Meet our new Peace Church Coordinator: Daniel Xisto
We recently welcomed Daniel Xisto into the role of Peace Church Coordinator, replacing Lisa Diller who had served in this capacity prior to becoming APF co-director. Daniel brings with him a wealth of experience and a deep passion for justice and mercy. We know you will recognize his heart of compassion, and we hope you consider becoming a part of the growing Peace Church Network.
APF: Daniel, you are a pastor at the Takoma Park SDA Church in Maryland just outside of the District of Columbia. Tell us a little about your story. What drew you to pastoral ministry, and how would you describe your pastoral passions?
Daniel: My earliest memories are of wanting to be close to God. I grew up in a Catholic home and went to Catholic school and was completely immersed in the divine. There was such beauty in the reverence and the awe of the Lord that I was unswervingly drawn to God and knew from a very early age that there was absolutely nothing else that I wanted to do with my life other than be close to Jesus.
During my high school and college years, all that went out the window. God took a back seat to sex, drugs, and rock and roll—well growing up in the part of New York that I did it was more like rap and hip hop. I drifted from faith, graduated with a business degree, and started working for an advertising company on 42nd Street in Manhattan.
A friend invited me to church one day, Grand Concourse SDA Church in the Bronx, and over the course of a few months, all of the intimate feelings that I had as a child toward God, feelings that I had suppressed, came flooding back! It was like I found something that I forgot was mine. It felts so good to be close to God again!
I was baptized at Grand Concourse, and after a successful ten years in business, I gladly quit my job to learn as much as I could about Jesus and my newfound faith. I felt as if I had a lot of catching up to do because I had wasted so much time. So I enrolled at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary in Berrien Springs and soaked in every single moment, every class, every discussion, every exam, every paper, every worship, everything!
During my three years at Seminary, I grew in my love for God and my love for neighbor. Passages like Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58 rocked my world and reminded me of the God I knew growing up, the God that I learned about in the Catholic church, the God who cared about the least of these and gave His life for them. That awe and drawn to me
Daniel at a peaceful protest in downtown Washington DC.
What draws you to peace and justice work?
Studying the life of Jesus, has quite literally radicalized mine. I am not sure how anyone who claims to follow Jesus can be drawn to anything but peace and justice. How can we divorce the work of peace from the gospel? How can we separate justice from the good news? Religion without them is useless. “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Being a pastor has never been an easy work, and there are so many pressures and expectations to navigate. The last few years have shown an increase in the politicization of ideas, and seemingly deeper divides in religious ideology. How do you work to create peace in the church communities you serve?
There are as many ways to serve and create peace as there are people and I have been so honored to be a part of projects that have made a difference in people’s lives. One such project that is front and center for our church right now is advocating for South Lake Elementary School, a local public school, which is in dire need of repair.
South Lake Elementary has 897 brilliant students, with loving and caring parents and caregivers, which are all held up by the world class teaching staff at the school. Sadly, the infrastructure does not match the brilliance, loving nature, or world class-ness of the people.
South Lake students have a health room that is not up to code, it’s 200 square feet and needs to be at least three times that size just to meet the state’s minimum requirement. There is no space for privacy, or rest, or anything really. Children who are sick have to sit on the floor in the hall because there is not enough room. Not only that, South Lake students have 14 portables. 14 trailers that are being called classrooms! It is so bad that the South Lake’s playground is being paved over. The playground is being paved over to make space for parking because the current parking lot is overrun by these portables. In the winter children wear coats while taking test, and in the summer, children have gotten heat stroke because of an faulty HVAC system.
The question becomes: how could we allow this? Well, there is one other piece of information about the students at South Lake that might shed light as to how: 88% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and over 90% are Black or Latinx. It is hard not to see race, either explicit or implicit, as a factor.
Instead of preaching the gospel at these families, our church is showing them the gospel by organizing change, speaking up at county school board meetings, calling and meeting with the county council who ultimately have the authority to fund new construction, by holding a press conference about what is happening at South Lake and raising awareness in our community. We are fighting for this school with everything we have. And guess who is fight along side with us? Jesus!
2020 has been unbelievably difficult for so many and I imagine your role as husband, father, pastor, and friend has been tested by the stresses of life. How do you care for yourself and bolster your strength for the difficulties of life?
I have been working on a rule of life in which I try to identify things that I strive to do every day, every week, every month and every year. Some of the highlights are as follows. Every day I need to journal, go for a walk with my son, and spend time on the couch with my wife where we are not distracted by anything else, but looking at each other and sharing about our day. Weekly, I need a day away from my laptop, a day where I eat chocolate, and at least four days that I work out (I am failing here, but I make up for it by eating more chocolate). I aspire to meet with a mentor once a month. And once a year I need to go on a spiritual retreat, go on a family vacation, and hang with my brother-in-law Andy.
Any books or movies that have been especially inspiring and moving for you? A few books that are at the top of my list currently:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Book of Forgiving by Desmond Tutu
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Waking Up White by Debbie Irving
Christ in Crisis by Jim Wallis
Educated by Tara Westover
The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
These are all must watch movies:
Queen & Slim
When They See Us
Hamilton (the musical by Lin Manuel Miranda)
Les Miserable (both the musical with Hugh Jackman and the movie with Liam Neeson)
Sometimes in April
Queer Eye (Not a movie, but dang the Fab 5 ROCK!)
Disneynature’s African Cats narrated by Samuel Jackson and Elephants narrated by Megan Markle. This is literally not a joke, my son got me into these and you will cry! The music, the story, the everything! Wow! Start with these two and then go watch the others.
Bonus material: YouTube Cornel West and Bryan Stevenson and soak in the wisdom.
As the new Peace Church Coordinator replacing Lisa Diller, what are some ideas and hopes you have for this role in connecting leaders and church groups to the network?
I want to get us connected on social media, I want us to perhaps gather virtually once a quarter to share ideas, I love the thought of a book club, there are so many things that we can do to learn from and encourage one another. Looking forward to seeing how God leads us deeper into community with one another.
If you are a church member or even belong to a small lay group, please consider joining the Peace Church network to share and connect with other people doing the beloved work of peacemaking and justice in your own communities.