Moments of Survival and Resistance: A vigil for Michael Brown brings a young woman home to the church

Prophetically Reimagining the Church

Moments of Survival and Resistance: A vigil for Michael Brown brings a young woman home to the church

by Mihee Kim-Kort

We met for coffee one afternoon.

Taylor Beck was a slight girl with wide eyes who furrowed her brows at everything I said during our conversation. She had grown up in a nearby town and studied at a community college before coming to the university where I work as a college minister. Her nontraditional path lent Beck a look of determination that suggested she would make the most of her short time here. After hearing about her art history major and keen interest in women’s studies, I asked what had brought her recently to a Presbyterian church.

Shortly after Beck had moved to Bloomington, Indiana, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson on a street in Ferguson, Missouri. Feeling a profound unrest, she looked for a vigil nearby to join with others in mourning this loss.

It just so happened that a couple of church folks—my husband (Andy) and I—had organized a vigil in conjunction with National Moment of Silence, or #nmos14 on Twitter.

Seeing two Presbyterian ministers leading this community vigil piqued Beck’s curiosity. She had spent much of her childhood in a nondenominational church but had never felt quite at home there, like something was missing. Then she visited First Presbyterian, where Andy serves, and discovered a place where the work of compassion and justice goes on daily. And it was the work of the whole community, not just the clergy.