Episode Twenty-Seven: The Interview-Pastor DC Sills

In this longer interview, DC talks about miracles large and small. From healing prayer in the hospital where a friend lay close to death, to the change in attitudes towards LGBTQ people in her home state, miracles are found everywhere.

Transcript

We had a kid in our church about three years ago who fell out with a heart attack and his heart stopped.

We don't really know what happened.

Our pastor was new and she said a prayer.

And one day we did a prayer service and me and another girl who played in the same band played music there.

And our pastor raised her hands and said,

God,

If there's ever a need for a miracle,

This is it.

Well,

Two days later,

He woke up.

His dad literally,

We were on the phone with him and we all left the hospital.

And he was going to the funeral home to make arrangements.

And he and another friend of ours went to go make their arrangements.

We came home and took a nap because we had all been up that night.

And he calls us and he says he moved his hand.

I would say as a human being,

First,

I don't think a lot of labels.

I like to think that I am a competent,

Caring human being.

I try not to,

Even though I'm gay,

I try not to say that's all I am because I'm not.

Because I am religious,

That's not all I am.

Because I'm a musician,

That's not all I am.

As a friend of mine says,

We're all equally human.

So I would just say that I define myself as a,

Hopefully,

A compassionate human who has the ability to learn new things always.

Learning new things is the best.

Yeah,

Because if we stop,

Then that's when we stop,

That's when our life stops.

My family is Catholic,

So I was raised Roman Catholic.

My dad is Catholic by name.

He would still probably say he's Catholic,

Although he probably hasn't been to church in a kazillion years.

But my mom is very Catholic.

Like during the COVID crisis,

She watched online every day.

And as soon as her church was ready to open,

She was debating whether or not to go back because she felt bad if she didn't go back.

Because the doors were open,

So she needed to go back.

So I have that juxtaposition of a dad who is probably very spiritual and very Christian in nature,

Who taught me how to take care of people.

And that you just help people because that's what people need in life.

And that you show people how to do things.

And a mother who thought,

Who is very prayerful and very religious,

Diligent religion.

So I've had both of those.

I don't think my dad is not a Christian because he didn't go to church.

He just believes and shares that in a different way than my mom does.

But we went to church every Sunday.

I had first communion.

I was,

Of course,

I was baptized first communion and then was confirmed.

And then when I got old enough to understand that there were other churches and I could do that,

I did.

I'm very thankful for the foundation that that gave me in faith and the foundation of you don't have to agree with everything to believe in a God.

You don't have to believe what people taught you or told you because that God loves you no matter what anybody else tells you.

But I had that foundation of knowing that I'm loved.

One of my theories in life as I've gotten older is that when things are hard,

They're not meant to be.

And when you beat your head against and I don't mean that we don't have to work for what we what happens in our lives or that we don't have to work to get to where we are.

Because I'm not saying things are easy and handed to you,

But if you're beating your head while and there are roadblocks put up every time you think you're going where you where you want to go.

That's probably a very good indication that's not where you need to be.

And so I came to that realization one time in my life.

And since then,

That's kind of how I've led led my life.

And I got into,

I guess what I would say ministry is I had a group of kids at the church I was going to,

Which was a United Methodist Church where my wife and I attended.

And they needed an adult to help them do a worship service.

So I agreed to be the adult to help them do this worship service.

We weren't doing anything else.

That was it.

That's all they wanted to do.

It was their yearly thing that they did.

That was it.

And then I kept hearing all these people in town saying,

Hey,

I hear you're starting a worship service.

Hey,

I hear you're doing a worship service.

Hey,

I hear you're starting back up a worship service.

And I was like,

Nope,

Not me.

That's not who I am.

Because at that time,

The Methodist Church had just come out saying that you're not going to that they weren't going to ordain gay people.

Everybody in our church knew that my wife and I were a couple.

We've never hidden it.

And I thought there's no way this is.

And of course,

I grew up Catholic.

So being a woman,

That was another strike against me.

