Zion Baptist pastor wholly devoted to youth

LYNN – Zion Baptist Church members credit the legacy of a man with a soft voice and rock-solid convictions with inspiring them to reinvigorate their church.?I hear so much about what Rev. Walter R. Murray Jr. did. He left such a legacy we need to build on. One of my missions is to reintroduce Zion to the community,” said Zion Baptist Church youth pastor Rev. Andre Bennett, who has helped resurrect a newsletter and a popular youth chorus.Hired full-time in May, Rev. Bennett expanded the youth chorus from a handful of young congregation members to 27 teenagers and younger. Many of the kids live in Lynn, but Rev. Bennett drives a circular route on Saturdays, picking up chorus members in Salem, Saugus and Lynnfield and driving them to the Adams Street extension church to practice.?We?ve recognized amazing growth from the energy and rapport we have,” Rev. Bennett said.Zion was founded in 1902 and its current 300-member congregation is almost twice the size of the flock Rev. Murray presided over in 1993 when he established Zion?s place in Lynn as a voice against youth violence. Rev. Murray helped Zion?s congregation realize a dream to build a church sanctuary with offices, a choir room and classrooms. Rev. Murray died in 1998, the same year Zion started a newsletter that had a brief run before folding. Church member Angela Spann helped revive the newsletter this year with the new publication debuting Nov. 2. Contributing writers include Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, Zion?s interim pastor who succeeded former pastor Rev. William Hill a year ago.?Pastor Jones is an amazing guy. We?re all praying he will stay a little longer,” Spann said.Spann, a 14-year Zion member, said the newsletter will publish every two months and echo Rev. Murray?s spirit of community collaboration by including news from other Lynn churches and articles highlighting community activities and a regular feature praising Lynn residents.The November newsletter salutes church members John and Barbara Walker in its “Star-Lighted” section. Barbara Walker?s great-grandmother helped found Zion and her grandson, Jonah Reid, sings in the youth chorus.She said Zion?s congregation is growing, with “new people coming all the time.”?We have a full house every Sunday and it?s for anyone in the community,” Walker said.Spann counts the Walkers and Rev. Murray?s widow, Donna Murray, among “the quiet people who do so much” to fulfill Rev. Murray?s call to reach out to the community around the church.A Christmas dinner prepared by church members that fed 75 people last year will be repeated this year, Spann said. Beginning in January, the church will revive a volunteer effort to prepare meals for needy people seeking food at My Brothers Table.Rev. Bennett is building on the youth chorus? expansion by helping to launch an interfaith Bible quiz competition next spring.?We need to continue doing what Rev. Murray did that was great and do more great things,” Spann said.