Zacchaeus Project at church in Greeneville, Tennessee explores political wisdom of Jesus

Though there are nearly three dozen places in the United States named Greenville, there is only one spelled “Greeneville.” With a population of just over 15,000, the East Tennessee town is far smaller and less well-known than its counterparts in North Carolina and South Carolina. But locals will quickly tell you about its notable history as a nexus for education, political leadership, and human rights. Today, a small group of faithful Presbyterians — and a few others — are continuing this spirited legacy in their own unique way, with something they call “The Zacchaeus Group.”

Greeneville served as the starting place for President Andrew Johnson’s political career and was also part of East Tennessee’s strong abolitionist movement in the early 19^th century. Perhaps most curiously, it was also briefly the capital of Franklin, a proposed-but-never-approved U.S. state in the later 1700s made up of territory ceded to Congress by North Carolina to pay off Revolutionary War debt. Nearby Tusculum University — originally founded as a Presbyterian institution — was also Tennessee’s first university.

First Presbyterian Church of Greeneville was the first church established in Greene County hundreds of years ago, and it continues to be a central part of town life today. It has born witness to Greeneville’s history and provided a spiritual home for many of its residents. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Todd Jenkins, said that these days, the church has a membership that spans the political spectrum. Congregants come together for worship, but separate into Sunday school classes that tend to favor their own ideological bents.

As political tensions have continued to escalate in the United States and polarization has become more and more entrenched, a small group of church members began to question how their Christian faith was calling them to respond to such a world. The conversation felt crucial, and they became increasingly uncomfortable with how the siloes and divisions in the world around them were reflected in their own church, as well as how removed the church at large felt from the hard realities happening in the US and globally.

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“It was clear to most of us in the group that unless somebody started doing something a little bit different, we were we were not going to have any voice in the outcome of what was happening —what was ahead,” said the Rev. Robert Moore, a retired Presbyterian minister and one of the group’s organizing members.

Six months ago, the group left behind the Sunday school classes they’d been attending and began to meet together instead. They read a chapter per week from "On Tyranny" by historian Timothy Snyder. Each chapter lifts up a lesson to be learned from the U.S. in the 20^th century. Resisting the urge to devolve into party-line arguments, the group has examined each lesson from the book through the lens of the Gospel, seeking to understand and learn from the spiritual teachings and political wisdom of Jesus.

They call their initiative the Zacchaeus Project because Zacchaeus “spoke up when nobody else did and was a committed voice,” according to Moore. They see their own efforts in a similar light. The group has the passionate endorsement of Jenkins which, Moore says, gives them “tremendous encouragement.”

Most of the group’s 15 members came from the more progressive-leaning Sunday school class, and their goals place a clear emphasis on social justice, equity and human rights. However, they have intentionally sought to engage more conservative voices. They also count several Methodists among their number, including two retired Methodist ministers. They maintain parity between men and women, and rotate leadership each week to eschew a hierarchical structure. Everyone who was a part of the group at its beginning is still involved.

Some of them engage in protests and demonstrations according to their own values, but the group itself is focused on discussion and learning. Again and again, they call themselves back to the central question of what Christ truly calls the church to be in the world as it is. They are hoping the fruit of their conversations will be outreach to and care for others in need.

“The voice coming out of the group is very centrist,” Moore said. “It’s also very strongly a voice that is not looking for breaking things, but is looking for building things and bringing new life.”

Moore said the primary issue they’re pushing back against is pervasive apathy, adding that he believes the apathy is national. The group recently drafted and approved a statement together, articulating their values and goals.

The document says the group’s ultimate purpose is to “seek to find and develop ways and means to enable BELONGING, in contrast to OTHERING, which denies the legitimacy of these divisions and reclaims seeing and recognizing one another as sisters and brothers.”

Moore admitted that not everyone at the church understands why they started the Zacchaeus Project. Some members of the more progressively inclined Sunday school class have expressed disappointment at having been left out. Some in the more conservatively focused class look at the Zacchaeus Group with a little bit of suspicion.

“There was this concern that they were going to be, you know, radical protesters or something, something to get us in trouble,” Jenkins said.

“We all have strong relationships with people who are not in this group … and we're not being ostracized in any sense of the word,” Moore said. “We're just being viewed with a little bit of question about where's all this going.”

He believes most people in the church would be delighted if they understood more about what the group hopes to do in terms of outreach and engagement. Jenkins agreed, noting that the congregation has a long history of supporting immigrants in the region.

Regardless of how others perceive them, the members of the Zacchaeus Project believe they have stumbled on a compelling and Spirit-filled way forward through the labyrinth of political clamor and conflict, and they have no intention of stopping. Having finished "On Tyranny," they are ready to move on to other study materials. But they have broader ideas for the future of their project than just their syllabus.

“I think of the Zacchaeus group is a seed. And we're a seed, in my mind, to something that desperately needs doing to get the church's voice speaking again,” Moore said. He said their efforts remind him of Bethlehem and "small towns have inevitably played important roles.”

The group has already connected with other churches in town about what they’re doing and is hoping to reach out to others in the region. They want to attract more young people — particularly young people who feel the church is not adequately addressing injustice and division in the world. In fact, they say they would love to see PC(USA) churches all over the country establish Zacchaeus initiatives of their own.

Moore said the group believes that if the project continues to spread and flourish, it will allow the church’s voice "tto be heard in the larger community in very constructive ways, in positive ways, but in ways that are still based in the teachings and particularly the actions of Jesus of Nazareth.”

It's a small group. A simple model. But something holy and hopeful has taken root in Greeneville. And the members of the Zacchaeus Project know that when it comes to Jesus and faith, all it takes is a seed.