained lawyer who pastored at East Preston United
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  Baptist Church from 2010 through 2019.
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  She was the first female senior pastor in that church's 168 year
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  history. Laquita talks about her journey
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  to ordination and her experience with empowering women who have
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  experienced abuse. She also describes the lessons
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  she learned while balancing ministry and motherhood.
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  I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very Christian family.
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  I won't say religious in terms of just the practices that we
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  did, but a very spiritual family.
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  My father served in various roles as a senior Deacon in the
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  latter years, but also as Superintendent of Sunday School.
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  And so we attended Sunday school.
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  We attended all kinds of events there, and my mother was a
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  deaconess as well. One of the things I remember
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  distinctly about my father is when he was Superintendent of
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  Sunday School, he always had a time of study and he had an easy
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  chair that we always liked in the family room and we always
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  wanted to sit in it. But it was his chair, right?
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  But every now and then we got to, but I remember him sitting
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  in that chair with his Sunday school book and his Bible, and
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  he was so dedicated in his study.
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  And so the consistency of that was embedded in in my
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  experience. But it was a practice that was
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  in my home that made a difference in my life because it
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  was so important to him. That made me feel like it must
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  be important for me as well. I was baptized at the age of 9,
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  but didn't fully understand what all of that meant.
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  That came later, but I really believe that God was working
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  with me in my teens. I remember in our church
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  services whenever our pastor gave his text for the sermon, he
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  do maybe one verse, maybe a part of a verse, but that was never
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  enough for me. I needed to read more.
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  I needed to read the context. And I have to be honest, I was a
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  little arrogant at that time because I felt, you know, he's
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  saying some things, but I wasn't as interested in what he was
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  saying in his sermon, But I was interested in what that
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  scripture and the scriptures surrounding it were saying to
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  me. And so I used to read the rest
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  of the scripture while he was preaching.
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  I would hear some of it. I was multitasking.
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  I am a trained lawyer and I served as a prosecutor in
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  Indiana and in Texas, and our closing arguments are very
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  similar to sermons, and so I feel like I was getting practice
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  back then. I worked in general misdemeanors
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  first and then did a few felonies, but then I went to the
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  child abuse and sex crimes unit, which I was interested in, and
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  that's when it became ministry for me, even before I fully knew
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  that's what it was. When we moved to New Jersey from
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  Texas, at that point we joined a church there, the Fountain
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  Baptist Church. I still count that as my home
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  church, but in that church I was able to start a lay ministry for
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  women who had been abused. That's an aspect of my own life
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  as a child. What I went through as a child
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  had nothing to do with my parents, but it was something
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  that involved a relative. And so I wanted to do something
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  because God had done things within me to work through those
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  challenges that I had. And through that process of
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  doing these workshops, it was all about empowerment.
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  It was helping people to be their absolute best in God.
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  It was dealing with those things that hinder us from being the
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  best that we could be. That's when I felt a call
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  because many of the women who came to the sessions did not
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  just ask me about my experience, which I was used to sharing.
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  They wanted to know more about God's Word, and I realized I
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  didn't know as much as I needed to know in order to effectively
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  minister to the people that God was sending.
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  And that's when it was clear to me, I have to do more.
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  So I enrolled in Bible college and from that point on, it was
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  everything opened up. And so I talked to my pastor.
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  He affirmed my car did not have any issue there with him.
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  He already had women in ministry in his church.
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  He was one of the forerunners. There were many comments said,
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  oh, that law, you couldn't handle that you're doing
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  something else. Yeah, there were negative things
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  like that, but thankfully that stuff would bounce off of me
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  because I was so driven with whatever I felt God was calling
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  me to next. I'm not so sure how that would
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  hit me now. I probably feel the need to
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  argue back, but back then I didn't worry as much about it.
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  And as my pastor told me, when I let him know that I felt called
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  to the preaching ministry, he said no limits, no limits on
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  God. But when we moved to Florida, I
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  met with the resistance that many churches and pastors had
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  then and still do today to women in ministry.
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  And so I realized that there were limits for me here,
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  although I was able to serve as an assistant in a church here.
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  Very progressive mega church. Now I thank God for them.
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  But I knew that God was calling me to more and I was looking to
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  try and put together all of the things I learned at the many
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  churches we have been in because I wanted to put in some of the
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  best practices from all of those churches and create this church.
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  So I thought, OK, I can start with some Bible studies.
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  And so I started on my street with some neighbors at my house
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  and kept going with that. Again, I'm doing all this.
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  I'm not licensed yet. I'm not ordained, but I'm in
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  consultation with my pastor in New Jersey and I'm under his
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  covering still, but I'm not licensed for a day.
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  Well, he wanted to fix that. He's like, you need to come back
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  here and we need to do this. So we did.
