Bethany United Methodist Church owes part of its success diversifying to the Rev. Tony Phillips, a former Coca-Cola Company executive who has followed a unique career path.
A confident, personable guy and college lacrosse player, Phillips is the point man for Bethany’s community engagement.
“When I got out of school, I went into advertising,” he said. “I worked at (advertising, marketing and public relations agency) Ogilvy-Mather.”
Next, he founded a company with some friends and landed the Coca-Cola Company account, moving to Atlanta to manage it.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks resulted in hard times for his company, he earned his MBA at Emory University and went to work in-house for Coca-Cola.
“I was very entrepreneurial-minded, so I was in their innovation area, coming up with new products and new bottles and new (vending) machines.”
Partnering with Samsung, he came up with a vending machine that was placed in malls and universities.
“We kind of merged touchscreens with vending machines and marketing,” he said. “It’s this entertainment center of a vending machine.”
All was going well until his marriage fell apart and he ended up with custody of four sons, two of them 16, along with an 8- and 4-year-old.
“I started going through a divorce, which was very, very unexpected,” Phillips said. “It wasn’t like we were fighting. It came all of a sudden out of nowhere, and I was just praying, praying, praying, and I always joke I prayed so hard I got called to ministry.”
While focusing on his family, he found time to go back to school at Candler School of Theology at Emory University for a divinity degree.
“God walked me through everything and guided and directed me and helped me make sure that the children are OK, and gave me even understanding and compassion for what my ex-wife was going through,” he said. “Everything just really changed for me, and I was able to have peace in the midst of a storm.”
He interned for Abrams at another church, and she was happy when Phillips got appointed to Bethany, paid for by grants from the Barnes Evaluation and Administration Team.
“I am more of an organizational leader,” Abrams said. “Lord knows I cannot do what he does, and he’s not really akin to what I do.
“He can go out there and galvanize people and then when they come, it is more my role to help craft a structure that they can walk with.”
Next, Phillips plans to work with other churches in the area to help them mirror Bethany’s success.
“When I applied for the grant for this coming year, I suggested that they empower me to approach four or five other churches in the south Cobb (County) area that have not been able to make the transition that we have, and see if I can work with them to build things up informally, or in some sort of position,” Phillips said.
“I hope we can inspire other churches to say, ‘We can look like our community. We can welcome people that we never talked to before. We can do this.’”
Back to main story Church revives itself with community engagement
Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.
