Gennaro Brooks-Church

Ronald
Southern Baptist upbringing, currently enrolled in seminary school to become a minister.

God to me is found in love, and the most perfect and most sacrificing love that I know, that I have felt, is through Christ. He’s who God is for me. He moves around. He is wherever I need Him to be. It’s the Spirit. Sometimes I feel It in my chest or in the pit of my stomach when I get scared, or when I want to say an encouraging word to somebody but I don’t know how they will receive it, or how I even will say it.

But I feel Him there helping me. I’m also exposed to Him through other people, through their generosity and openness. I get Him in people’s prayers, prayers that may have happened months ago, but when I reconnect with them again I immediately recognize a spirit of prayer and communion that’s been shared, even unknowingly.

My father is a Southern Baptist minister from Texas, so I grew up in a preacher’s household, but only in the sense that he was a preacher and I grew up in his house. It wasn’t a strict household. I wasn’t a typical preacher’s kid, meaning the Bible wasn’t burned into me. My dad was actually raised Catholic, and later converted. And now he associates with a Methodist congregation because he’s the president of a Methodist university in Texas. So he’s kind of enlightened, or at least part of many different denominations.

Despite my religious household, for me the real awakening happened when I was twenty, the summer before I came to New York. I was in Florida working at Disney World and I was going through a lot of personal issues. I just felt like I wanted to improve myself and I didn’t exactly know how. Then a friend invited me to church, where they were having a revival series with a guest minister. His sermon touched me inside. There was something in what he said that spoke directly to my needs. Up until then I had been in the battle to try and learn more about my faith so I could be more spiritual, but I hadn’t really made a commitment to Christ yet.

Sure I had been baptized at the age of seven and I went to church every Sunday as a child, but that was just more of the upbringing. My father was a minister after all. But the real impact came at this moment outside Disney World, when I felt that I could finally just give over to Him, submitting all my fears and cares to Jesus, trusting that He would help me. I found solace immediately when I made that decision. I felt a sense of empowerment that I had never felt before. I felt such peace. That really started me down the road of walking with Christ in a committed sense.

That’s been about four years now, and boy it’s been a journey! It has not been easy at all, no, no, no. And I’m glad it hasn’t been, because it’s been a growing experience. I think life in general is not easy. Trying to walk in the footsteps of a man who also didn’t have an easy life (Christ), I can’t expect everything to be roses and ice cream. It has been hard…but everything worth fighting for in my life has always been hard.

The hardest thing in this path has been letting go of who I thought I was and who I wanted to be. I’ve had to change a lot of my dreams. Even my biggest dream of coming here to NY to become an actor has changed. I wanted to be an example to young black kids, helping the community in an empowering, positive way by being in the spotlight.

But my perspective was turned around. Artists, singers, actors, people in those industries; I learned about what they have to go through in order to achieve influence, and I really began questioning: Is it worth going through those hoops in order to get to the level where you can speak to a lot of people? And the answer was, “No!” I decided I didn’t want to jump through the hoops. So then I began to ask in what other ways could I make a powerful impact. And the answer was simple: “Do unto others as what was done to me.” The word of the gospel was preached to me honestly, and that honesty is what changed my career sights. I decided to be a minister. I’ve quit acting school and I begin seminary study in the fall.

But I know that my theatre training hasn’t been in vain. It has opened me up, giving me confidence. Even something like talking to you now would have been difficult before. Also, I was a marketing major in undergrad., and I feel that will help too. All of it will come together, the acting, marketing and seminary training. In a way, I will be an actor and a salesman, but for something much greater than movies and products. The marketing background has taught me practical ways to get the Message out, as it is given, or revealed to me.

The theater, apart from helping me in the pulpit, will be a conduit in non-conventional ways, such as having different ministries in the media. I think everybody can cite a peace of music, film or theatre that has touched them. Using those avenues can be profoundly moving. Technology has always helped put out the Word. Look at the printing press way back when. So, I think just being in the field and using the tools that are out there in a way that is worthy of the greatness of God, and ultimately for the greater good of human kind, is important. I want to use everything to that goal, including my training.

But the issue of race and gender in regards to God can be such dividing issues, especially race, in that we don’t really know what Jesus looks like. To say that He was this color or that color, as has been done, is suspect at best because historically race has been used to dominate people all over the world. And that’s not right. That’s why the Bible focuses so much on the Holy Spirit. For me that’s the unifying trait. As far as gender, it is said that Jesus is the Son of God, and I know that that can be alienating for some people. Because we live in a male dominated society, sometimes gender can be used in a domineering way that is naturally off-putting. This is never explored, it’s always just commanded.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t have strict tenets for us to adhere to, but I think there’s a spirit and a way that we can explore what we are learning so that we don’t get intimidated by it, but that we feel welcomed. Women have brothers, fathers, and sons who they love and are loved by. So why not be the same with Jesus. Besides, we are all the children of our Lord and Savior, regardless of gender. God is Jesus, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit: the Trinity aspect. He is more than gender. I think we get caught up on technicalities that keep us apart and waste our time.