Adding a fourth generation of Thurstons to the pulpit of New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side, Rev. Stephen Thurston II has been installed as the congregation’s newest pastor.
Thurston, 26, joins his father, Rev. Stephen John Thurston, who was elected last year as president of the National Baptist Convention of America.
“I believe God has chosen our church and our family for a purpose,” Thurston II said in an interview from Atlanta, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in divinity at McAfee School of Theology.
He hopes to bridge the generation gap in the church’s ministry.
“I want to help my dad raise the bar a little higher,” he said. “I’m not afraid to approach the drug dealer, hang out with him and invite him to church.”
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Rev. Elijah Thurston, the new pastor’s great-grandfather, founded the church, at East 77th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue, as New Covenant Church in 1934. Stained-glass portraits of other pastors–including his son and grandson–and their wives surround the church’s sanctuary.
The younger Thurston said he grew up wanting to be a real-estate developer, not a preacher. He will supervise construction of New Covenant’s new church, set to open in 2006.