Pastor Leverette Bryant: Leading a Historic Church in a Changing Neighborhood

Gentrification is reshaping the neighborhood, but Pastor Bryant is steering this seasoned church with confidence, flair and an emphasis on bringing in the youth.

The First Baptist Congregational Church is undergoing a renovation. The building, which survived the Chicago Fire of 1871, now has scaffolding along its exterior and protective fixtures over its stained-glass windows. It’s getting a facelift, so it can sustain itself for years to come. Inside, the work continues – and so does a different kind of rebuilding, led by the church’s new pastor. His goal: to make sure the church doesn’t lose its voice in a neighborhood that’s rapidly changing.

A peek inside the massive First Baptist Congregational Church.

“The business of church is people,” Bryant said. “And the first contact is those who are your neighbors. I want people to know we have resources that can help with whatever they have going on in life.”

On the Near West Side of Chicago, the FBCC faces a critical moment. Once a thriving community hub, the church has seen membership drop amid neighborhood redevelopment, and its leaders are working to bring young families back through its doors.

Several members attribute the decline to shifting neighborhood demographics after the demolition of public housing and the construction of newer developments, along with an internal hesitation toward adopting new ideas.

But members are hopeful that Bryant can help reverse the trend.

“I do believe that we are starting to see a change,” said Kandyse McCoy-Cunningham, 55, a self-proclaimed “First Baptist baby” because she’s been attending the church all her life.

“Especially now that we have a new pastor who’s younger and more in tune with the neighborhood.”

Summer Gilty, 18, leads FBCC’s Audio Visual team. She served as a youth representative during Bryant’s selection as pastor in August. He was her top choice from the start.

“He wanted to make sure that the youth was fairly represented in the leadership at the church,” Gilty said. “We weren’t just attending, but we had a seat at the table.”

Pastor Bryant sits in his office at FBCC.

Bryant has an ambitious vision for the church. He has connected with local political leaders, neighborhood officials and even the Chicago Bulls, who have supported the church’s food drives. Through outreach to elementary schools, and a more active social media presence, he wants to remind families that the church is not only a place of worship but also offers programs and services to support the community.

Gilty said she values Bryant’s focus on youth outreach and social media – and his personality, she added, makes him stand out.

“Because he’s not stiff,” Gilty said. “He’s very outgoing and engaged”

It’s undeniable that Bryant is outgoing. He makes his presence known. As he walks through the church, he greets everyone by name, often saying he’s happy to see them, offering the occasional pat on the back, always beaming and ready to chat.

For a long time, Bryant tried to be something other than a pastor, but he couldn’t shake it. First, he wanted to be a doctor, then a lawyer. Maybe it was his love of public speaking, honed from memorizing and delivering Mother’s Day and Easter speeches at church. Or maybe it was the Bible study sessions with his grandmother, who gave him and his friends homemade tea cakes and ice cream while she taught them about faith. But the calling kept coming back.

In 1994, he realized this was his path while listening to cassette tapes of Dr. Freddie Haynes preaching at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

“I heard [Haynes] preach and it was nothing like what everyone else was doing,” Bryant said. “My heart was beating.”

“That’s how I want to do it,” Bryant said.

He took his first ministerial position at First Timothy Baptist Church in the South Side in 1997. In August of this year, he became pastor at FBCC in Chicago’s Near West Side, and the congregation has welcomed him warmly.

A basketball court inside the church campus. Now neglected, Pastor Bryant hopes to restore it in the future.

FBCC is a tight-knit community, with several members having attended the church for their entire life.

“It’s like a big family,” Bryant said.

Like at any new job, he says there’s a testing period as people get to know him, but he’s proving himself every day.

“I’ve told them several times over,” Bryant said. “I am an intentionally nice person. You can accidentally be a mean person, but in order to be nice, it has to be intentional.”

“He’s corny cool,” McCoy-Cunningham said. “He’ll say some stuff and I’ll be like ‘didn’t you run that by your kids before you said it’?”

“But the one thing that stands out with him, is that he’s really genuine,” McCoy-Cunningham said. “It doesn’t feel forced. I think he genuinely loves the church. Like we really love him, you know?”

The area is seeing new construction, including a recently announced modern mega church complex, but Bryant isn’t concerned about its effect on FBCC.

“Their style feels more like a Google office,” he said. “And that’s fine, but we all like to go home.”

Bryant smiles and leans back before adding, “No matter how many people I see lining up at Starbucks, nobody would rely on Starbucks to cook their collard greens.”