Once upon a time Nancy Butler lived in the Beltway and used her MBA to secure a high paying job with a defense contractor. But Butler had considered herself a devout Christian since the age of 9, and something about a job with a company that made torpedoes started to bother her. So she left and embarked on a journey that included mission work in Asia and enrollment at Yale Divinity School.
She founded a church that met in the G. Fox building and then moved to the Glastonbury meadows. She calls her church "inclusive evangelical." The second word means the congregation is committed to Scripture and to following Jesus. The first word means everybody's welcome regardless of "gender, sexual orientation, or other external characteristics."
In the short time since the church was founded, the small group of inclusive evangelical churches in the U.S. has gained in number and has begun to organize. Meanwhile, Nancy Butler was living a golden life as a young grandmother with a beautiful family, a longstanding marriage to the guy she met in high school, an affluent suburban existence and a clear, compelling mission to build and pastor the church she founded.
And then she got ALS.
On this episode, Nancy talks with unusual candor about her faith and the way it influences to choices she will have to make.
GUEST:
- Nancy Butler is the founder of Riverfront Family Church
MUSIC:
- "Wondering Where The Lions Are" by Bruce Cockburn
- "Song Of Bernadette" by Jennifer Warnes
- "I'm Going To Wait" by Lyle Lovett
Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on April 28, 2015.
