“I think that what the Black Church should model and what it is that I'm trying to implement at Third Baptist Church is what Dr. King coined ‘the beloved community’.”
Taylon Lancaster is senior pastor at Third Baptist Church, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and a second-year master of divinity degree candidate at Harvard Divinity School. Lancaster is in the unique position of pairing his studies at HDS with lived community. He has been an interlocutor between theory and practice throughout his time at Clark Atlanta University. Currently, he seeks to expand his congregation’s vision of the gospel to include a holistic sense of ministry and inclusivity.
Reflecting on Upbringing within the Baptist Church
I am a native of the small town of Bartow, Florida, and relocated to Dallas, Texas, in high school. In 2018, I moved to Atlanta, to pursue a bachelor of arts degree in religion and philosophy at an HBCU, Clark Atlanta University. Layered with my upbringing in Florida and Texas, it is really what prepared and propelled me into not only ministry but also into spaces like Harvard Divinity School.
I'm a fourth-generation preacher, raised primarily by a single mother and loving grandparents that set the foundation of what it is that I see as family, love, and real impact. Those persons, my mother, and my grandparents—and this is not to exclude my father but to rather suggest that that nuclear family that I had that was very much untraditional—allowed for me to see the value of church. My grandparents are still avid churchgoers and contributors to their home church in Bartow, Florida. That, partnered with my mother's faith and hard work, is really what made me who I am.
The church in Bartow was Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. I'm Baptist-born, Baptist-bred, and in the words of my father, I'll be Baptist when I'm dead. It is that church that gave me the opportunity to embody spirituality being a percussionist. I became the church drummer at seven years old. I think of that as synonymous now with preaching, wherein preaching is utilizing the sound of the prophetic voice. I was also baptized by my father, the Rev. Timothy Lancaster, and my pastor, Pastor Pickett. And this is really a full circle moment in my life and ministry because my pastor and my father both preached during my pastoral installation celebration weekend at Third Baptist Church in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Discovering Ministry as Calling in Atlanta
Initially, at Clark Atlanta University, I came in as a business major and quickly discovered that I wasn't into all of this business language and said to myself, “OK, what are you driven by?” Prior to me going to Clark Atlanta University, my eldest brother was electrocuted. I wrestled with the theodicy of God and with the question of “Did my brother get an opportunity to fulfill his purpose?” Here I was in 2018, 18 years old, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God had placed something inside of me that would be utilized to help others. As a result of that, I said, “You know what, let me walk over to the religion department.”
Dr. Dunston, who was dean of the religion and philosophy department at Clark Atlanta University, advised me to switch majors, choosing to switch to religion and philosophy. I stayed in the religion and philosophy department, but I was still a student campus leader. I was freshman class president my first year, the inaugural Mr. Sophomore, and a eulogist at Willie Watkins Funeral Home, which allowed me to preach regularly for grieving families. Here I was, as a religion and philosophy major, who had just overcome grief. I had just been in the front row, and now I'm preaching to those who are also on that front row, who have just lost a loved one.
I also had the opportunity to serve as a young adult pastor at New Mountain Top Baptist church in Douglasville, Georgia, and working there allowed me to situate my ministry in a local community. I think that was vitally important because you can have lofty ideals of what you want to do with ministry, but it's not until you begin to pastor your kin and your kind that you discover church structures and dynamics, along with the multi-generational approach to ministry that is sometimes undervalued. So, between student and religious leadership, being a pastor at Third Baptist Church, being an academic, and serving as president of Harambee, has really been developed through my HBCU experience in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Transition into Post-Graduate Leadership
I think that what we have to understand is that no matter if you're in your own religious tradition or you're in the academy producing theories, methods, and theologies, what we cannot undervalue in any space—whether it is the Black Church or the academy—is lived experience.
There was a scholar that I was introduced to named C. Eric Lincoln. He worked at Clark Atlanta University for a great time and wrote about the African American religious experience. Lincoln is a contributing scholar to my work as he talks about how the Black Church is an epicenter and site for social transformation, hope, and liberation for African American folks and people of color. I think that what the Black Church should model and what it is that I'm trying to implement at Third Baptist Church is what Dr. King coined “the beloved community,” wherein which we promote holistic services and cater to holistic ministry while still addressing social inequalities through worship practices.
Mentorship and Finding Harvard Divinity School
A few individuals have selflessly given of themselves to ensure my academic success at Harvard Divinity School and in parish ministry. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., who is the founding dean of Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, and Dr. Phillip Dunston at Clark Atlanta University. Pastor Marcus McCullough and Rev. Charles Hill, also contributed to my journey, who are both HDS graduates. As a result of Rev. Hill’s direct impartation, he advised me to apply to HDS. I was fortunate enough to work at his establishment, the Hill Social, which is on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. He even wrote a letter of recommendation for me and that's really what propelled me, because being from Bartow, Florida, I dreamed of becoming a pastor, but I never imagined going to Harvard. I attribute much of my being here to Charles Hill, and I attribute a lot of my success and even the open door at Third Baptist Church to Marcus McCullough, who I met last year.
When you think of the alumni-student relationship that has been established within the African American community, I would say it's awe-inspiring to know that I have brothers and sisters who have gone before me and are still reaching back to hand the baton to open up doors.