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  I was licensed first in 2004 and then 2005 is when I was ordained
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  after going through their very comprehensive process there.
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  I had a coach in and there was a whole team involved in that.
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  The process, I believe I can say in hindsight, was smooth in that
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  I didn't have anyone actively working against it happening,
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  didn't have the kind of active resistance that I understand
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  from many of my sisters that they have.
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  I got to Canada because of Rhonda Britton.
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  So Rhonda Britton and I are classmates, former classmates
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  from Princeton Seminary. She went to New Glasgow
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  immediately after graduation. She used to send out to our
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  different colleagues and classmates openings and I saw
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  the one for the East Preston United Baptist Church.
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  And when I read that job description, I said to my
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  husband, if this is who they want, they want me it.
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  It was almost as if it was written for me when I
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  interviewed there. I interviewed with the committee
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  and then preached on that Sunday and when I got in the pulpit I
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  knew God had called me there. I know that I was well received
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  there. I was the first female pastor in
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  the 168 year history and that could have been rocky, but it
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  wasn't. The truth is there were people
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  who paved the way, people like Tracy Gross and Rhonda Britton
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  and Shirlan Builds. The folks in AUBA.
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  We're used to seeing women in ministry and ordained women, and
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  even with the churches, there was a comfortability there that
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  I sensed. I preached at most of the
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  churches there, mostly within the first few months.
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  It was a very supportive environment.
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  The hospitality was so great. So 2010 through 2019, I was a
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  senior pastor at East President Church.
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  In my doctoral work, I actually did a leadership project with
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  our leadership at the East Preston Church.
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  So a lot of what I learned there and what I learned through my
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  studies and and other work that I was doing with the leadership
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  team really made my doctoral experience very rich.
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  I have to give a shout out to my supervisor, John McNally.
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  I know he's no longer there at the school, but he was a a gift
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  to me. And so now I am working with
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  pastors at Princeton Seminary. We're doing innovative projects
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  within their context. And our original plan was to
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  have one cohort of churches. We got greedy and we added
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  another in 2024. And now we're we have an online
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  course where we're trying to roll out one of the curricula
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  that we've been working with. But I'm able to to encourage
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  pastors and lay partners doing those kinds of outside of the
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  box projects in with and through their congregations.
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  I did my internship in Jamaica when I was at Princeton, my
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  summer internship, I served with a pastor who a male pastor who
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  was responsible for a circuit of Baptist churches in one of the
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  poorest provinces there. He and I did a team approach to
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  a lot of things that we were doing.
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  And he told me that the men would be more open to sharing
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  with me than they were with him, which was new for me.
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  And he said that with him, they are often very guarded.
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  They only want to say so much. That is where I, for the first
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  time, did a session that I always did on empowerment,
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  transforming pain into power. That's the name of of the
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  workshops that I did with women. That was the first place I did
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  them with men because they were already so transparent.
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  In fact, there was a couple that had experienced A tragedy.
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  He would have been like my father.
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  I was so uncomfortable. It's like, what can I tell him?
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  But he really needed counsel. And so I did.
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  I asked the Lord to help me. In fact, I remember when he was
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  first talking to me, I was praying.
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  God, please give me the words to say.
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  And before I left, he and his wife called me and they told me
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  I'll quote them. I'll never forget it.
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  The wife said, you know what, Reverend Porter, you're not a
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  fake. You're the real thing that
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  blessed me because I I came back home to face some challenges.
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  Some of the church members were asking me questions because I
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  know in the States the Southern Baptist had to had pretty much
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  not affirmed women in ministry. And I'm there, you know, and I'm
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  preaching to them and all. So there was a lot going on, but
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  there were those kinds of things where I just felt like God just
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  sort of whispered in my ear through whomever to remind me.
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  I called you. I am ordaining you for this
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  work. I am anointing you for this
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  work. And so to keep my focus
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  straight, for me personally, the challenges would have been
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  within my personal life and the raising of my daughter at a very
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  critical time. We met with a lot of challenges,
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  but I I learned a lot about the importance as a female, as a
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  mother, the importance of not removing the nurturing that we
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  do at these critical times with our children.
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  I think sometimes for male pastors, if they are married,
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  they have the mother there that continues to do that.
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  But I had to deal with the people.
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  If I had to do it all over again, my daughter would be
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  right there with me. She would be involved in that
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  process and I wouldn't involve her more and show her probably
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  even more attention, certainly rather than less, because in
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  those times she felt like it was less.
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  Everybody else was more important than her and she
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  needed to be important. Those were my challenges.
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  I gave it my all which meant my family gave their all as well.
