Preacher for General Synod aims to cultivate deep belonging, deep hope

On most Sundays at First Congregational Church of Memphis, the Rev. Tony Coleman delivers his sermons surrounded by large, brightly colored art and a diverse group of congregants gathered in a circular arrangement.

First Congo, as the church is often called, includes three buildings that house the church’s food justice ministry, a bike co-op, a hostel – but “the center of gravity,” as Coleman described it, is the sanctuary.

When a group of United Church of Christ National staff traveled to Memphis in January to hold a national interfaith service and mass meeting, General Minister and President the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson and several others gathered in this sanctuary for worship.

“A lot of folks know First Congo but they don’t exactly know what the UCC is, so this was a really lovely point of connection for people to not only understand that we are one of three UCC churches in Memphis, but to actually understand in a fuller way that we are part of this larger body.”

After the service, within the hustle and bustle of the handshake line, Thompson invited Coleman to preach at this summer’s General Synod on the spot.

“His message was timely, relevant,” Thompson said, adding that Coleman is a leader that the broader church should get to know. “He has a pastor’s heart, which is evident from his sermons and the ways he interacts with the congregations and community he serves. He will bring a prophetic message for the church in these times.”

Coleman felt humbled and totally surprised by the invitation and immediately said yes without any further details. “My other thought was, ‘Damn. That must have been a good sermon,’” he added.

Coleman will be the preacher for General Synod’s closing worship service on July 15, which is one of three worship services to be held during the denominational gathering July 11-15 in Kansas City, Missouri. Registration for General Synod is open now.

Nurturing hope and community

While Coleman now serves as First Congo’s senior pastor, he first set foot in a UCC church during his senior year at Williams College in rural Western Massachusetts when the church hosted an event of the college’s student social justice group. Soon, he started attending.

“It was so different than any church I’d gone to before,” he said. He had attended and visited churches primarily in the South around Memphis where he grew up. “Being in this place where people were intentionally nurturing hope and nurturing community – it felt very powerful.”

It was during that time he decided to begin divinity school in 2014, and he spent time back in Memphis interning at First Congo. There, he met then-Senior Pastor Cheryl Cornish.

“She became a mentor and helpful guide in understanding what this work is and its power and its potential,” he said. “Cheryl and the staff and congregants are in so many ways the opposite of stereotypes about churches – rather than being people who say, ‘We’re doing this because this is the way we’ve always done it,’ they’re people who say, ‘Hey, why don’t we try this because we’ve never done it?’ That was just so inspirational and exciting to me.”

Cornish led the church as it became Open and Affirming in 1991. As the congregation continued growing in the early 2000’s, they decided to move from their more traditional church building.

With an interest in centering art within worship, “they wanted to redesign the sanctuary as a canvas,” Coleman said. This is now reflected in the unique space Church Congo has created as home with high ceilings for hanging banners and art, and a wooden floor with a labyrinth built into it.

“The church became a beacon of progressive Christianity in Memphis,” Coleman said.

Good news in a divisive climate

As a pastor, Coleman seeks to set the tone for cultivating belonging as central in the church community.

“Church has to set building community and a sense of belonging over trying to nurture adherence to certain beliefs,” he said. “Part of what we have to do as churches is help people learn a sense of being in community and how to ask for help. Folks end up floating through churches and quietly holding deep pain they don’t know how to share. To say the center of our story is suffering and death is to say that it’s permissible here for you to break down in worship in tears. If you feel like decorum and being a mess prevents you from being in church on Sunday, we’re not doing something right.”

First Congo is a congregation comprised of artists, activists, and people of diverse ages and backgrounds – many involved in the church’s food justice ministry that distributes food on weekdays and organizes volunteers to rescue food from restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away.

“I often refer to it as the island of misfit toys,” Coleman said. “So many people in one way or another have felt let down, left out by families, or fill-in-the-blank. It’s a place where a lot of people end up who’ve been wounded in one way or another and don’t fit in the pews of other places.”

Building a sense of belonging has been particularly central in a time when many people are facing, as he described, a “loneliness epidemic” and a divisive political climate. The church, though, has a crucial role to play in this.

“People come to church, I think, for good news,” Coleman said. “What’s the good news in a divisive climate if not that it doesn’t have to be divisive. There are ways we can find commonality and be in community whether it’s in this sanctuary or with – particularly in the South – our family and friends who might hold a radically different set of policies. There’s still hope for us to be in relationship because we are called to not cut out or call out enemies, but to love them. That means something. If it doesn’t mean anything now, then it never means anything.”

Deep commitment, deep hope

First Congo is part of the UCC Missouri Mid-South Conference, one of the two sponsoring conferences of the upcoming General Synod. Conference Minister the Rev. Mary Nelson, said she has witnessed Coleman’s gift for deep listening in meetings when his comments tend to offer something to “ground every discussion in our faith in a way that crystalizes and expands everyone’s thinking at the same time.”

“Rev. Tony Coleman is, in my opinion, one of the best preachers in the UCC today,” she said. “He’s thoughtful in his craft and thought-provoking in his message. Tony has the ability to speak across generational and geographical experiences, bringing together a diverse congregation to get at the heart of what is universal about our faith,” she said.

As he considers his message for July’s General Synod – which has the theme “Into the Deep,” – Coleman is considering his experience as a millennial who grew up in age of digital friendships and dating apps. He said that sometimes these tools can make it seem like new friends and communities are always available, but he’s been considering the depth and value that comes from rooting deeply and committing to communities over time.

“We’re in a time when every single norm and boundary is being tested. So in the midst of all that, knowing what we should commit to, what is our deepest commitment as church, as Christians, feels more important now than it has for a long time,” he said.

For Coleman, when many are lacking or seeking hope, it is the work of the church to reveal that hope has always, and still does, exist.

“I feel really blessed to be at the church I’m at, at in the time we’re in,” he said. “So many of us are looking for hope, and I feel blessed that that’s our business. We’re out here for hope – not blind, shallow, silly hope, but real deep, ancient hope. If we let ourselves, as churches and pastors, we can experience a whole new kind of relevance and aliveness in our work. In so many ways, what’s happening in our culture is an echo of what was happening in the Gospels, what was happening in Egypt, and in so many moments in our stories. If we can stay focused on that, there’s so much potential there.

“I feel lucky that I get to make that my work.”

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