OUR CHURCH & PASTOR

 

Dallas United Methodist was founded in 1849.

Reverend J. Quinton Kimbrow attended Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas,Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth, Texas, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He and his wife, Sandy, have 4 children. Sandy is also a pastor in Salem, OR.

QUOTES FROM REV. KIMBROW'S "THIS I BELIEVE"

 

"I believe in a wild God who refuses confinement or domestication. I believe that all efforts in theology that aim for certitude rather than faith, serve only to belittle and domesticate God. 

Faith in a wild God leads to the greatest of all adventures and pursuits in life."

 

"I believe in an offensive God. Offensive not in terms of inappropriate or demeaning, but offensive in terms of liberation. God works ceaselessly to eradicate ignorance, injustice, and inequality throughout Creation."

 

"...I don’t believe that our sacred experience with God calls for us to get into peoples faces as much as it calls for us to be present in peoples lives and hearts. I’ll never forget one of my friends who was in downtown Dallas, Texas one afternoon. He had just made a book purchase at the Cokesbury Bookstore and was on his way to the car to drive back to SMU. As he was walking to the car, he had to go by First Baptist Church. He found himself surrounded by people who had just come out of the church. They didn’t greet him in a warm, friendly way. They were a mob. They asked him: “Have you found Jesus?” He responded: “Why? Have you bastards lost him again?” I remember this story because it teaches a couple of things: 1) We should share our faith as graciously as we have received it; and 2) If you respond to bad faith in this way, you could become an Area Provost of an Annual Conference who will be adored by the Priesthood of all Believers."

 

"I believe in a liberal God who offers truth and wisdom, grace and love in abundance with and active presence and who shows no signs of becoming cautious, conservative, or hesitant on behalf of Creation."

 

"I believe that the nature of God is fully disclosed in Jesus Christ. If it is not Christ-like, it is not God-like. That kind of understanding removes fear, guilt and regret as foundations for faith and witness. I believe that guilt and regret are a waste of sacred life. I believe in accountability and making amends and actively practicing forgiveness and reconciliation. I believe if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything; and that God is the first One to cry when tragedy occurs.*

I believe that the Gospel does not give us permission to be helpless or hesitant or, even worse, hoard the grace, truth, and love that we receive in Christ. Instead we should share as freely as we receive these holy, life giving gifts. These treasures are the currency of God’s Promise and the substance of our baptism...

So when we pray: “on earth as in heaven” we can share our gifts to address and transform the most destructive, meaningless, and hellish conditions all around us.

Believing in a wild ass God frees us to raze hell and build in it’s place a community of wholeness and equality, woven with love, hope, peace and joy. That is a movement and an endeavor that I willingly give my life to."

 

*I am indebted to The Reverend Dr. William Sloan Coffin for these two beliefs. (I especially have taken this to heart in the death of our son, Anthony.)*