Rev. Marcus Tillery takes over as Community Church pastor

Noah Manskar
The Rev. Marcus Tillery, the new pastor at the Community Church of East Williston, speaks at Monday's East Williston Board of Trustees meeting. (Photo by Noah Manskar)

The Community Church of East Williston has a new permanent pastor after a two-year search.

The Rev. Marcus Tillery led his first sermon on July 3 at the interdenominational Protestant church on East Williston Avenue. This is his first pastoral job since his graduation in May from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.

Tillery, 57, replaces the Rev. Dan Fritz, another Princeton graduate who served as interim pastor for nearly two years. Fritz helped recruit Tillery from the seminary earlier this year.

Tillery is working to learn how the church intersects with the broader community as he meets with church members and other local organizations, he said.

“The idea that we step outside of the church into the community, and to understand the role that each of the members see in terms of their church life and how it relates to their community life, is perhaps what’s most important for me,” Tillery said.

A 12-person search committee reviewed at least 200 resumes and interviewed 10 candidates before unanimously choosing Tillery, said Mark Danielson, the chair of the church’s Board of Elders.

Tillery is the church’s first permanent pastor since the Rev. Forrest Parkinson, who served from 2008 until he resigned in 2012 amid a dispute within the congregation over his pastoral style.

Fritz was one of three interim pastors who provided strong leadership to keep the church community stable after Parkinson’s departure, Danielson said.

The committee was drawn to Tillery’s interdenominational background and engaging personality, Danielson said, which he thinks will attract some congregants who have not been as present in the church.

About 70 people have attended all of Tillery’s services so far, more than usual for mid-summer, Danielson said. The church has about 125 active members.

“People that hear him keep coming because he’s such a dynamic minister,” Danielson said.

East Williston is a change of scenery for Tillery, who grew up in Tillery, North Carolina, a small, rural town in the eastern part of the state.

He graduated from North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro and went on to teach plastics engineering and serve as an administrator at four different colleges.

Tillery grew up in National Baptist Convention churches and was first licensed to preach in 2001 at the Haw River Missionary Baptist Church in Pittsboro, North Carolina, while he was working at his alma mater.

The Community Church’s “interdenominational focus” is something Tillery welcomes, he said. He entered Princeton, a Presbyterian seminary, in 2014, interned at the interdenominational Riverside Church in Manhattan and also served as an interim pastor at two Presbyterian churches, he said.

Since taking over the pulpit at the Community Church, Tillery has been meeting with local elected officials, church members and other community leaders, he said. He introduced himself to residents at Monday’s East Williston village Board of Trustees meeting.

Such meetings will help Tillery develop a “strategic vision” for the church as he gets to know the community better, he said.

Tillery’s goal is “understanding where they’re headed, what their vision is for the community and then navigating our space within that,” he said.

The Community Church holds weekly services at 10 a.m. each Sunday at 45 East Williston Ave.

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