Jonathan Brooks - Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods

A nything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. This pithy statement came from the revolutionary botanist George Washington Carver. Some say he single-handedly saved southern agriculture from soil depletion with his plant-based discoveries. Droves would travel across time zones to hear Carvers brilliance. Science had never spawned such an agrarian innovator.

Just as notable as his contributions was his posture of humility. This is because Carver knew the secrets to his success were not his. The secrets of flourishing were revealed in his compassionate transactions with Gods creation. Carver parried offers of promising wealth to continue his revolutionary practices at a demure Tuskegee Institute. The masses were perplexed and unsatisfied with his answers, but in his unassuming way Carver revealed, Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or little peanut it will give up its secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also.

At this same modest institution I met Jonathan Brooks, or John as I came to call him. Our friendship blossomed at Tuskegee University on the same Alabama clay that bloomed many great progenies before us. We were kindred in our affinity for hip-hop culture and quasi-philosophical discourses that were above our acumen and course syllabus. I must admit he was a much more promising student than me. To my bewilderment, he would often lose weekends in the Wilcox buildings laboring over architecture projects with dozens of others in the intelligentsia. So it was a bit of a shock to learn years later that my friend John, an extremely talented architect, had become a pastor.

There was something within John Brooks that didnt come from the Robert Taylor School of Architecture. In college his presence was ubiquitous and comforting. He was a magnet that many of us didnt know we needed. He was a unifier without the flattery. If anyone could maintain relationships with old friends or acquaintances, it was John. Like George W. Carver, John could also speak to flowers. Only his flowers were a different variety. I believe he discovered that he could architect flourishing in a way that no firm could construct.

Like many black folks that come from neglected communities, John was told that success was achieved by how far you could get from that community and its snares. But these same communities also made him who he is today. The academic and religious institutions cannot claim sole responsibility in making Jonathan Brooks. He is also a product of tenacious parenting, persistent ingenuity, hip-hop culture, and the vibrant social settings of the south side of Chicago.

It didnt take long for these elements to finesse their way into his pulpit. He used hip-hop as a medium to engage and make complex issues simple. He soon transformed from Jonathan Brooks to Pastah J. His ingenuity innovated in ways beyond his resources. He ultimately found himself back in the community he was told to escape.

John has learned that if he quietly communes with people, he will learn their secrets. He doesnt have all the answers, so he speaks to the flowers in his community. When his church created a scholarship fund, it was because he spoke to the flowers. When his church partnered with community entrepreneurs to create the only coworking gathering space and cafe in miles, it was because he spoke to the flowers. When his church developed a cooperative food program, it was because he spoke to the flowers.

He is a modest man who pastors a modest church, practicing humility and presence in a way that is simple. With all the good his church is doing, he has little desire to raise his public profile. He rightly displays how the church is the empirical evidence of Gods blessing to a community.

I exhort the reader to be challenged by the anecdotes of Jonathan Brookss theology of place without feeling the compulsion to replicate them. The principles transcend the methods. You can travel across time zones to investigate the secrets of his fruitful labor, but I caution you to not be disconcerted by simple answers. He simply listens to the flowers in the garden that God has placed him in.