Born
January 22, 1982, in the Commonwealth of the
Bahamas, the Reverend Don Darius Butler is the sixth Pastor of the Tabernacle Community Baptist Church of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was formally educated in the Bahamian public school system, and graduated with honors June 2000.
He holds a baccalaureate degree summa cum laude from the
American
Baptist
Collegeand the Master of Divinity degree from
Vanderbilt
University
Divinity
School, where he was a Kelly Miller Smith Scholar and President of the Black Seminarians. He received honors on his senior project, “Do No Harm: Preaching the Good Word in Human Tragedy,” a scholarly work that constructed theologically responsible, homiletic responses to human crises and suffering. In addition, he obtained a certificate in black church studies from the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on the Black Church, and was awarded the Saint James Academy Award for composing the finest sermon in the senior class entitled, “The Ministry of Liberation: A Call and Response.” It was featured in the fall 2006 edition of the African American Pulpit.
He was nurtured in the Christian faith, licensed and ordained into
Christian
Ministry by the parochial family of the
Mission
Baptist
Church,
New Providence,
Bahamas. He was affirmed in faith and calling by the congregation of
Nashville’s historic
Fifteenth
Avenue
Baptist
Church, where he served as a ministerial licentiate and disciple-member during his formal theological education.
His prelude to ministry included participation in numerous civic and youth organizations namely, The
BahamasBoys’ Brigade (42nd Nassau Company); The Royal Bahamas Police Cadet Corps Program; The Gentlemen’s Club (Class of 2000), under the auspices of the Bahamas Beautillion Committee; and The Governor General’s Youth Award Program (Bronze Medalist, 2000). In July 2000,
Butlerwas a member of the Bahamian Delegation to the Commonwealth Youth Programme’s Parliamentary Session held in
True Blue,
Grenada. He delivered the opening address to a special sitting of the Commonwealth’s (Mock) Youth Parliament. Later that year, he served as an ambassador and co-host of the Joint-Youth Session of the Commonwealth Movement of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (CMPPD), presenting the White Paper on youth concerns for the region.
His civic involvement has shaped his social consciousness regarding a prophetic justice religion. He is trained in the tradition of Schola Prophetarum (the school of the prophets) and holds the call of the prophet Micah (6:8) “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God” as his mandate for ministry. A member of the
American
Academyof Religion, the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., hehas been inducted into the Alpha Theta Epsilon Honor Society and the Delta Epsilon Chi Honor Society for distinguished academic achievement. Additionally, he is a guest cultural commentator for the African American Online Lectionary and a contributing writer for the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. His article, “Claiming Dinah’s Voice: The Response of a Womanist-Ally to the One Dimensional Advocacy of Black Theology,” is published in
Walk Together Children: Black and Womanist Theologies, Church and Theological Education.
He assumed the pastorate after completing a one-year chaplain residency at Norton Healthcare,
Louisville,
Kentucky, earning four units of certification under Clinical Pastoral Education (
CPE) supervision. Prior to his residency year in Norton’s Pastoral Care Department, he was Director of Campus Life & Student Services at his alma mater,
American
Baptist
College,
Nashville,
Tennessee.
His wife, La Keisha Wright Butler, Esq., is his partner in life. La Keisha holds a double baccalaureate magna cum laude in information systems and political science from the
University of
Maryland,
Baltimore
County, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from
Vanderbilt
University
Law
School. She is an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue; and a candidate for the Master of Law in Taxation degree from
New York
University
Law
School.
