Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Williams.
Hi Tyler, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I did not go into ministry as a United Methodist Pastor thinking I would be a church planter. It kind of happened to me and when it did, it seemed right and good. I felt called to ministry as a senior in college at Duke University. However, it took me a while to answer that call. I worked as an immigration paralegal for a year but then finally said “yes” to God and entered Duke Divinity School in 2009, graduating in 2012. I served my first church in Rocky Mount. In 2016, my family moved from Rocky Mount, NC to Rolesville, NC with the task of planting a new United Methodist Church there. Rolesville was growing rapidly and showed great promise and potential for a United Methodist presence there. As I lived and learned in the community, a beautiful and compelling vision for a church there began to emerge. With a group of core leaders, we began to picture a church that was both committed to the power of a relationship with Jesus and also inclusive. A church that was deeply in, with and for the local community, serving and loving neighbors well. A church that would be all about belonging and meaningful relationships. What if it really does take a village to make and grow disciples of Jesus Christ? What if life is best lived together in community with others? What if church wasn’t a building, but who we are wherever we are? What if we can be passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus and committed to issues of justice and equity? Soon “Village Church Rolesville” began to take form. Our mission then is the same as our mission now: “Live like family. Love like Jesus.” As a pastor, I experience so much joy seeing people experience the power, transformation, and abundant life of life with Jesus and in community with others. I’m a connector. I love connecting with people whether they’ve been a part of church their whole life or not at all. I love connecting people with a heart for their community with the community’s needs. I love hearing people’s stories. I love using my Spanish and connecting and building relationships with the Hispanic/Latine community in Rolesville. I love creating space for people to gather together and become friends. Village Church Rolesville began in our home, in our living room and at our dinner table. I continue to see our church as an ever expanding table creating more space for more people to belong to God and to a family that loves them, becoming more like Jesus, and blessing neighbors!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth road. COVID presented a huge struggle for us as a church and for me personally as a pastor. We had only been worshipping for two years before the pandemic happened. Like many leaders, I had to pivot and figure out creative ways to keep people engaged, to create space for hope and grief, to make sure that our church would come out of the other side ok. There was so much just throwing things at the wall to see what would stick. I remember many nights going to sleep wondering if we would make it. At the same time, it was a season that really exposed my subconscious need to control. There was so much out of my control during that season. I realized God was working on that part of my heart and I moved into a greater place of trust.
As a church planter, I’ve had to learn how to delegate and let go of things that initially I had to do. That’s certainly not been easy. When you are a starter or entrepreneur of any sort, you know that when you’re beginning that new thing, so much of the responsibility falls upon you. You’re creating a team, you’re setting up your mission, vision and values, your trying to find a space, you’re getting to know the community and building relationships, you’re marketing and getting your name out there. Then once things are “up and running,” it can take a while to gradually release things because you’re so programmed to be spinning so many plates. I’ve stumbled forward with this and now am so grateful for all the people that are a part of Village Church Rolesville who are wonderful and empowered leaders.
Another struggle has been the temptation to merge worth and identity with the success of church and ministry. It’s no different for pastors as other professions. It can become very easy for our own sense of worth and value to be bound up with the ups and downs of our career. For example, when there is great congregational buy-in, when there are lots of new people showing up, when attendance is high, my sense of self elevates. When attendance is down, giving is down, people are responding to things, my sense of self decreases. To push back against that tendency, I constantly have to ground myself in my identity as a beloved child of God independent of what does or does not happen in ministry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Being a pastor is an odd and wonderful calling. In a way, it’s kind of like a bunch of jobs combined into one. Pastors are entrepreneurs, counselors, teachers, speakers/communicators, community organizers, caregivers all at the same time. I have the sacred honor of journeying with people through some of the most tender moments of life: birth, death, marriage, divorce and everything in between. I get to shepherd people into community and into a relationship with Jesus Christ. I get to proclaim the good news of the God who creates, rescues and restores God’s people and creation. I get to speak the truth about injustices that are not right. I get to help people discover their gifts and graces and empower them to use them to do good in our church and community. I get to listen to people share their stories, their hurts, the joys, their doubts. Sometimes I vacuum after an event in our church. Sometimes I check in with Spanish-speaking, immigrant neighbors after a food distribution to make sure they are ok. Sometimes I hold someone’s hand pray with them. Sometimes I teach about the Bible or about spiritual practices. Sometimes, I work with our Leadership Team to craft a new vision and strategic plan for our church. Sometimes I read and respond to a bunch of emails. Sometimes I create graphics for events, plan new sermon series and read the latest headlines. Sometimes I eat with youth. Sometimes, I do copycat prayers with children. Sometimes I baptize a child in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Sometimes I place a piece of bread into someone’s hand and say “The body of Christ, broken for you.” Sometimes I grab coffee with someone and listen to their story of church hurt. At the end the day, what I will always be most proud of is having some small part in more people coming to know Jesus Christ and experiencing his transforming love in their life so that they live differently and become vessels of that love in the places they live, work and play. It always causes me to give thanks when I hear people say, “I didn’t know church could be like this.”
How do you think about luck?
As a person of faith, I’m constantly reminded to give thanks for all of the blessings God has given. The Bible teaches that every good and perfect gift comes from above. The apostle Paul asks one of his churches, “What do you have that you have not received?” I think I reframe “luck” in terms of grace or blessing while also recognizing my own privilege as a white male. When people talk about “luck,” they generally mean success or failure brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. I believe in a God who created human beings in God’s image. We have been given agency and free choice. I also believe in a God who is not removed from the human experience, but present and at work through human beings. When bad things have happened in my life or at church, I do not attribute them to bad luck, nor to God, but to the brokenness embedded in our human choices and systems. When good things have happened, I give thanks for the people and the God who have helped that goodness come about. I do recognize that while some things have happened because of work and effort that I have put in, so many more good things have come about completely unexpectedly as a gift of grace. I certainly have not “earned” most of the goodness and blessings in my life or in my church.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vcrolesville.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vcrolesville/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vcrolesville
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vcrolesville
