Journey Road Ministries

Mary Dyer and Sheryl Butler are well acquainted with being outsiders.

As women who attended male-dominated seminary schools, as a gay couple, as congregants at churches that didn’t always share their progressive views, they’ve become accustomed to blazing their own trail.
So when they conceived their plan for a faith-based group that would offer a new approach to discussions on spirituality and community, they had a good idea the concept wouldn’t be for everyone.

Yet, the married couple that has called Glenwood home since 2009, charged ahead.

“We are at the point in our lives where we both have the full support of our families, we have pensions and Social Security and do our own thing,” Dyer said. “But it breaks our hearts to see people who can’t think outside the box because they don’t know they’re in a box.”

Dyer, 73, and Butler, 64, both ordained ministers in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, hope their Journey Road Ministries can be that launch point.

With the help of William Painter, former lay minister at First Congregational United Church of Christ, the couple formed the group with a simple, inclusive approach to faith: many paths, one journey.

They envision Journey Road, which held its first gathering earlier this month, as being firmly grounded in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but welcoming to any and all faiths. The group is open and affirming and invites the churched and unchurched, members of the gay, lesbian and trans gender community and a diverse spectrum of spiritual beliefs from agnostics and atheists, to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Humanists to attend.

“We want to connect the dots and to make this open to people who are agnostic or atheist or whatever, because we are all on some sort of journey and don’t necessarily label it religious or spiritual,” Dyer said. “We’re reaching out from our own little worlds. I think that’s what we’re all called to do no matter what we label it.”

Journey Road held its meeting earlier this month at the Glenwood American Legion Hall. The gathering featured a talk about Hanukkah and Advent and a potluck dinner.

More meetings on a wide range of discussion topics to include faith traditions, religious stereotyping, systems of oppression, xenophobia and the meaning of community, among others, are planned for future gatherings.

Dyer and Butler were drawn to the idea of creating what would become Journey Road after severing ties with their former church in Glenwood this past fall. But both had long considered how to best serve their ministry in their adopted hometown. Neither would go into specifics of what led them to ultimately break from the First Congregational United Church of Christ but did say they have long been critical of the Glenwood church’s refusal to become open and affirming to LGBTQ people.

Dyer isn’t aware of any ministry or church in Mills County that has reached out a welcoming hand to LGBTQ people. Finding a location for the group’s meeting was a challenge. Several churches turned them away when they asked to use meeting space, according to Butler.

Dyer admits the idea for Journey Road did come, at least partially, from her and Butler’s shared sentiments of being what some might call faith outsiders in a conservative community.

“Even the more progressive churches here are pretty conservative,” Butler joked.

It also sprung from Dyer’s sudden loss of hearing in 2008 following what was to be routine knee surgery. Since then, she and Butler have devoted much of their efforts to advocacy and education to improve awareness access for the hearing impaired. They formed Hearing Access Solutions LLC, an assisted hearing loop company, together in 2011.

“It became our full-time ministry,” said Dyer, who also serves on the State of Iowa’s Deaf Services Commission Board.”
But their search for a faith-community they truly felt at home in and shared their beliefs eluded them. They knew they likely weren’t alone, yet, their idea gestated for years.

“We felt like there was a part of our ministry that wasn’t fully formed,” Dyer said. “So we joined other churches as congregants and were active in it, but it never quite fit. We couldn’t really utilize our understanding of what a community could be or should be.”

Getting away from the idea of religion and focusing on faith while encouraging growth through open communication seemed just like the transformational connection they were looking for. The seeds of Journey Road coalesced around that idea and Butler sees real possibilities for the group to take root and sprout real discussion and community service.

“Religion isn’t necessarily bad but it can be used to justify some bad things,” Butler said. “I feel sometimes hearing another voice is good. Glenwood can be a pretty homogeneous place and I’d like to believe most people are really good. Many problems come from our lack of understanding or not knowing.

“I think the divisiveness and divisions we see today are a result of not understanding other people’s world views. They think their truth is truth. No one has the whole picture but to become aware, I think that can help people along that journey.”

When approached by Dyer and Butler, Painter, the former lay minister, instantly fell in love with the idea of a non-traditional approach to spirituality. “A forum and space to be able to discuss spiritual and community actions in an environment that is supportive and open,” as he described it.

Painter called the local churches “not very welcoming” to LGBTQ people and couples and saw Journey Road’s potential to fill a spiritual niche for under-represented people or those not comfortable with traditional faith offerings in the community.

“It’s ecumenical,” he said. “I don’t just mean Baptists and Methodists. We are open to people of different faith traditions: Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims, we don’t care. That’s the theme of the journey. The spiritual journey. Everyone is welcome to participate.”

The group will meet monthly for its own brand of eclectic, often non-denominational discussions on faith. Meetings will be a free-floating exchange of ideas, traditions and stereotype-shattering.

A “pub theology” night with conversation and spiritually-inspired short films at the Keg Creek Brewing Co. is also in the works.

Dyer and Butler are self-funding the group currently but plan on accepting donations down the road. They recently registered a federal tax ID status.

Dyer is well aware the faith community is big and diverse and yes, opinionated, she said.

There are over 300 major faith traditions in the world. In Glenwood alone, there are nearly two dozen churches.
Dyer would like to see Journey Road as a place for people to come together beyond the walls of churches, denominations and beliefs that seemingly separate, to break bread and share different and unique perspectives.

“We want to be ‘unapologetically progressive,’” Dyer said.

Journey Road isn’t looking to “poach” congregants but rather, promote discussion. The group will never meet on Sunday mornings and they have no plans for holding regular church services or establishing their own “brick and mortar” church.
Dyer knows the endeavor is an act of faith.

“I don’t want people to come because we have something to give them,” Dyer said. “I want them to come because they have something to give us. Listening to stories, hearing people is what we all need.”