East Shore Christian Fellowship welcomes new pastor

Pastor Robert Sweatt’s first impressions of the town of Lansing are positive. The Georgia native likes rural life, but above all, he appreciates curiosity. 

“Here, people are a lot less defensive and a lot more willing to ask, ‘Hey, what’s your story?’” Sweatt said. “I really like that because all of us have a story, and in society today, we like to put our best foot forward. But we forget that our people have hurts, struggles and experiences both good and bad. We are all like that.”

Sweatt has taken in stories from the people of Lansing and shared his own for the last two months. He became the pastor at East Shore Christian Fellowship in May. 

He is a third-generation pastor, but he said he formally “accepted Christ as [his] savior” in high school. Sweatt said he realized as a teenager that he had been growing up in the church without thinking about it much. He did what his parents wanted him to do, but he rarely questioned if he believed in the things he was saying.

“I had been really struggling in my faith,” Sweatt said. “As I started growing up, the desire of being a pastor became clear. That is what God was actually calling me to do with my life.”

He then moved to Wisconsin to attend Maranatha Baptist University, where he earned a degree in pastoral studies. Following graduation, he continued his education at Maranatha Baptist Seminary, ultimately earning a master’s degree in biblical counseling.

“Biblical counseling always terrified me: having someone come to you and tell you about their struggles,” Sweatt said. “I was terrified to be faced with that situation.”

Now, counseling is one of his favorite parts of his vocation, Sweatt said. He continued diving deeper into counseling after 2020, when the economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to maintain his position as a pastor in Wisconsin. No church was hiring at the time, Sweatt said. 

Sweatt moved to Connecticut, where he also helped with counseling. Despite the stability and personal success brought on by the move to Connecticut, Sweatt made the move to East Shore Christian Fellowship after receiving a call.

“I didn’t know about them and they really didn’t know about me, but we started interviewing,” he said. “Then in four months’ time, I went from never having heard of the shore before to ‘now we’re moving out here.’”

So far, Lansing has been a great choice for Sweatt and his wife.

“My wife and I just really love that type of area and that type of living,” Sweatt said about living in a rural community. “We never thought that we would get the opportunity to live in that setting again.”

Sweatt praised East Shore, highlighting the congregation’s willingness to take steps forward. 

“This is my third ministry that I’ve been on staff at,” Sweatt said. “What I’ve found is that it’s very easy for churches to hit the snooze button, hit cruise control, and be like, ‘We’re not going to reach out to the community, we’re not going to try to grow in our faith, we’re not going to try to grow in our study of the scriptures until we get a new leader.’”

The sense of togetherness and the drive to service at East Shore have also been exceptional, Sweatt said.

“The church would have done without a pastor for exactly a year, by the time that I came around. Yet, the people’s mindset leading up to me coming was that ‘we’re going to grow together, we’re going to serve together,’” he added. “They have a huge desire to minister to the community.”

One of the amenities that brings people together is the substantial community garden, Sweatt said. The church is also undergoing phase two of its renovation progress, he noted.

“We went through a pretty substantial renovation in 2019. Hopefully, by the end of this month we can be done with stage two on our auditorium and our classroom space downstairs,” he said.

The desire to renovate the building, Sweatt said, came from the desire to show appreciation to the community. 

“We are a church here that cares about families,” he added. “We want parents to bring their kids here and feel like they can trust us to be good stewards who will care for their children. We did things like install security systems in the nursery and in the classrooms for transparency with the families.”

As he looks forward to his ongoing tenure at East Shore, Sweatt thought of his goals for his life as lead pastor.

“My desire is to love this community, serve this community and get involved with this community,” he concluded.

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on Twitter @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The Lansing Community Celebration weekend is set for Sept. 7-9 at 80 Ridge Rd. The event will kick off that Friday with a fireworks display and continue Saturday with a parade. The event will also feature live music, rides and food.

More information can be found at www.lansingeventscommittee.com.