Episode Seventy: The Interview - Rev. Kimberly Scott

Rev. Kimberly is a force to be reckoned with! To hear her tell it, she's been called to God from the start! Her journey, from "Revival Child" to Reverend, is full of miracles... one right after the other, leading her to her call.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 70 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I'm gonna apologize for my audio.

The wind gusts here have only increased during the day.

It's a really bad sign for the wildfires raging in our state,

And so the sounds you hear in the background are actually things being thrown around outside.

Right now I'd love to ask for your prayers and best wishes that the wildfires are brought under control and that more lives,

Livelihoods,

And animals are no longer under threat.

For this episode I got to speak to Reverend Kimberly Scott,

Who describes herself as fun-loving,

A singer,

Motivational speaker,

And a cradle Methodist from Biloxi,

Mississippi.

She is a force to be reckoned with.

One of the themes of her life has been her voice.

Whether it was singing in church as a child and then as she grew older,

Or whether she's using it to motivate people,

She's good at it.

And that makes me a little envious.

On previous podcasts I've talked about how much I hate being up in front of people.

I'm very much someone who likes to stand to the side and watch things happen,

But Reverend Kimberly is not afraid.

She uses her voice in powerful ways to speak for those in her community,

For those who are marginalized,

For those that are suffering injustice.

And I think when you hear this interview and you hear her speak,

You'll understand her strength and power.

So now,

Episode 70 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I'm sitting in my counseling office in walks this six-foot-two Mexican-tonguing young lady,

And I'm like athlete.

I'm a coach.

I coach volleyball and I coach basketball,

You know,

And I coach softball.

I knew she would be a good athlete for our school.

And she was a senior and I was like,

Oh,

This is amazing.

I look at her transcript and I say,

Oh,

This is not amazing.

She has 12 credits.

She needs 22 and a half by the end of the year to graduate.

We have a six period day and you get one credit per class.

So that meant she was going to fall short by six credits,

Unless I found another way for her to do things.

So I said to her,

Andrea,

You cannot play basketball this year,

But if you do everything I ask you to do,

I will find a school that will take you and allow you to play basketball your freshman year.

She comes in my office the final day of her senior year and she sits down and she says,

Coach,

We need to talk.

I'm like,

What Andrea,

What'd you do?

Did you fail in your finals?

What did you do?

Cause we had issues all throughout the year.

I was always on it,

Right?

No,

Coach,

I passed everything.

I'm good.

I'm going to graduate.

I'm so excited,

But I know I can talk to you about you.

I'm like about what she says.

Um,

Why are you here?

I said,

Why am I where she's just such a great counselor.

You do so much for this school.

You're a great coach,

But they don't appreciate you.

I think God has somewhere else that you're supposed to be.

How do you self describe it?

Who are you as a person?

Who am I as a person?

Because I'm a pastor,

Right?

Um,

That is the predominant way that people,

People know me.

It's very rarely that I show up at a party,

A random party where someone does not already know who I am or what I do.

And if they don't,

Then someone else who I'm usually with will say,

Well,

This is my pastor,

Right?

Or this is my pastor friend.

Because people always want to know what is it that you do?

And so the interesting thing about saying to someone,

You know,

Hey,

I'm a pastor is that all these different,

I mean,

Depending on who the person is,

It's different connotations,

Right?

They're the ones that are like,

Oh my God,

I don't want to have a conversation with you.

Or there's the ones who are very,

Very curious.

And the ones who don't have a conversation is for a variety of reasons,

Either it's because they don't really believe in women pastors or because they're non religious at all.

So yeah,

That is my predominant description.

Um,

And then that naturally always leads into a discussion about who I am in the world in terms of,

You know,

Me being openly queer and being a lesbian.

As people dig in,

Dig deeper and they ask more questions,

Sometimes they make assumptions.

I'm not a very,

You know,

Masculine presenting woman.

I tend to be more feminine looking and I don't tend to have to look gay.

