×îÐÂÂ鶹ÊÓƵ

Thanks to Advance experiences, intensive lectures and readings, and the counsel of others, pastor Daren Jaime discovers a deeper appreciation for what it means to serve Christ

For Daren Jaime, the question of how he conducts his life and ministry boils down to a simple question: “Am I reflecting the body language of Christ?”

Jaime, senior pastor of the People’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Syracuse, New York, isn’t content to live by the old saying, “What Would Jesus Do?” As he sees it, living for Christ is an immersive experience that requires going beyond simple deeds.

“I tell my congregation we are to be the body language of Christ,” says Jaime, now in his 18th year as senior pastor of the church. “What does that mean? It means we follow Jesus’ example when he says, ‘I and my Father are one.’ If we’re living our lives out in a Christian journey, we live our lives out in a way that reflects Jesus. And this is reflected in our actions, our thoughts, how we make decisions, and how we treat people, using Jesus as the body language of God. It’s saying, ‘How I’m going to treat you is the same way that Jesus would treat you.’”

Recently, we took time to ask Jaime – a 2023 alumnus of Portland Seminary’s Master of Divinity program and a current student in its Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives program – a series of questions about how he discovered Portland Seminary, how the student experience has impacted him, and what he foresees for the future of his ministry.

So, you live in upstate New York, yet you ended up attending a seminary in Oregon. How did that come about, and why did you choose Portland Seminary over other schools?

So I’m in a hotel in Buffalo, New York, and I’m talking with someone about going to seminary. We have a seminary in our denomination in Salisbury, North Carolina, but I just didn't feel led to go. I felt like God was calling me to a different place. And as I was saying it, the person mentioned Portland Seminary and said, ‘You need to look up this seminary in Oregon.’ I said, ‘Oregon?’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah. Check it out.’ So I checked out the website and picked up the phone. I had a great conversation with the admissions counselor about ministry and life, and he just had this brotherly feeling about him.

Not long after that, he called me back and said, ‘We want you here at Portland Seminary.’ For me, as a former basketball player, when you hear somebody say, ‘We want you’ you respond. And the conversation just sounded right. It was then that I knew I was going to make the journey to Portland, even though it was all the way across the country.

I ended up doing the MDiv program, and in the process I heard about the Leadership and Global Perspectives program. In addition to being a senior pastor, I’m also a presiding elder over three small churches in England, so the global aspect appealed to me. I’m really about making disciples of all nations, and I felt like this program tied into that. So, when I heard about the Leadership and Global Perspectives program, I applied. It's been great ever since.

What’s been your biggest takeaway since enrolling in the program?

It makes you think more critically and to look at things from a different perspective. I’m learning to ask better questions. One of my staples about leadership is that it has to be relevant and relational. And this program has helped to promote just that – how to have relevant leadership and authentic leadership that is not just a one-way approach.

There are multiple layers to leadership, from thinking to perspective, the questions that you ask, how to work with your team. We’ve talked about all these things in our readings and our writings, getting insight into what other thought leaders have done successfully and also their failures, and to look at that in depth. To learn about leadership from a global perspective in such a variety of different ways from these authors – and our Advances [face-to-face intensives] – has been invaluable.

Describe a particularly meaningful event or experience you had at one of the Advances. Does anything stand out in your mind?

Oxford for me was my first Advance experience. It was there I gained a different perspective on the role of leadership through people like Martin Percy, who I will never forget. He said that Jesus is the body language of God during a lecture. That was one of the greatest takeaways I ever got – that Jesus is the body language of God. And that came out of a lecture in which he was talking about the church and about leadership. It has transcended into how I interact, how I think, and how I tell others how to interact and think in my leadership context.

Beyond that, I juxtapose my life to the life of Christ and now try to live that way – a more Christ-centered life. And so imagine that from a leadership perspective. Imagine teaching people how to be leaders with a Christ-centered approach. From my context, that’s a difference maker because ultimately, then, we’re making disciples. Ultimately, then, we're making better people. Ultimately, we’re leading people in a way that glorifies God. And so for myself, I was like, ‘Jesus is the body language of God.’ To be in Oxford and to have that experience, the whole Oxford experience, and to hear that – that was a standout moment.

What’s a big takeaway from your recent Washington, D.C. Advance?

I’m still processing it, but it has given me a greater appreciation for history. I look at the possibility of history repeating itself, what history was like. I’ve been to Washington, D.C. more times than you can imagine, but this trip gave me a different perspective. I had the opportunity to slow down to really just look at some things and put some things in context. To read about the history of our nation and its leaders and where we are, how we got to where we are, and to see how we’re on the precipice of possibly some similar times.

It gave me insight into how to navigate a little bit better and understand that we’ve been here before. So the biggest takeaway was contemplating history and destiny. I’m also reminded that there are people who are intricately evolved who change history. It led me to ask the question, ‘Do I want to be a person who’s a part of that history repeating itself, or do I want to use my leadership to be a person who changes the focus of some things?’

So, what do you view as your calling? And how is Portland Seminary empowering you to make the most of what you want to do for God on this earth?

Ultimately, I’m a pastor today. I do think that one day I'll end up doing some teaching. I think this has empowered me to learn and teach others, both from a pastoral context and possibly in an academic setting – and to look at things from multiple perspectives. It’s also empowered me to really stretch myself beyond the norm and beyond what I'm used to really digging deeper into.

You may think that you have the answers to some things, but you’re going to have to do the work to find out what the real answer is. Finally, it’s empowered me to just go deeper in my thoughts, deeper in my readings, in my understanding, in my learning curve. And I’m grateful for the experience because it’s really helped me as a student, a scholar and a pastor.

You said you want to be part of the group that changes history instead of just merely being a bystander. How is this helping you do that?

In the readings we’ve done, we read the journeys of those who understand the framework of their philosophies and lead well. Reading about them gives me the gas in the tank, if you will, to be able to ask myself, ‘What has God called me to do and how can I be a change maker?’ I’ve learned a lot through our reading, the workshops, the lectures, and the fellowship with other cohorts and classmates. They’ve helped me gain valuable perspectives that actually give me a broader lens to live out my calling – and just to live out day to day.

What led you to your current role? Did you have seminal moments in your life or was it a culmination of things? Tell me a little bit about how you grew up and got into being a pastor.

I was working in journalism a bit, and in the process I had a dream that I was going to be a professional journalist the rest of my days. I prayed for a job in journalism to become a broadcast journalist, but at the end of the day, that job changed and God ushered me into ministry. And so that became the catalyst for me to find my way on my pastoral journey. It was just one of those moments where the Lord just called you. I was working as an on-air anchor at a cable television news station, but after five years the station basically dissolved and changed its focus. In the process, I got laid off.

But you’re still involved in journalism even now. Tell me about that.

Yes. I continue to do that part time to this day, but only one day a week. The rest of the time I’m a full-time pastor. I do a morning show for the Bronx – a morning cable show called OPEN. We interview local talent, local community-based organizations, and talk sometimes about politics and current events. It’s basically what I was doing, and God ultimately called me out of that to say, ‘I want you to be a full-time pastor and you can still do your journalism.’ It’s my getaway from the life of ministry. For that one day that I’m doing it, I really don’t have to worry about church and all the stuff that comes, so it’s been a great sabbath for me from ministry.