Sunday, August 4, 2013: Luke 12:13-21

Ken Pyle was in his final year at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1966 when he met Sheila. She drove up to a barbecue in her ’64 convertible with her dark hair flowing and her guitar in hand—and Ken was smitten. But as Sheila was divorced with two young sons, she was not the sort of wife that Ken’s denomination had in mind for him. After the couple had dated a few months, Ken’s board of deacons gave him a year to choose: he could marry this divorced woman or be ordained. Ken married Sheila and put his future in the church behind him.

Ken was out of a job but not out of a church. Following Sheila’s lead he was confirmed in the Episcopal Church and grew to appreciate the Anglican grounding in scripture, tradition and reason. Besides, Sheila had been known to tell her fiancé—with a wink—that in the Episcopal Church “we could smoke, drink and dance.”

That preference for openness, along with Ken’s firm Baptist belief in the priesthood of all believers and his desire to serve Christ, led him and his wife to their true vocation: hospitality. Soon after their marriage they opened a bar and performance space called the Storefront Congregation. Ken’s chaplaincy training had included a stint at Rikers Island, an experience that served him well in his new role as bartender, as he and Sheila received anyone who would drink and converse peaceably. The Storefront Congregation quickly distinguished itself as open to people of all races and—equally rare in the 1960s—to women unescorted by men. Sheila laughingly remembers being targeted for allegedly flying the Vietnamese flag, which their critics didn’t recognize as the Texas state flag (flown alongside the American and Kentucky flags out of loyalty to their birthplaces). They developed a reputation as radicals, but they didn’t see themselves that way. They wanted to create a gathering space where Jesus might show up and would be welcomed if he did.