Memphis Pastor Speaks Truth to Power, ‘Flat Footed’

During her three-decade career in the ministry, Rev. Dr. Gina Marcia Stewart has collected a shelf full of accolades and enough descriptions to fill a book. Often, the two go hand-in-hand. 

Trailblazer. Educator. President of the prestigious Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, and of the inaugural Ph.D. cohort in African American Preaching at the Christian Theology Seminary in Indianapolis.

Yet perhaps the simplest descriptor of Stewart, senior pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, is the most profound: after delivering a sermon as the first woman to address the National Baptist Joint Board Session last year, she was once again bestowed the informal honorific of being a “flat-footed” minister — a historical characterization of masterful preaching, 

At a moment when the Black community is on edge over Trump 2.0 — watching him demolish the Education Department, cancel government racial diversity initiatives, and undo the Civil Rights Act of 1965 — Stewart’s particular skill is especially useful. She is able to masterfully combine the scripture with Black history and culture, as well as whatever happens to make headlines into a message of hope.  

”Because in this climate we’re in, there’s so much disorientation and so much mean-spiritedness in the public square and rolling back of protections and stripping away of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Stewart tells Word in Black in a recent interview. “It’s easy to get discouraged, and it’s very easy to cave in to despair.” 

Yet ”at the same time, we know we have space to lament and to complain to God without the fear of rejection or the fear that our relationship with God will suffer, because we see that pattern in the scriptures. And so it’s a time for encouraging.”

A Groundbreaking Sermon

Consider the sermon Stewart delivered on April 3 as guest preacher for the Evangelical Association of Pastors, which convened at Concord Baptist Church in Randallstown, Maryland. She began her message with two words barely spoken in the Black church: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the driving force behind President Donald Trump’s plan to drastically reduce the size of government by slashing the federal workforce. 

Once the congregation recovered from the shock, Stewart pivoted to one of Musk’s core beliefs: humanity is in trouble on Earth, and colonizing Mars is the solution. She agreed with the South African billionaire — not with interstellar travel, but his assessment of man on Earth.

She proceeded to make her points so masterfully as she’s adept at combining the scripture with Black history and culture, and whatever is happening in the real world.  

Then there was her message last year as the first woman to address the National Baptist Joint Board, a body dominated by men.

After charging the convention to refrain from “wrapping their racism, sexism and homophobia behind the smokescreen of scripture,” Stewart referenced  the wife of Pontius Pilate — a rhetorical move that influenced women around the country to declare, “I am Claudia.”

Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, in his own January 28 sermon, referenced Stewart’s  brilliance as well as the aplomb with which she delivered her message.It’s a big reason, he said, he has called her “one of the most gifted preachers of this generation — period.”

Even before the sermon, Stewart had a well-established reputation, as her accolades attest. But in the time of Trump 2.0, even the most gifted preacher faces what can be a tall order: helping their congregants find joy and spiritual sustenance during such a tumultuous season of life. Many wonder, she says, how a compassionate, all-powerful God let all this happen.

Stewart, however, is undaunted. She quoted the familiar Isaiah 40 scripture, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says your God.”

“(Author and theologian) Dr. Renita Weems says when people are in exile they need comfort and that’s one of the things I’ve attempted to do: use my voice not only to confront and to resist what we are seeing, but also to comfort the people of God,” Stewart says. “And to remind people that God didn’t change.” 

“This is still God’s world and I still believe God is going to have the last word,” she says. “Evil is not going to win.”A lot of people are going to suffer because of the way the vote went, Stewart says, and some may not make it through the season “but God is still with us.”

To Stewart, preaching during Trump 2.0 is more than proclamation; it’s also education. 

“It’s helping parishioners and people of faith to sift through the disinformation and the misinformation, because people don’t necessarily get their news from credible sources,” she says.

“Facebook, we know, is full of disinformation since Mark Zuckerberg relaxed his rules right before the election,” she says. “So you don’t even always know what’s the truth and what’s not. We have to help people to discern what the truth is and provide ways to educate them.”