Personal — Passionate — Progressive
Welcome from our pastor
"Love to the loveless shown/that they might know their loveliness." This paraphrase from the hymn "My Song Is Love Unknown" conveys quite well our hospitality, worship, and outreach focus at BPC. Contrary to the standard m.o. of corporate or governmental institutions -- even on their best of days -- whatever is good for the loveless is considered to be good for the whole here. Our focus on the power of love, as opposed to the love of power, includes exploring ways to name and claim the most vulnerable spaces and places in our souls. For we don't simply do things "for" one another at BPC; we seek ways to do ministry "with" and "among" each other. And this socially just way of being, we pray, is communicated in our congregational and personal callings (vocations) beyond our walls.
Join us on our Spirit-powered journey into Christ's relational joy! -- Gracia y Paz (Grace & Peace), Chuck
Chuck Booker-Hirsch began his ministry at BPC on June 21. A graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary (M.Div. '94), he comes to Bethesda following 11 fruitful years as Pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, MI. A passionate advocate for radical church hospitality and faith-based social justice, he served on the staff of interracial congregations in a Tucson, AZ barrio and the ghetto of Marin City, CA, and worked for four years resettling thousands of Central American refugees in this country seeking sanctuary from torture and slaughter in their homelands. His vocational passions include learning and helping others to learn to follow the teachings of Jesus ("seriously, not literally"); hearing and then proclaiming the Good News (three dozen sermons published by www.goodpreacher.com); and discerning and then interpreting the spiritual lessons Twelve Step groups offer the church. A key moment in Chuck's faith pilgrimage was responding to a call -- based on his life-changing refugee ministry -- to participate in several nonviolent civil resistance actions, including two at Ft. Benning, GA to close what is known throughout Latin America as the "School of the Assassins": the U.S. Army School of Americas (SOA). For the ongoing SOA witness, he and 250 others in recent years have served as federal "prisoners of conscience" -- in Chuck's case, three months in a prison camp in 2002. For his prophetic witness, he received the Presbyterian Peaceseeker Award at the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Chuck is married to the Rev. Amy Booker-Hirsch, an ordained Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister with a call to hospital and hospice chaplaincy. They have a 12-years-young son, Drew Booker, a 7th grader at Westland Middle School in Bethesda who enjoys basketball and can safely be called a Sudoku whiz.
Chuck can best be reached at revbooker@gmail.com or his cell: 734-646-3550. Feel free to contact him!
Chuck can best be reached at revbooker@gmail.com or his cell: 734-646-3550. Feel free to contact him!
Last updated by Chuck Booker-Hirsch Mar 7.
About
Blog Posts
Sunday 3/14: "Our Prodigal Father"
Ever hear of the Prodigal Son? Certainly. This Sunday, we focus on his extravagantly wasteful (i.e., prodigal) father, running to welcome him home. With that image in mind, all are invited, post-Worship, to join us for a served lunch in our Fellowship Hall for new member Gail Hutchison's riveting personal story, "From Strive to Survive to Thrive." Gail, a Potomac native, has served 20 years in the Outer Banks of NC as a sexual assault services coordinator, running to welcome the wounded home in… Continue
Posted by Chuck Booker-Hirsch on March 11, 2010 at 2:30am
© 2010 Created by Bethesda Presbyterian on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