That often leads into that discussion,

Which also leads me to telling my full story about being,

You know,

The first African American female and the first queer openly queer person to be ordained in my United Methodist Conference here in the Desert Southwest Conference.

Then people see me as a mover and a shaker.

They see me as a strong,

Powerful woman who just achieves one thing after the next,

Um,

Without recognizing all the different intersections that I had to go through to get them to accomplish certain things.

I guess I would also describe myself as highly educated.

In two weeks,

I'll be walking at Columbia Theological Seminary down in Decatur,

Georgia,

Getting my first mass,

Fourth master's degree,

My master's in theological studies.

I describe myself as also resilient and hardworking because I've always,

Since I was 13 years old,

I've worked.

I didn't grow up so dirt poor that I was ever homeless,

But I was poor enough to have to be self-sufficient.

My parents were never going to,

Could not afford to put me through school.

You know,

I'm the youngest of five children.

I'm the only girl and I'm the first only one to get a bachelor's degree.

The other four,

My brothers,

All went to college and they at least had two years of college.

All four of them,

One is deceased now.

By the time my parents got around to me,

My father had to stroke my senior year of high school.

So when I say I'm resilient,

There's multiple layers of that resilience.

Even through me answering my call to ministry,

As someone who never ever had that thought in my head until 2012,

2010,

2011,

When things really began to heat up in the United Methodist Church.

Yes,

I grew up at church,

United Methodist,

I mean,

Singing in the choir at church every single Sunday,

But most certainly for most of my life did not recognize a call in my life.

Now,

What I will tell you is that my mother gave birth to me two months early after leaving a fall revival.

And so I grew up being called the revival baby at my small Methodist church in Biloxi,

Mississippi,

Because my mother,

Definitely my father,

Both began planting seeds in me for ministry when I didn't recognize.

So my mother was a children's choir director.

So for me,

Singing and being a part of the choir and being at church was not a choice.

It's what we did.

It was what we expected to do.

And I didn't always appreciate it.

I didn't appreciate the pressure that she put on me to be the one to sing the solos and things.

But as I've gotten older,

And I've been able to embrace that as a gift,

Me as a gift,

My voice as a gift,

It has made the difference,

A world of difference.

Junior high and high school,

I really began to love singing.

And even as a kid in my room,

I would,

You know,

Kind of make my own songs and do my own thing.

I would sing to myself to help me get through certain things that were going on in my life.

Growing up in the South also meant that I was exposed to racism from a very young age.

I was spit on by a junior KKK member.

I was probably seven or eight.

He was probably 16 or 17,

Called a little nigger bitch,

Because my bike touched his in the bike rack at a grocery store.

I remember as I washed his spit off my face,

I told myself I will never make someone feel that way based upon,

You know,

Something I didn't like about them.

One of the songs that during that time,

I used was the song Don't Cry Out Loud.

And it starts,

Baby cried the day the circus came to town.

He did not like paracious passing by her.

But it was a way of me saying,

I can paint on this smile and just not cry out loud and deal with the pain.

But singing was a way for me to deal with that pain.

There is that part where Moses,

He's trying to convince God,

He does,

He's slow in speech and tongue,

He doesn't have the gifts and the skills to do what God has called him to do.

And God keeps saying,

I will give you the word you are to speak.

And that has been what has carried me through my first six years in the United Methodist Church,

You know,

Even to the point of being one of the only openly queer folk,

Clergy persons who were asked to sit at the initial table by Bishop Yambasu to go on to be on the team that went on to draft the protocol of separation.

Not only was I the only openly queer person,

But I was probably the only person other than one other that was under the age of 45.

But I remember sitting across the table from these powerful men like Adam Hamilton,

Who had already made their mind up,

And already knew they didn't want to coexist in a church with people like me.

And sitting at that table,

Maybe a little bit nervous,

Because here I am,

I wasn't even ordained yet.

I was commissioned,

I had been commissioned,

But I hadn't been ordained yet.

And either one of the,

Any of those 25 people that were in that room could have easily filed a complaint against me.

But God,

Right?

But sitting at that table,

I listened for a long time.