That's not my path.

And enough people said it.

So I went to our pastor and said,

Hey,

This is what I've been hearing around town.

He said,

Let's give it a try.

So after doing that for about 11 years,

Knowing that in the Methodist Church,

It wasn't going to go any further than that,

Unless I really wanted to fight.

But in Louisiana,

Being a conservative state,

It probably wasn't going anywhere.

And I'm a Louisiana girl and I'm not going anywhere.

I was at our Pride Festival one weekend and a group of people came from First Christian Church.

And little did I know,

But a friend of mine,

David Britt,

Is the pastor there.

He's also the director of our United Way in town.

And his wife goes to the church as well.

And they came to our Pride Festival,

The only church officially there,

And held a children's booth and did face painting and arts and crafts for kids.

And I mentioned to him,

I said,

Hey,

You know,

I'm in seminary.

So if you ever need anybody to help you out and,

You know,

Fill your pulpit if you go on vacation,

Let me know.

And he was like,

I didn't know you were in seminary.

I'm like,

Well,

I didn't know you were a pastor.

And so a week later,

He and his wife were going on vacation.

So I filled his pulpit and I've been filling it ever since.

And that was three years ago.

Disciples of Christ theology leans very well to my personal theology.

They're very ecumenical,

And I think everybody should have a place at the table.

I don't think there should be barriers to the table or to God in general.

And so it's been a very good fit.

But again,

It was those doors that were open.

And sometimes it took me a while to see that they were open,

But it was easy to walk through them.

And it just gives me that peace of knowing I'm in the right place.

I don't know if I think differently or I see things differently sometimes than other folks see,

But I see God in all the mundane things throughout the day.

Like we had a homeless gentleman who comes to our office all the time.

Sometimes he's on his med.

Sometimes he's not.

But he's always welcome in our office.

And he came in the other day and was telling us how he had gotten some money and he'd gone to the club.

And while he was at the club,

Somebody had hit him over the head and taken all his money.

And half of what he says,

You don't know if he really went to the club or not,

But we go along with this story.

And then he says,

You know what the difference between Jesus and me is?

And I said,

No,

What's the difference between you and Jesus?

And he says,

The difference between me and Jesus is Jesus died for all of us.

And I'm just going to die because somebody kills me.

And I thought,

How profound.

I mean,

Out of all those he says and all the conversations he and I've had over the years,

For him to say that,

I was like,

That is true.

That is true of all of us.

No,

I mean,

All of us are just going to die for nothing,

Basically.

And Jesus died for all of us.

And I thought,

Wow.

So it's moments like that,

The things that you're not expecting,

That all of a sudden they just happen.

We had a friend recently who was in an elderly abuse situation that we helped her extract herself from.

And we helped her move into an assisted living.

But we were helping her move.

And in the move,

My wife was talking to the director of the assisted living where she was moving.

And she mentioned how,

Because of COVID,

Of course,

People have stopped coming to visit and people have stopped coming doing arts and crafts and those things that keep them,

Give them things to look forward to.

And she also mentioned that churches had stopped coming.

And so they had no worship service on Sunday.

And so she says,

Well,

My wife just got ordained.

We'd be happy to do a worship service for you on Sunday.

So now we've started doing a worship service.

But it's those things that unless you're open to saying yes and stepping forward through the yes,

Then they don't happen.

I preached on fishes and loaves two Sundays ago.

And it's like,

You know,

Jesus tells us right there,

Don't come from scarcity,

Come from abundance.

Look what he did with that.

You know,

We always think that we're just something and we can't do more.

But if we're open to those opportunities,

It's true that as cliche as it is,

It would be amazing what we can do if everybody truly believed that they could do what they think they can.

Now I'm not talking about flying or,

You know,

Cracking rocks with your hands.

But I wish I could.

But,

You know,

We can do a lot more than what we give ourselves credit for.

You know,

One of the things I think about the loaves and fishes story,

You know,

Obviously that was a miracle and people read stories like that.

