This morning I learned through a friend that Gordon Cosby, co-founder of the ecumenical Church of the Savior, had died. Soon, I discovered some beautiful online tributes to Gordon's profound and influential ministry in Washington, DC. You can read these here, here, and here. This afternoon my brother, who is now serving four churches in rural West Virginia and spent a year serving the communities around the Church of the Savior, shared this remembrance:

The first time he welcomed us to DC, he called himself a "miserable failure" because poverty, crime, and addiction were still rampant in the city. I will always remember: "Welcome to this community of miserable failures seeking to follow Jesus. We hope you will journey with us."

During seminary, I spent my first year of field education at the Church of the Savior and, for years afterward, stayed connected to the community, like many who were touched by this unique, always adapting community of serious Jesus freaks (I use this term affectionately). When I started my first parish job out of seminary in the affluent suburbs of DC, I would often invite speakers from my Church of the Savior spiritual support group to teach Bible study and give testimony. The hardest part of moving across the country for me, aside from being far from many family and friends, was saying goodbye to this influential part of my life.  

As for Gordon and his community of miserable failures, I can only say "thank you" for letting me in, and inviting me to do my best to be one too. I will also, whenever I think of Gordon-which actually is quite often-remember the many women (there were some men, too) that swirled around Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle, running numerous ministries loosely under the umbrella of the Church of the Savior. Each and every ministry was committed to serving vulnerable populations. They probably won't appreciate me mentioning them, and I'll likely leave out some important ones, but to me, Gordon's life was most like Jesus in that he didn't do everything.   In fact, at times he seemed to do very little. After all, by the time I met Gordon, he was well into his eighties. Like Jesus, the Church of the Savior was encircled and propelled forward by intelligent, hardworking, devoted, and persistent women making really important things happen, and these remarkable women always had Gordon's ear. I think particularly of Carol Dunbar, Terry Flood, Kayla McClurg, Barbara Moore, and Becca Stelle.