And then when God said,

It's time to speak,

I said,

Give me the words that I am to speak.

Now,

Did my words change the minds of the hearts of those whose hearts have were already turned to stone in regards to people like me?

No,

But it's never up to me to change someone's mind.

You know,

It's up to God to change their heart and they have not accepted that change yet,

I don't believe.

However,

What has been true in my life is that,

You know,

What I've tried to do is be obedient to the call to speak when I'm being called to speak.

I'm a woman of social justice who's been called to speak,

Who's been called to be prophetic,

Who's been called to be able to speak truths and to power that people don't want to hear.

I wanted to ask you,

You know,

You said that your family or even the church called you the revival child.

And was there,

Was that a lot of pressure?

You know,

As a kid,

I thought it was weird.

It was the revival babies,

What they call me.

And I just thought it was like these old,

Cause it was mostly like the church,

Like my Godmother and like all the older women in the church.

And my mom would always remind me,

Oh yeah,

You're the revival baby,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

Cause I didn't really,

I didn't know what it meant.

I didn't know the context of it.

But I did know one thing is that I always enjoyed revivals because it was the best,

The best worship and the best,

The best preachers.

So I just love revivals.

And so at some point I remember back in the day,

I remember being given that nickname and I don't even remember what brought it back up.

I just know that I always liked,

I always like revivals.

And the other thing that I was always very intrigued by was the talking about the Holy Spirit or the Holy ghost as a kid,

It was those things that just,

You know,

Really sit out that were very formative for me and understand the importance of them.

And then when I really began to be educated,

Once I got to ILIF about the history of the Methodist church,

It began to really come together for me.

I'm so curious,

How many times a year would they have a revival?

I'm woefully ignorant.

Generally in the fall,

Like the ones I remember were generally in the fall,

Fall revivals,

Sometimes in the summer as well,

But in the South,

Definitely,

We had definitely had an ongoing fall.

It was always in the fall.

It was a very formative for me.

Whenever there's an opportunity to go to revival,

Regardless of whether it was at my church or not,

I would want to go,

You know,

And as I,

When I came back,

I left the church,

You know,

Right out of high school.

I didn't continue church.

Like when I,

Cause I was dealing with my coming out and,

You know,

Doing my sexual orientation.

So by the time I left high school and I was wrestling with my sexuality,

I'd had no desire to really be that engaged in church because I think I knew what that meant,

Right.

According to what I was being taught or things that are being said,

I did not come back into the church until,

Um,

After I began working as a school counselor in Las Vegas,

Working with kids,

Feeling like I needed to be more engaged back in church work,

Because,

You know,

There's,

There's something about having a spirit-filled life.

And,

You know,

When you have kids who are also,

You know,

Vegas is a very high evangelical environment as well as very high LDS population.

So you're dealing with people,

Kids from all walks of life with something religious,

You know,

To be able to work with kids who come from those backgrounds and speak their language was important for me,

Especially for those who are struggling with issues of their sexual orientation.

That is what kind of brought me back to church.

The biggest miracle was the way in which God convinced me to leave my full-time career in education,

Right.

And come into ministry.

It was,

It was,

It was a slow and steady process.

Father died in 2010,

Struggling with grief because he and I were really close.

We were very spiritually connected.

He was,

He was stubborn as me.

And so when I would leave for school every semester in college,

My first few years,

He'd make sure that he placed the Bible somewhere in my suitcase.

I was his mini me in a lot of ways,

All the kinds of things that he did in high school as an athlete,

As a leader,

Student body leader were the same things that I follow in his footsteps and be the same way.

And so when he died,

You know,

The only girl of five children who everyone believed he's full,

It was a really difficult thing for me to wrestle with.

But also what I had not shared with him was that I had been molested by one of my brothers.

And I told myself after my father died,

That I would carry that story with me to my grave because I hadn't shared it with him.

How could I dare leave it on my mom,

Waiting on my mom.

Within a week,

This time of me telling myself that I was going to do that,

God was like,

No,

You're not going to do that.

And you are going to tell this story.

