Brooklyn: Antioch Baptist Church
As gentrification changes the neighborhood, a Bed-Stuy church finds creative and innovative ways to stay open.
It’s a clear, summer morning in Bed-Stuy, a neighborhood not known for its quietness. Even so, the sounds this area makes on a Sunday is a little different than during the week. Gospel choirs echo throughout the neighborhood, their vibrations coming through the stone walls and roofs for most of the morning and sometimes into the early afternoon.
Which why when walking down Greene Avenue off Lewis Avenue, the sounds of gospel music are different here. They are louder and clear. Almost like they are there, in the open air.
That is because they are. The worship music is coming from the yard of Antioch Baptist Church, which has been around for nearly 107 years, 75 of them in Bed-Stuy. The church holds services outside under a large, white tent to lower its energy bills, and to even to attract new members, who may get curious when they hear the excited gospel sounds.
“It’s outreach versus coming in,” says Reverend Dr. Robert M. Waterman, who will be leading this church for 24 years this November.
Building up Antioch Baptist, or re-building it, is Reverend Waterman and the rest of team at Antioch Baptist’s goal. Gentrification and the deed thefts that came along with it forced many previous members to leave the neighborhood. Just like many other Houses of Worship, this one has struggled to recover its attendance rate from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID did a lot of damage,” Rev. Waterman says. “So we constantly have to do outreach.”
He added that on this particular Sunday morning, 500 people watched the livestream of the service.
Doing outreach for this church means coming up with innovative ideas and choosing the people to implement those innovations. This includes expanding their social media presence and creating an AV team to livestream Sunday services.
Healthcare is one of Antioch Baptist’s main social issues, and it had its own ministry, overseen by Dr. Phtoye. There is also a health fair team, led by Alicia Edwards. Both the ministry and the health fair have run blood drives and offer to test blood pressure at those drives, and talk to church members about choosing a healthy life.
“We constantly have to create,” says Dr. Phtoye. “Or our future will dim.”
The Reverend nods. “We need to continue to thrive. If not, we’d be like other churches. So, we’re really trying.”
What Reverend Waterman is referring to when he says, “other churches”, is the impact of gentrification on Bed-Stuy. For decades, the neighborhood had been predominately Black with its many churches reflecting the worship style of Black Christians. Some of these churches, like Antioch Baptist, have been around for decades.
But as gentrification descended on Bed-Stuy, so did increased rents and deed thefts, forcing many Black families to leave the homes their families have occupied for generations. According to the NYU Furman Center, in 2000, Black people made up of nearly 80% of the neighborhood. As of 2019-2023, the percentage was almost half that amount at 40%. Meanwhile, the white population has increased by about 20%.
The Reverend notes that when Antioch Baptist came to Bed-Stuy in 1949, the white flight of the 1940’s was happening, shifting the neighborhood’s demographics. Now with gentrification, another shift is taking place, and Bed-Stuy’s Black churches are feeling it.
“A lot of churches closed or struggling,” Waterman says. “It’s a time to accept what’s happening. The Kingdom has no color, no matter what. We try to incorporate all of our cultures.”
Dr. Phtoye is of Burmese background, and his parents were Catholic and Buddhist. His two sons work with the AV team. He agrees Antioch Baptist is open to all.
“It’s all about community,” he says. “When you experience our church, the next step is to stay. People can sense the heart.”
However, Rev. Waterman admits that adjusting to the neighborhood changes means re-seeing worship and ministry. The big question, he says, is how do you minister and worship without color when the culture is there?
“We try to make it with culture without color,” he explains.
One way Antioch Baptist ministers in the new Bed-Stuy is by engaging with rabbis and imams in the neighborhood and beyond to combat racism and anti-Semitism, and social justice issues. Rev. Waterman has partnered with Rabbi Rachel Timoner, who heads Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope over speaking out on deed thefts and high rents.
“They believe in a greater God and the greater good,” he says. “There’s different pathways to God.”
Antioch Baptist Church has seen many developments since its inception in 1918 by North Carolina native, Reverend Moses Prophet Paylor, D.D. The church’s first neighborhood was in Downtown Brooklyn and had a few locations before finding its permanent site in Bed-Stuy. It bought its building from The Greene Avenue Baptist Church. It’s interiors have stained glass windows illuminating the church from the sides and the back. It’s organ pipes are decades old. While the inside of Antioch Baptist may look like an auditorium, one could only imagine what the thrill of worship looks like here as compared to the white tent outside during the summer.
Perhaps the goal of attracting new members is about to take place. Towards the end of the service, several new members stood before Rev. Waterman to join Antioch Baptist. While most live in Bed-Stuy, some like in Brownsville and even Harlem. One teenager, a boy of 16 years, had a rite of passage ceremony as a few men prayed over him. He had attended the church’s retreat last year and was eager to go again.
This is one of the first outside services for Antioch Baptist, and Rev. Waterman is calling them Tent Summer Revival.
“This is our wilderness moment,” he tells the congregation. “God is going to do it within two months. Life can change in a day. You need radical acceptance in your faith. God will make it happen.”
Even though Antioch is facing many challenges in a quickly changing neighborhood, Waterman is optimistic that his church will stay around, albeit cautiously optimistic.
“We’re just blessed to stay open,” he says. “God is here, the culture is here.”
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