Pagán-Banks Brings Urgent Message to UCC Synod: Risk, Love, Build Jesus Movement

From the opening words of her sermon during opening worship of the UCC’s 2025 General Synod in Kansas City, Mo., July 11, the Rev. Dr. Marilyn Pagán-Banks let delegates know that this sermon was different. Pagán-Banks, executive director of A Just Harvest in Chicago and a valued CHHSM board member and Nollau Leadership Institute graduate, was issuing a charge, calling delegates to take risks, live in the uncomfortable, and love to the fullest in order to bring about God’s beloved community.

Pagán-Banks began by receiving a blessing from the Rev. Linda Jaramillo, former executive minister of the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries, who extended a blessing not only to Pagán-Banks, but to all gathered for Synod. Then, Pagán-Banks began preaching.

Quoting American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator Nikki Giovanni — who died this past December — Pagán-Banks said, “One ounce of truth benefits like a ripple in a pond.” She admitted to suffering a bit of imposter syndrome when asked to preach at Synod, talked about illnesses, depression, and shaming voices in her head, the deep disappointment she has felt in the United States — on both sides of the aisle — but of somehow keeping hope.

“The DNA of warriors and healers are within me. God has kept me and opened doors for me,” she said, adding that she has lived at the liminal space between the sense of loss while actively witnessing the evidence of healing and compassion around her.

“Beloved UCC, in these times, where war is killing children even while parents are welcoming new children,” she said, “what is the Still-Speaking God asking us? What are we hearing our God say?”

Pagán-Banks then explained the three prongs of Jesus’ ministry on Earth. 

First, she said, Jesus formed a movement, not a religious institution. “We did that,” she said. The movement professing love, justice and accountability. “Being the natural organizer that Jesus was, he put together a movement,” Pagán-Banks added. “He had a message to get out and a movement to build. When he saw the opportunity, he took action against an empire held up by ‘religious’ people.”

Pagán-Banks talked about the necessary risk in the work of building or continuing a movement — disrupting “business as usual,” letting the community decide what’s best. She urged attendees to risk trusting a stranger, to trust one another. 

Communities include diverse people. “You cannot build a community without trust,” she said. “Use this time [during General Synod] in this moment to have conversations on what risking the safety and the familiarity of this institution might look like to get to the real movement work.”

Next, she said, “Be like Peter.” Peter learned not to walk away from his assignment. He was not perfect, but he was faithful, she said. He possessed a deep love ethic, an abiding love — sometimes imperfect, but always authentic. Pagán-Banks added that he was the most courageous of the Apostles because he would ask the questions even when he didn’t want to hear the answer.

Pagán-Banks explained that Jesus knew Peter’s trigger and fears, and knew Peter would deny him, and yet they loved and relied on each other. It takes love in its fullness, and it takes wholeness to live and thrive in this world, she said. 

It’s our fear that keeps us from experiencing the fullness of love, she added. “The longer we live disjointed … the easier it is for the empire to maintain power and control over us, our communities, and the planet.

“The Creator is calling us to live and love in our fullness,” she said. “Jesus came as a living and loving example of the goodness of God — to show us what this looked like up close and personal. Claim your role in the Jesus movement today. Prepare to answer, ‘Yes, I love you, Jesus.’”

Pagán-Banks also encouraged everyone to deepen their connections. For Jesus, she said, it wasn’t about the numbers, it was about real connection. “Jesus was setting the stage for work to happen in deep water,” she said, referencing the Synod theme “Into the Deep,” based on Luke:4. “Jesus wanted folks to feel something: to be stirred, to be disturbed, to be perturbed; to transform communities and confront empire.”

“Shallowness in the Body of Christ is what’s killing the church today,” she said. “Right relationships, just relationships, mutual relationships are the heartbeat of the movement. Empathy is its life force. This is the Jesus movement. Love made flesh demanding justice, creating … authentic relationships.”

“Pastors are told not to bleed in front of a congregation, but I believe that this keeps the chasms between us deep.  … I share so others feel invited to share. … Rarely, if ever, is healing done in isolation. Healing is an act of communion. This is why I share,” she added, referencing the late bell hooks, an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College, and to build the true connections to the communities.”

“As Wonder Woman says, “It’s not about what we deserve. It’s about love,” Pagán-Banks said. She admonished gatherings “where we play nice but risk nothing for the gospel of Jesus, which is revolutionary, rebellious.”

“We need a Pentecostal people revival,” she said, “ … revive our commitment to the Jesus movement … revive our clarity around our assignments which is not to save an institution, but to being about building  the beloved community each every day.”

“Sometimes, churches don’t act like they love God’s people,” she added. “They love being ‘church’ and they love being in charge. They love being holy and sanctified, but they ain’t lovin’ on God’s people … I don’t buy into the  sacred/secular dichotomy, and most of our indigenous traditions don’t either.”

Pagán Banks ended with a final charge.

“I believe we can lead a movement where people feel the call to the Jesus movement,” she said. “Get fired up as followers of Jesus this week. Sweat it out when facing something uncomfortable or new. Be like water, and know your purpose. And make connections that lead to lament and laughter, that take your breath away.

“I pray that we don’t leave here the same way we arrived. I pray that like water, we will know our purpose. … [so that we will] feel what God is calling us to do so we can fire up the world in this Jesus movement.

“Amen, amen, and amen.”