Editor’s note: The New Canaan Sentinel recently spoke with the Rev. Gilbert Burgess, pastor of Community Baptist Church at 174 Cherry Street, about his ministry, the lessons he has learned as a pastor and his vision for the church’s future. This is his story. Learn more about Community Baptist Church at www.cbcnewcanaan.org.
By John Kriz
Community Baptist Church, which celebrates its 104th year of faith, family and fellowship in New Canaan in 2026, is a historically Black church. Rev. Gilbert Burgess, a kind and unfailingly cheerful man, is the church’s sole clergyman.
A Connecticut native, Rev. Burgess was educated at Hartford Seminary, and was a supporting minister at several churches in the area until called two years ago to lead Community Baptist. He has also worked as an automobile mechanic, a chef and at Neon Men’s Halfway House in Norwalk. He now serves as president of the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship of Norwalk and vicinity, a local clergy group, and is vice moderator of the Judah Association of the Connecticut State Missionary Baptist Convention. He has a son and three grandchildren. His wife Kim Bianca Burgess – the church’s ‘First Lady’ – is a college professor who has a son and two grandchildren.
Learning About Yourself
One thing Rev. Burgess has learned is the enormous number of administrative duties involved as his church’s pastor – and his need to get better at it.
Churches are like small (or not so small) businesses. There’s a large physical plant that needs cleaning and maintenance. Insurance. Management of volunteers and employees. Work with church trustees. Purchasing management, from restroom towels to communion cups and waffles. And at Community Baptist, Rev. Burgess is the sole employee.
Administration is “something that I did not do much when I was coming up,” notes Rev. Burgess. “I definitely need to work harder on being a better administrator. It’s been a learn-and-grow process as I go along.”
Rev. Burgess has also learned that despite the challenges of being a pastor at a small church that, like many others, “suffered a great loss” during COVID, “the Lord has blessed and kept the doors open.” He stresses “I am truly committed.”
For Rev. Burgess, ministry is not simply a calling; he has also found a passion for “building the ministry, inspiring the members that there’s still work to be done.”
Learning About Church Leadership
One thing Rev. Burgess has learned is the importance of having a volunteer staff who understand their obligations, and what their job entails.
“What I’m finding now here at Community is that I am actually having to reteach them what I thought, or teach them what I thought, they should have known,” says Rev. Burgess. “So I’m doing double duty. I’m pulling them along as I’m going so that they will be more aware of their authority, and not just have a title, but understand the depth and breadth of the ministry they’ve been called to.”
Many of these volunteers are elders, and “that sometimes poses a bit of a struggle because where I grew up, you didn’t tell the elders, you listened to [them].” Having to guide and direct people “who have been there for years, it’s a bit of a new awakening for me.”
Conceptions of New Canaan – Then & Now
New Canaan’s reputation, says Rev. Burgess, is that it’s populated with “highfalutin folk, and you can’t tell them anything, you can’t show them anything because they’re pretty well off and well to do.” He also had a perception that “I’m going into No Man’s Land.” There are not many Black residents in New Canaan, and Community Baptist is a historically Black church. As well, Rev. Burgess quickly learned that the church’s very existence was barely known – even by those who have lived in New Canaan for decades.
But Rev. Burgess found something else, too. “I’ve learned through several services that I’ve fellowshipped with at different churches that [people in New Canaan] are in need of assistance” just like anyone else. Rev. Burgess views all this as an opportunity, rather than an impediment, noting that there are many avenues to build his church congregation.
“People of, let me say, from different minorities come to our church. One of the first things they say as they’re leaving [is] ‘This was such a pleasant experience. This church has such a calm to it.’”
“I want to help the New Canaan community get a clear picture of who we are as a people. As a Black person, I know we are not all that the media portrays us to be. Throughout my life, I’ve experienced beautiful people from every walk of life, and that is what I’m bringing to New Canaan and Community Baptist.”
“The attitude that I have is I don’t see why we cannot have a multicultural church, especially sitting in New Canaan,” continues Rev. Burgess. “So I may have to step up my game to help draw, but I want the doors to be open to all ethnicities. We cannot be just a Black church. That’s not happening. It has to be. And that’s why I say again that we have an opportunity to show New Canaan who we are.”
“We are great people when we are all together.”
What Next?
Besides constantly striving to be ever more involved in the community himself, Rev. Burgess is seeking ways to boost the profile of the church’s activities and congregation. “We have to put ourselves, make ourselves more visible,” he says, “and do things that would draw people to us. And we start by first having a strong witness.”
Several strategies are being considered, several utilizing the church’s wonderful fellowship hall.
Many years ago, Community Baptist rented its fellowship hall to a driver-training program and a dance class. Community Baptist hasn’t run an after-school program or a daycare. Today New Canaan has a great need for such facilities. Rev. Burgess cites a church in Norwalk that runs a successful day care. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the Congregational Church in New Canaan both operate pre-schools. Elder day care is also an idea.
Rev. Burgess notes that “one of the things that we are dealing with in New Canaan is alcoholism, depression. And then we have also physically and mentally challenged children who need an outlet.” He has been speaking with a Hartford-based organization that works with churches to provide venues for such care.
In addition, Rev. Burgess is liaising with other clergy in town to explore “having each church, once a month, one church fellowships at a different church so that we can get to the feel of how they worship, and how their services impact the lives of their people.”
Rev. Burgess sums it up this way: “I want Community Baptist to be a beacon, the beacon that it can be. There are other churches around us doing great things, and I need Community Baptist to do their great thing.”
See https://www.newcanaansentinel.com/2024/03/29/community-baptist-church-small-church-big-heart/ for a detailed article on Community Baptist’s history.