And they think miracles only consist of the grandiose,

The large,

The completely unbelievable,

When in your conversation with that homeless gentleman,

At the end,

There was a little miracle.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Like me,

That was the most crystallized thought.

You know,

I mean,

It was just like,

That is so true.

That's so profound.

And you know,

The fishes and the loaves.

I told the congregation that Sunday that all of us have done that.

Who hasn't been at home cooking supper and your kids come in or your husband or your wife,

Or somebody comes shows up for supper and you don't have enough food.

What do you do?

You make it happen.

Or at least I can't say that for everybody,

But being a South Southern girl and a Louisiana girl,

You make it happen.

You find more food,

You add more food,

Everybody's going to eat.

Yes,

It was a miracle that Jesus fed that many people with what he had.

But we all do that every day.

And if we just realize the things we do every day that other people take for granted,

Or that we take for granted,

That are such a huge difference and acknowledge that in each other,

I think that would make a huge difference in our opinion of each other,

Perhaps.

What I think is really beautiful about the way you view the world and your attitude towards the world is that you are surrounded by little miracles every day,

Because you are ready to witness them.

You're ready to see them.

And that's a really beautiful way to live.

I think so.

It makes me wake up every day and look forward to the day because you never know what you're going to find.

I wonder if being able to witness little miracles every day,

You have to have that childlike innocence or that joy inside of you.

Probably.

But I think that comes down to continually wanting to learn new things,

You know,

Because if we stop learning and we stop having that joy,

I think that's when we really age.

And I've been blessed enough to know people who were much older than me in calendar years,

But who were very much younger than me in spirit and in their joy of life.

I don't think we have to get to that advanced age or chronological age to be able to figure out that we are blessed and that we do live charmed lives,

So to speak,

Because we all do if we have breath in us.

I've worked a lot with senior citizens in my careers.

And it's just gave me a great appreciation for the fact that it's like they get to a point,

You know,

Where people say,

I want to be old enough to where I can say whatever I want to say and not care,

Because what are they going to do to me?

But they also know that all this stuff that stresses us out in our 30s,

40s,

50s,

And 60s,

Didn't matter when they're looking back on it.

All those things that give us such great anxiety,

And I still get great anxiety and I still worry about those things.

But then I remember those people who have been my mentors and my friends,

And I realized that they're like,

When you were looking back on that,

Don't worry about it.

It's just this much of this much,

You know,

So,

You know,

It's a tiny piece of your journey,

Not the whole path.

I guess that would be what I try to live into each day and realize that whatever happens,

It's not the end.

And even if it is,

Okay,

You know,

I can't do anything about that either.

My viewpoint and my bubble of people that are around me,

And sometimes my wife and I joke about this,

And like,

Who are all these other people,

You know,

Because we don't know those people that people are saying,

I'm getting on Facebook because everybody's so negative,

Or I'm moving because I don't like the people in my neighborhood,

Or,

You know,

So and so did this.

We don't have those people in our lives.

Some of it has to do with our attitudes,

And some of it has to do with just the fact that we try to surround ourselves with people who are not just like us,

But at least have the same morals and values as us.

We may have different opinions,

And we may not always agree on stuff,

But the core stuff is there,

Which I think is missing sometimes that people think because you're red or blue,

That you don't have the same base of morals or values.

Overall,

I would say Louisiana is probably pretty conservative just in the fact that we're,

You know,

We're still under Napoleonic law as far as like pro-life and pro-choice.

But then at the same time,

My boss,

Who is a 74-year-old white man,

Who I thought whenever I took off work to go march in one of our Black Lives Matter marches in town,

Might have had an issue with me doing that.

Well,

He had gone to the one the night before because he just wanted to make sure everything went okay.

And he thought by being a 70-something-year-old white man,

He could make that happen.

And he's probably right.

I mean,

You need those people who will stand up,

You know.

So there's all those people that surprise you when you think you have them pigeonholed as something.

