Our Leader
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Rev. Jonathan Tennial
Reverend Tennial is a native of Chicago, Illinois. A sixth-generation preacher, Reverend Tennial first felt the divine calling of the Gospel ministry at the age of 16, however, he did not actively pursue this vocation until he was a seminarian at the Divinty School at Wake Forest University. A musician at heart, Reverend Tennial has served various congregations in their music ministries including:
- New Zion City Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois
- Greater Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois
- New life Church of Christ (Holiness) USA, New Orleans, LA
- Freedom Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC
- Hanes Memorial CME Church, Winston-Salem, NC
In July of 2015, Reverend Tennial was called to become Pastor-In-Residence at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, through the Transition into the Ministry Program better know as TiM. This program is funded jointly by the Concord’s Congregation and the Lilly Endowment. The transition into Ministry (TiM) program for over 2 in a half years, helped seminary graduates cultivate and nurture pastoral vocation transitioning into full-time congregation ministries. He holds a Bachelor of Art in Mass Communications-Broadcast from Xavier University of Louisiana and a Master of Divinity from Wake Forest University.
Reverend Tennial was licensed to preach the Gospel at the New Zion City Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois on September 11, 2011, where his grandfather, the Reverend Willie Runnels is pastor. On June 24, 2012 he was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the Baptist Ministers Fellowship of Chicago and Vicinity. Upon graduating from the Divinity School at Wake Forest University in 2013 he was awarded the inaugural Worship Leadership Award for the student that exemplifying outstanding leadership in worship life of the Divinity School. He continued his training of the ministry at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina under the guidance of Reverend Dr. John Mendez . It was during this time that he also served as Chaplin Resident at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, earning four units of Clinical Pastoral Education.