And so did that work through that and slowly God began to just release and break down strongholds in my life that allowed me to begin to recognize my call.

You talk about things that you see me post on my Facebook page before Facebook was ever popular.

In that way,

I would use text messages,

Inspirational text messages in the morning to send to my students,

To send to my athletes.

I would even send them to my pastor,

Right?

You know,

To get people going in the morning.

Right.

And at some point,

My pastor who had kind of walked me through my own personal tragedy and stuff,

She said,

You need to go back and start reading those things that you're sending out every morning,

Because I think God is talking to you.

And so when I went back and I began reading what God was,

What I have been putting out and telling everybody else to kind of inspire them,

What it was,

Was God walking me into my call that I hadn't recognized.

My wife took it upon herself to kind of help me with my grieving and dealing with all that molestation stuff.

She told me,

She woke me up one morning because I had been staying at home because I was just grieving.

I was just grief-streaking between,

You know,

Having to share the story with my mom about what my brother had done and,

You know,

And just still with my grief.

So she woke me up and she says,

Hey,

Babe,

I know you've had a rough week,

But get up.

Let's go.

Let's go down to the courthouse and let's become domestic partners.

Right.

We're in Nevada.

Marriage was not legal yet,

But we could get,

So she asked me to become a domestic partner.

The night of our wedding,

You know,

You have people who sign,

You know,

Your picture right with,

With the frame.

And one of the kids,

My nephew,

Who I know now,

He wrote on the middle,

Right across our faces.

I will miss you.

This is February 11th of 2012.

Sophia and I were looking at you and said,

Where are we going?

We didn't plan on going anywhere.

Well,

That weekend,

My best friend,

My woman who was a male was there and he had let me know that he was now in Northwest Kansas coaching wrestling.

And now he had a,

They were opening it up a new woman's and women's women's and men's basketball program.

Rewind back to beginning of the 2011,

2012 school year.

I'm sitting in my counseling office in locks,

This six foot two Mexican tongue in young lady.

And I'm like athlete.

I'm a coach.

I coach volleyball and I coach basketball,

You know,

And I coach softball.

I knew she would be a good athlete athlete for our school.

And she was a senior.

And I was like,

Oh,

This is amazing.

I look at her transcript and I say,

Oh,

This is not amazing.

She has 12 credits.

She needs 22 and a half by the end of the year to graduate.

We have a six period day and you get one credit per class.

So that meant she was going to fall short by six credits unless I found another way for her to do things.

So I said to her,

Andrea,

You cannot play basketball this year,

But if you do everything I asked you to do,

I will find a school that will take you and allow you to play basketball.

Your freshman year wedding happens.

Troy tells me this about him having opportunities for athletes.

She's one of the one of about six kids from my high school at that time that I send that I plan on sending to him to northwest Kansas technical institute.

She comes in my office,

The final day of her senior year and she sits down and she says,

Coach,

We need to talk.

I'm like,

What Andrea,

What'd you do?

Did you fail when your finals?

What did you do?

Because we had issues all throughout the year.

I was always on it right now,

Coach,

I passed everything.

I'm good.

I'm going to graduate.

I'm so excited,

But I know I can talk to you about you.

I'm like about what she says.

Um,

Why are you here?

I said,

Why am I where she's just such a great counselor.

You do so much for this school.

You're a great coach,

But they don't appreciate you.

I think God has somewhere else that you're supposed to be of all of my years,

Coaching and counseling.

That was my absolute worst year.

And I was really feeling like,

Do I want to do this anymore?

And I was also wrestling with this call thing and like,

What is that supposed to look like?

I had been began researching schools and,

And I was like,

But I'm gay and maybe I'll do a program about human sexuality and religion and all these things.

At that moment,

When she walked,

She walked out of my office,

I closed the door and I cried and I said,

Okay,

God,

What is it that you want me to do?

By that Friday,

I had determined that I was going to go and visit Denver that weekend.

And I did,

And I got to Ila.

So the miracle in that is that,

You know,

The way God ushered me into this call.