As far as truly conservative or not,

My answer would be no,

Because I'm an openly gay pastor married to a woman who teaches in a public school in Louisiana.

Who ever thought that we would be able to say that?

Because 20 years ago,

26 years ago,

When my wife and I met,

We had a friend who had gotten fired for allegations of being gay.

That's how far things have come.

You know,

Now she teaches in a school that her principal bought me a gift for graduation.

All my miracles were little.

We had a kid in our church about three years ago who fell out with a heart attack and his heart stopped.

We don't really know what happened.

And he actually played drums.

He was one of the kids that got me into ministry.

He was one of the kids that asked me to come play and help them.

And he was a drummer.

And drum for,

We drummed together for five or six years while he was in junior high and high school.

And so really close to me and their family is close to us.

And we all thought he was going to die.

And he,

Our pastor was new and she said a prayer.

And one day we did a prayer service and me and another girl who played in the same band played music there.

And our pastor raised her hands and said,

God,

If there's ever a need for a miracle,

This is it.

Well,

Two days later he woke up.

And I think there are a lot of medical components to that.

But no matter what,

He once was lost,

But now he's found and he woke up.

And so,

You know,

That to us in our circle of friends,

Our chamly as we call it,

Our church family,

That will always be a miracle because,

You know,

His dad literally,

We were on the phone with him and we all left the hospital and he was going to the funeral home to make arrangements.

And he and our,

Another friend of ours went to go make their arrangements.

We came home and took a nap because we had all been up that night.

And he calls us and he says,

He moved his hand.

He's waking up.

We're like,

You've got to be kidding me.

And so he woke up.

My theory is though,

He had a new girlfriend and she was there with him.

And then his high school girlfriend,

Who is like my wife and I's daughter,

She had been living in Texas and my wife had gone to get her in Texas and brought her back because they were like each other's first love,

Even though they weren't together anymore.

And I had dropped her off at the hospital.

She'd come home.

We took a nap and that's when he woke up.

I said,

Oh,

Cause he was like,

Oh,

I can't let these two meet.

First thing I did was get drumsticks for him.

I told his dad,

I said,

I'm putting drumsticks in his hands because if he feels those,

He's comfortable with that.

And so we did,

We brought him drumsticks.

And that was the first thing he did was his dad said,

Can you keep time?

And he beat out time on his,

On the bed.

So that was,

That was cool.

Every time that you say yes and walk through the door that's open and things go well,

It's like positive affirmation.

And,

And I've had times in my life where I've,

Where I've refused to walk through the door.

And I've gotten some negative affirmation and a much further positive than God slamming me on my knees and tell it and showed me the hard way that I did not do what I needed to be doing.

And I say that like,

God is a vicious God,

But because when things have happened hard to me in my life,

It's usually because I pushed and my ego pushed and my,

My pride pushed when should have backed off because everything around me and everything that I've done,

Everyone around me was saying,

Maybe not now,

Maybe this isn't right.

Maybe,

Maybe you need to wait,

But I have wanted it.

And so,

And I've been humbled quite a few times.

And I'd like to say at this point in my life,

That won't happen again,

But I'm sure it will.

But I much prefer the positive affirmation of,

Hey,

Good job.

Hey,

Yeah,

You're going in the right direction.

You're,

You know,

You're doing all right.

You know,

You'll see all this stuff around you and you'll know that you're on the right path.

Thanks for listening to episode 27 of bite-sized blessings,

The podcast,

All about the miracles and magic that surround us.

If only we open our eyes to them and whether you choose to listen to our bite-sized offerings for that five to 10 minutes of freedom in your day or the longer interviews,

We're grateful.

You're here.

I need to thank pastor DC Sills for sharing her story today,

As well as the creators of the music used Kevin McLeod and Alexander Nakarada for complete attribution.

Please see the bite-sized blessings website at bite-sized blessings.

Com on the website.

You'll find links to change makers books,

Playlists and music.

I think we'll lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like DC,

See the miracles in both the large and the small and everywhere in between.