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  We did nursing home ministry on 4 Sundays after service and we
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  go to this nursing home. One of our members mothers was
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  in that nursing home. We went to visit her and there
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  was one woman that sat by the door and they told she had had
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  on in her dress and they told us that number one, she did not get
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  family visitors. And every Sunday she would do
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  that and sit by the door waiting for somebody to come to take her
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  to church. So that's when we decided let's
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  take church to them. So we had services there.
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  Everybody was engaged, my husband, my son, everyone.
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  And so I love that. I love that experience, but have
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  to be aware of the fact that that's not all they want to do.
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  OK, that's not all. So the balance has to happen,
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  especially as a woman. My husband is always available,
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  but certainly with girls, they need mom.
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  I've always understood that when they're much younger, which is
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  where I didn't work all the time during then, but I understand
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  now that as they get older, they sometimes need even more.
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  So yeah, there has to be a balance and a very healthy one.
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  The first female Black woman preacher I heard preach with
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  power was Bishop Millicent Thompson.
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  I loved her message. I loved her appearance.
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  She was so feminine. She's a beautiful woman and she
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  grade very early and she had this long, I remember this long
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  beautiful Gray hair. My mother had Gray hair early
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  too, and I always loved her hair.
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  That's why I never dyed mine. Although now I think about it,
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  but she was so powerful, but yet she was feminine.
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  She wasn't imitating, you know, a male preacher.
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  And I really appreciated that about her and followed her.
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  She was one of my early role models.
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  I actually joined a mentoring group with Doctor Cynthia Hale
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  who is pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, GA.
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  She was a person who founded a church in her living room.
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  Her church is a mega church and Decatur.
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  So she has definitely been a role model, but a mentor, an
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  example and a support for me in ministry as a church planter and
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  as a pastor. And she is a single woman and
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  has been and just the way she she ministers to those of us who
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  are married. Because one of the things I
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  noticed when we were in seminary is that a lot of the women,
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  their marriages were challenged through that experience and many
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  didn't survive. We, my husband and I, had
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  challenges while I was in seminary.
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  So I wanted to be sure that I could learn from people who had
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  the experience. And my mother is not, was not a
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  minister and all, but my mother is my greatest role model.
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  I look like her and I'm so gifted.
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  When my father told me after she passed away, I called one day
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  and he said you sounded just like your mother.
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  That's a gift. So my mother was a great role
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  model for me and she did a lot of work in and through the
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  church. She just was not in a
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  ministerial role, if you will. I do think that it's important
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  to have a role model who is of the same ethnicity.
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  Although I do think that it's important to receive counsel
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  from whomever. I feel like there's a limitation
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  if we only can receive counsel from someone from our ethnicity.
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  It's like feminism and womanism. I am aware of both and I
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  understand them as as advancing similar causes, the rights for
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  women, equal rights for women. But feminism was more of a
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  movement for white women that benefited white women more than
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  black women and hence women as studies and and womanism, if you
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  will, emerged. It's the unique experiences that
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  black women have versus white women.
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  And so that when I look at the two of them together, I am about
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  empowering people whoever and wherever they are.
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  And so I don't really make the differentiation as in I'm for
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  one and not the other, because I think they're advancing similar
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  causes. I think it's very important that
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  anything that advances the rights of people, God's people,
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  Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, that that is
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  what's most important. And the oppressed among us, the
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  women that I met in the workshops we did surrounding
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  abuse that led into grief, they need to be reminded who they are
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  in God and what that entitles them to in this world.
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  And so this whole stratification of, of identities and all that,
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  I'm real careful there because I think we can get bogged down in
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  that. This position I'm in now, I was
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  reading the job description of so different from what I've been
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  doing, but I was very interested in this Isaiah partnership where
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  we're, we're working on innovation and change making in
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  with and through congregations. And I love the way it was set up
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  and, and the foundational scripture being from Isaiah, I'm
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  doing a new thing and I call it God's new thing.
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  I'm doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?
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  And I heard God saying, do you not perceive like pay attention,
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  pay attention. And, and I realize he's telling
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  me this is a new thing in me. Stop focusing on what you're
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  going to do for the people. I am doing a new thing in you.
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  What's next? I'm not exactly sure except I
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  know God's got something in store.
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  Just told in our staff meeting yesterday, we have this great
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  centering we do all the time. And, and the question came up
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  about what are you courageous about, curious about and
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  courageous about? And I said, you know, at my age,
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  many people have retired or are planning to retire, but I'm not
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  feeling that right now. It's still that I'm just getting
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  started on something new. Thank you, Laquita, for sharing
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  your story with us. Called to Serve can be found on
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  Facebook and Instagram, and you can keep up to date with our
• 19:55
  latest research and events at Called to serve.ca.
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  We'll be back next week with another woman's story of serving
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  in ministry.