Catching Up With Rev. Willie Jennings
While growing up and at tending New Hope Baptist Church as a kid, there were some older extremely positive guys who I looked up to and watched graduate from high school and then go off to college. Unfortunately, some of them left for college and never came back to live in Grand Rapids after leaving the city to attend college out of state. One of those young men was Willie Jennings, who went off to seminary school and became a minister. In this article with the GR Times, he discusses his background, what he is currently doing, his family and more.
GRT: Where did you go after high school?
Rev. Jennings: These days I am teaching theology at Yale. I am also working on some book projects and doing a lot of traveling as safely as I can given the pandemic I am doing a lot by Zoom. So I have been teaching at the divinity school in the doctorate program and some under graduate teaching here at Yale. I have been here since 2015. I spent several years at Duke University.
GRT: When you left Grand Rapids after high school where did you go?
Rev. Jennings: I left Grand Rapids and went to seminary in Pasadena, California for three and a half years, and then I went to Durham, North Carolina where I my PHD at Duke University. I worked as a faculty member for almost twenty-five years and then I went to Yale.
GRT: When did you get married?
Rev. Jennings: I met a wonderful sister named Joanne in California who is Bermudian and we got married and we have been married for thirtythree years. We have two grown daughters now. My eldest daughter is twenty-eight years old and her name is Njeri and my youngest daughters name is Safiya. She is twenty-three years old and she lives in Baltimore, Maryland and both have finished college. My eldest is a museum educator and my youngest is a tech person who is a budding film documentary maker.
GRT: What do you want people in your hometown of Grand Rapids to know about you?
Rev. Jennings: I am still thankful for my wonderful upbringing at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and in the Black community in Grand Rapids and I want people to know that I am still that same little church boy.
GRT: I remember you playing and instrument during service at New Hope. What instrument did you play?
Rev. Jennings: I played the trombone when I got out of high school, but I don't play trombone anymore, these days I play the tenor saxophone. So I still do a little music on the side to have fun but I am a professor who is hard at working trying to educate the next generation of students.
GRT: How did what you learned being raised at New Hope Baptist Church help you out in the real "world".
Rev. Jennings: Growing up at New Hope benefited me because I had wonderful teachers at church. All the men and women who poured into me gave me so many life lessons. I leaned so much in Sunday School, BTU, church services, night services, singing in the choir and being involved in the church was the crucial training ground, in which I learned all of the necessary lessons I would need to be successful in life. So I am thankful for my life in the church.
GRT: In the household that you grew up in was going to church a choice for you?
Rev. Jennings: Oh no. I don't know anyone who is Black and grew up in Grand Rapids who had a choice as to whether or not they wanted to go to church or not. In my house, the choice was either go to church or get hurt. Not only was the church a place foe education, but it was also a place for entertainment and it kept a lot of young people off of the street and thus kept them out of trouble. The way I grew, I was at church most of the days of the week. I was at church on Saturday, all day on Sunday, Wednesday night for Bible study and then church on Thursday for choir rehearsal. For a while, I was going to church on Tuesday night for Junior Deacon training and usher board practice because I was also a church usher. As you can see, I was much too busy to be getting in any kind of trouble in the streets and that was a blessing.
GRT: How did your church background help you later in Life?
Rev. Jennings: Church kept me out of trouble and also taught me that I had things to do as far as responsibilities and that Sunday was coming so you should live your life always getting ready for Sunday and for that I will always appreciate what the church has done and I continue to try to help people to see what's at the heart of the Black community, which is the church. In these days, although there are less people who go to church, to me they are missing out on a wonderful, important place of civic training and a place where people can be and place where people can be affirmed and where people know your name or your family's name. That is what I want the people of Grand Rapids to know and remember about me. I learned so much, I grew so much and that I remained faithful in the work.
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