I sat in the pulpit on a recent Sunday, listening to our extraordinary choir singing J.J. Hairston's "You Deserve It." Their voices rose with the opening line of the gospel song, which promises everything to the Lord: "My hallelujah belongs to you."
I looked around and wondered, "Am I crazy for leaving?"
Six years ago, when I joined the ministerial staff of my current church home, I was told that no one leaves here. The consensus is that there's nowhere to go from here. This is the top.
My church could be considered the Disney World of the African Methodist Episcopal churches in my region. We have three locations, state-of-the-art facilities, a robust youth ministry, music ministry directors who are also recording artists, and a membership so large that I stopped counting once we grew beyond 12,000 people.
Like me, our members are well-educated and upwardly mobile. Many have moved to Prince George's County -- the nation's highest-income majority-black county -- for educational or career opportunities.
We're a regular stop for gospel artists, celebrities and politicians during their tours, promotions and campaigns. And our music and arts department puts on elaborate productions for Easter and Christmas.
Megachurches aren't an unusual phenomenon, but a congregation of this size is certainly an anomaly for the AME Church, where most worshipping communities range from 30 members to 700 members. A church that has the financial capacity to undertake any ministry initiative one could imagine is certainly exceptional for African Methodism.
And it's important to note that we don't preach the prosperity gospel people now associate with megachurches. This congregation was built on the biblical preaching and expressive worship of the black church tradition.
There is no church like my church. Yet I'm leaving the staff.