And so after I decided,

Well,

I said,

God,

If you really want me to answer this call,

You really want me to go to come to seminary and move to Denver because God gave me a word for sure that I was supposed to move to be in Denver by the fall.

And my wife was like,

What are you talking about?

It's June.

You know,

We don't have jobs.

We don't have no money saved.

Like how are we supposed to just up and move to Denver?

I said,

Well,

God,

If you really want this to happen,

I need a somewhere to live.

I need to have a job.

I need this.

What is my conditions?

We got back home and I had,

I started applying for jobs on the way in the car.

It's 12 hour drive.

Got back home on a Monday.

By Tuesday,

I received a phone call from a cherry Creek school district Monday.

Actually it was by Tuesday.

I was there interviewing by Tuesday.

I walked into the office of this elementary school and I see this young black man with jeans on a polo and some Tim's.

I assume he is the custodian.

And he says,

Hey,

You Kim Scott from Las Vegas.

I said,

Yes,

I'm Kim Scott from Las Vegas.

He says,

You know,

Charity,

Bernardo.

I said,

Yeah,

That's my big cousin.

He says,

Yeah,

I know her and her daughter and I went to college together.

He says,

I'm Mike Giles and the principal of the Rado middle school.

He didn't interview me that day.

He had a whole panel of people interview with me and I'm interviewing and then looking at me like I must have looked like Jesus.

I must've been like the transfer configuration.

Like they were just like,

Oh,

You know,

It was like a holy moment.

Right.

And I interview and I say,

So when will I hear back from you?

They said probably Friday.

We've got a few more interviews to do.

I said,

Okay,

Well,

I'll probably be gone by then because I just came down for this interview and because they were gonna have a second round of interviews.

And so I said,

Okay,

Well,

I'll just look at you for your call.

Right.

So I get up and I leave and I go around the corner,

Have some breakfast eating my breakfast.

I put my fork down because I'm finished.

As soon as I put my fork down and I take my last bite,

My phone rings,

Kimberly Scott,

This is Tiffany Cobbs from the Rado middle school.

Can you come back and interview with our principal and within the next hour?

So I got back home on Thursday and I packed up and by Monday I was back in Denver,

Starting a job and then living right around the corner from that theater where the theater shooting happened in Aurora because that theater shooting happened in Aurora that weekend that we were visiting.

And,

Um,

As a matter of fact,

We didn't go to the movie theater because I was working on job applications.

Those are the things like there's God was messing in my life the entire time.

So that's,

You see,

Seeing the miracle,

Wonder working power of God in this season where I've had so many challenges coming upon me that came by way of a,

A very toxic marriage,

Um,

Challenges that,

That threatened to,

Uh,

My,

My credentialing.

Um,

You know,

I could have been defrocked in the season and it hasn't happened.

And when I recall these stories,

It reminds me of why it didn't happen the way I feared it would,

Because I still believe that God has his hand placed on me and there is still lots of work God has in store for me to do.

Um,

And although the season has been a very hard and weary season,

You know,

I can look back over my life and just see,

Even in the messiness,

God is,

God was in the midst.

Thank you for listening to episode 70 of Bite Sized Blessings,

Where I got to interview the indomitable Reverend Kimberly Scott.

It was such a pleasure to talk with her.

And I'm so very grateful that she took the time to speak with me.

We've been trying to set up an interview for a few months,

And finally we both have the space and time in our lives.

I need to thank the musicians who created the music for this episode,

Music,

Elle Files,

Tim Kulik,

Frank Schroeder,

And Sasha End.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to other artists,

Change makers,

Books,

And music I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Actually,

I'm going to make it too.

Please,

Please rate and review the podcast wherever you find it.

Ratings and reviews are so important and help others find us.

My second request,

You already know.

Be like Reverend Kimberly.

Be strong and confident in your voice.

Use it to make the world better,

To lift others up,

And in general,

To make the earth a little shinier.

Most of us,

Including crows,

Love shiny things.

And I'm sure if we all work at it,

We'll eventually get there.