New Students, Fall 2004

Called from the 'Road to Nowhere':
Tracy Bass

Tracy L. Bass, of Philadelphia's Mt. Airy section, has been on "a labyrinth like path" in his faith journey. Born and raised in Norfolk, VA, he attended the local African Methodist Episcopal church where his grandfather was pastor. He dreamed of being a lawyer while others believed he was called to pastoral ministry. After passing the bar exam he moved to Philadelphia where he started his law practice. During that time he began attending Janes Memorial United Methodist Church in Germantown. Tracy reports that he was feeling content and successful, that he was "a paradigm for complacency. I was on the road to nowhere and I was content to be on it." He recounts how one day, though, he encountered God along his path. "Just like a fluttering flag set into motion by an unseen breeze, I had been set in motion by God," he says. His path became clear and he realized that God's gifts and grace had been in his life all along. "I knew that God was calling me to pastoral ministry, something my elders knew long ago. All the time I thought I was running away from it, it turns out that I was running directly into it." Tracy currently serves as pastor at the Kensington "Old Brick" United Methodist Church in Philadelphia.