Assuming the Role of Senior Pastor at Third Baptist Church
Toward the end of my first year at HDS, I went to preach there twice, and they asked me to interview for the position, which became a life-changing opportunity. I think outside of my youthfulness, which is what they needed, outside of my ability to proclaim the gospel across generations, ministry for me exists beyond the four walls of the church, much like it did for Jesus. In the coming years with Third Baptist Church, we'll begin to embark upon community development projects, in affordable housing, creating services to counteract substance abuse, and even grief services that offer resources like counseling.
I was not expecting to do it this soon, but I believe that the words of Paul are true: to never allow anyone to despise you because of your youth. And we, at times in the Black Church, we're ageist. We're sexist. But the reality is that the gospel in which we promote and we profess is that the church is built upon is the gospel of acceptance and that God can use anyone despite their age, despite their color, despite their creed, and even despite their past. And so, with that in mind, I didn't expect to be this young pastoring, but I believe that God has placed all that I need within me to do what God is calling me to do. In coming here, I did have aspirations to be a senior pastor. In fact, I turned down a pastoral opportunity in Dallas, Georgia. It broke my heart to leave Atlanta, to decline the opportunity to pastor in undergrad, but I had to discover that God will sometimes break your heart to blow your mind. And that's what God has done.
Functioning as a Connector between Academics and Lived Community
I also would like to say that I am not the first at Harvard Divinity School to pastor while they're in school. The late imitable Dr. Charles Gilchrist Adams did it in the ’60s as a Divinity School student. Dr. Brandon Thomas Crowley pastored going into his second year, and Dr. Delman Coates was an interim pastor his second year as well. So, I look at it as following in the tradition of African American prophetic preaching, because that's not the same as just regular preaching.
The African American prophetic preaching tradition prepares you in ways that I believe are invaluable. The first Black graduate student, W. E. B. Du Bois, gave us a theoretical framework—double consciousness. I believe that to be African American presents us with a double consciousness, but I believe that I have to operate not only with a double consciousness but with a triple consciousness now, not only as an African American male but as one who understands that I have to translate things that are given and gifted to me in these spaces that are great. They help you build the intellectualism needed to engage with the Black Church and across disciplines. However, the terminology, the language, and the theories that are given to me help to frame my mindset when preaching. One of my mentors told me this: “You have to utilize what you learn to preach and not preach what you learn.” It is my hope to not only create more pathways for inclusivity and for holistic ministry, but to also heighten the trajectory of what's possible through the Black Church.
One course that helped with this is “African American Religious History” with HDS Professor Dr. Ahmad Green-Hayes. It built upon what I had discovered in Clark Atlanta University with a newfound perspective. That perspective was, to me, understanding the expansiveness of Blackness and that the sacred communities that Black people have been able to inhabit are beyond the Black Church. I think it's important, in the twenty-first century, that we understand that the site of social transformation is not only the Black Church, but it's now through organizations like Black Lives Matter. It's now through nonprofits and agencies. It's now through people who are doing the work that is needed to address the problems we're facing now. I believe that we're in the age of what Cornell Brooks calls “multilingual advocacy,” and that we need each other. We need to collaborate across denominations, across religions, for interfaith dialogue and collaboration. But more importantly, that's going to help us in the long run to really grab one another by the hand and make the world a better place.
Facilitating Relationship between Third Baptist Church and the Community
It's a dualistic approach for me, and number one, I want my members to accept the duality that you're not only called to help steward, to the best of your ability this historic institution (Third Baptist Church), but it's also your responsibility to go forth and spread the love of God. I'll never forget as a young kid, I remembered seeing a sign on the outside of my church: “Enter to worship, exit to serve.” I preached the gospel each and every week that all the stuff we do here does not matter if we don't impact the people who are outside in the community, which is the same way I view theory and practicality—that all the things we learn in the hallowed halls of Harvard Divinity School is utilized to enact change in the culture and in the world.
Looking Ahead with Faith and an Open Mind
I don't know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future. And with that being said, I just want my life to be a testament of what God can do, and I want to once again create more pathways for collaboration with the Black Church, more specifically Third Baptist Church. I do intend to write my thesis on the transaction that's taking place between the pew and the pulpit and how it is that my preaching has informed the marriage between my vision that I have for Third Baptist Church and how it is that I have been able to preach across channels.
To study the importance of that, I will be doing somewhat of a canonicalization of sermons. I am also looking at pursuing a doctorate. I don't know if that's a doctor of ministry or a PhD. I don't know if I'm looking at possibly an MBA as well. So, I look at myself as one who is going to be a public figure, endeavoring to lead with a servanthood mentality but across disciplines and ways of life.
And for me, life isn't linear, which is why I say holistic. I don't see myself in one role, one position. I see myself doing my best to bring about community, whether that's in Black communities or not. Because I've been able to go to Liberia through the Religion and Public Life program, because I've been able to go to Israel and preach in both of those spaces, I have opportunities to realize that I'm called to make the world a better place. So, I don't know what the future holds or what I may do, but I know that I want all the work that I do to impact others and create a beloved community.
—Interview conducted and edited by Rachel Mallett, HDS news correspondent