Allan Appel Photo
Pastor Steele and his wife Natasha at meet-and-greet.
At 14 years old, Kelcy Steele was running a ministry. Two decades later, he has stepped into his largest pulpit yet.
Steele is the new pastor of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue, one of the city’s most historic and influential African-American churches.
The congregation is ten times the size of the one he most recently led, on the West Coast.
The soft-spoken South Carolina-born pastor spoke during a meet-and-mingle gathering of church members on Friday night two months after taking the pulpit from his predecessor Rev. Eldren Morrison.
Longtime congregant Hazel Johnson.
During his nine years at Varick’s pulpit, the charismatic, and politically savvy Morrison led the church back from severe financial difficulties to establish the Varick Center for Empowerment (VCE), help found the Booker T. Washington Academy charter school, and through mesmerizing sermonizing and inspiration build the congregation up to 2,000 active members who throng the historic 350-seat Dixwell sanctuary every Sunday for three consecutive services.
During Friday’s meet-and-greet, the affable new pastor, whose previous post was with a 200-member AME church on Adams Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles, said his only difficulty adjusting to Varick has been the colder weather in New England.
“It’s been a smooth adjustment, as if my predecessor hadn’t left,” he said.
Steele, at age 34, is also young, like Morrison — although he has been pastoring for 15 years, with Varick being his fifth congregation.
He said his intention is to follow the policies, initiatives, and direction of Morrison, whom he knows well. “We were friends in South Carolina,” he said. “We were in each other’s weddings.”
Like Morrison, Steele is, by all accounts of the parishioners at Friday’s gathering, also a dynamic and mellifluous preacher. Or, as longtime congregant Jeanette Reynolds put it, “He’s a preacher machine anointed by God.”
Before coming to Varick Steele was also a national revival preacher and served as the director of World Methodist Evangelism
I asked Steele how he would describe his style of preaching, and whether it differed at all from his predecessor.
He characterized Morrison’s style as more “educational,” whereas his approach might be called a “prophetic” style.
By that he said he meant “speaking truth to power, staying on the cutting edge of social issues, and applying scripture to helping those who are soul-seeking in a complex times such as these.”
For example, he said that last Sunday he dealt with the presidential election. He said that his message was that while it is important who’s in the White House, that “doesn’t diminish that God is still God, Jesus is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
Steele said that as a people, “We’ve seen worse [than Trump] ‚and the God who kept us in the past will carry us into the future.”
Part of the confidence that Rev. Steele expresses comes from Varick’s continuing commitment to grow its economic independence and that of its parishioners. Through the VCE, the church owns several properties on nearby Sperry Street. Steele said he will continue to work on that initiative to create more affordable housing in the area as well “as improving the Dixwell Corridor.”
That includes a strategic plan, now under review, that would also revitalize nearby Dixwell Plaza, Steele added.
In the same manner, Steele said he is advancing his predecessor’s work by sitting on the board of the Booker T. Washington charter school and advocating for increased funding for charter schools.
I asked him if it was a challenge adjusting from being a pastor to 200 in Los Angeles to pastoring 2,000 in New Haven. Steele, who is getting ready to write a thesis on pastoral care at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he is finishing his theological training, said that the increase in the congregation’s size does not alter his approach.
“I promised myself that no matter how massive the crowd, no matter how many boards I serve on, pastoral care is the top of my list.”
He defined that as the “loving embrace [and] the compassionate heart for the parishioners I serve.”
Steele grew up in the tiny Newport, S.C., a “village,” as he described it, of 20 folks, “all kin.” He was tapped from early on as “the different one,” as the kid who would grow up to become a preacher. From age 14 he was running youth and other ministries and then, after college, serving as a pastor; Varick will be his fifth congregation.
Trump May Be In The White House, But God …
Pastor Todd Foster stopped by to offer congratulations.
For this Sunday, the second sabbath after the presidential election, Steele prepared a sermon entitled “A Safe Place.” The text was Psalm 91, which offers ultimate comfort and refuge from what Steele described as “the externals” that move us in our daily lives.
“The election results brought about discomfort and stress. I feel President Elect Trump is an embodiment of a lot of negative, dogmatic, and radical voices that have been present but not manifest in the flesh,” he said.
“All through history God has always been in control of leadership. He allowed Israel to be ruled by a wicked king, by judges, Pharaoh to oppress Israel only to display his power at the end. God has always allowed corruption but always prevailed.
“So it’s my job to comfort people. No matter what is happening God is still in control. We have always made it through and we always will.”
Steele said that as a people, "We've seen worse [than Trump] ,and the God who kept us in the past will carry us into the future."
The contemporary church is often a weak ineffectual voice, with an uncertain sound. It is so often the supporter of the status quo. The power structure is consoled by the church's silence, but the judgment of God is upon the church as never before------DR. KING
In the same manner, Steele said he is advancing his predecessor's work by sitting on the board of the Booker T. Washington charter school and advocating for increased funding for charter schools.
The good pastor needs to read this.
New Layers of Dirt on Charter Schools.
Cream and Segregate and Discard
Urban charter schools primarily enroll low-income minority students. That seems admirable upon first reflection, but selective admissions of the best students from ANY community will make an individual school look good, leading to the belief that the concept will work on a larger scale. Success is much harder to achieve if a school accommodates special needs and English-learner students.
Numerous sources reveal the high degree of segregation in charter schools -- white or black, and by income and special need.
As expressed in the report "Failing the Test," "School choice is just that — except that charter schools are doing the choosing instead of communities."
http://www.blackagendareport.com/dirt_on_charter_schools
If you attended a Negro church and you wanted to play it safe. You might select a church that didn't have a pastor with a reputation for speaking out on Civil Rights-----DR. KING (from the Autobiography of Dr. King)
In my talk with black ministers, I inform them that you can't preach the glories of Heaven, while ignoring social conditions in your own community that causes men to live an earthly hell-----DR. KING (from his interview with Alex Haley)