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Nurturing GLBT Spirit
through Divine Science Principles
JUST FIND YOUR NICHE
AND GO FOR IT!
Rev. Stan Ousley Jr.
I know some “fancy folks” who pronounce the word niche as “neesh” but I’m in tune with the dictionary pronunciation, which is “nich” -- short “I” as in the word “it.” Although there are people I call “normal-ists” who eschew and maybe even fear taking “the road less traveled by,” there are other creative, independent-minded, and more adventuresome people who “go for the niches.” Niches are nifty! For me, and this is merely an example, I like to “do” a niche ministry. I refer to it at times as “a cosmic outrider ministry to the far fringes.” Rather than being an “employee” of a site-based type of church with a congregation, I prefer to go out through cyberspace as a ministerial “free agent. ” And my ministry is free -- quite “cost effective” I guess! I can focus on God and not on money or mammon or having to anxiously cater to “cantankerous egos” of members and those on church boards. I can “just BE there” for people who are “spiritual” but who are not religious. And yes, cyber-ministry can be very personalized. I’m able to provide prayer and counseling by e-mail in a way that allows the person I’m counseling to be anonymous (sort of like in the Catholic Confessional) while sharing their most intimate personal concerns.
As a niche minister embedded in “worldly secular” life, I can also be a positive influence among my nursing coworkers, and be a spiritual friend to young Gay guys who would never go near a heterosexual “orthodox” minister for any Gay-related advice or guidance. My closest friends also include Wiccans and neo-pagans and atheists. I can be a “real person” and not a “religionist” person! A coworker told me I was a truly “human minister” and he felt comfortable being himself around me. Hallelujah for that!
I love to do weddings and christenings for my nursing coworkers, provide non-denominational bereavement prayers in a quasi-chaplain role for families in our hospital requesting prayer in the middle of the night (I work nights) when church ministers or priests are not readily available. I have many friends who are not into organized religion at all, and we can have a good spiritual relationship, because they are not “intimidated” by me as people often are by the “traditional” churchy clerics living out a stereotype.
I think along with a Vocation in life, people also have “a niche to fill” -- something “unexpected” that they can do in a way that serves others. To put it in another context, I learned in general management classes I took as part of a college degree program in health care services administration, that the “real principal” in a school may be the janitor. Likewise, the “real teacher” in a college class might be the enthusiastic young graduate assistant, not the egghead professor. The “real spiritual advisor” might be the neighbor who is a widowed mom raising three kids and working a full-time job, and not the priest or church deacon or denominational minister. The “real spiritual friend” could be a person who is very non-theological and not religious, just an “ordinary guy.”
What is your special niche? Our creative challenge is to FIND A NICHE AND FILL IT. You can fill it with your talents, devotion, commitment, integrity, creativity, open-mindedness, and unselfish love. “Yes, you can!”