We recently connected with Quentin Dickerson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Quentin, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

So, I happen to pastor two churches; Hamilton United Methodist Church and United Family Fellowship simultaneously in Antioch, TN. However for the sake of this interview I will discuss mainly the church that I planted back in 2017 entitled United Family Fellowship. United Family Fellowship has had employees since day one. I knew from launching the church that volunteers could only take it so far. Typically with volunteers you can honestly only get a few good months out of them until they are looking for payment. Unfortunately, it is truly hard to build anything like this because the first few years are extremely hard building a for-profit and/or non-profit entity.

In terms of finding these team members I happened to know every last one of them from working with them in other settings before. Even though I worked with them in other settings I prayed to ask who would be on the team. The interview was simple, I shared with them all the vision for the church and asked them did they think they would like to be apart of such. My recruiting and interview style is highly unconventional but yet it still seems to be very effective. I more-so like to recruit staff through referral bases processes.

If I was starting today I would not change the process I would have simply added an executive pastor in place to deal with the day today things logistics of the church so I could focus more on the actual Word of God and overall vision. I would also solicit for more volunteers (which I have really been doing since the COVID-19 numbers are way down).

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Pastor Quentin Michael Dickerson, a native of Elyria, Ohio, was born to parents Gary and Priscilla Dickerson. He is the eldest of four children and a graduate of Elyria High School.  Born and raised in a small, family-centered town, Pastor Quentin has an innate passion for helping people. He is invested in serving others, and uses his pastoral and musical gifts to edify and inspire others.

Pastor Quentin’s ministry first began as a pianist, his role as a musician laid the foundation for a much larger ministry. He is not merely a gifted musician, but an anointed one, whose music supersedes the surface of silvery sounds, breaking barriers, by speaking comfort to the broken, healing to the hurting, liberation to the captives. His unique ability to impart the word of God through music has garnered the interest of the illustrious National Baptist Convention and has afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with other gospel musicians nationwide. His CD, “Welcome to My World,” has been heard throughout the world and has even charted numerous times on the smooth jazz charts in the U.K.

While Pastor Quentin recognized the importance of ministering through music, he also realized that there was more to his calling. He was called to the piano bench, but he was also called to the pulpit. In 2008, he embarked into preaching. In 2009, he was licensed at his home church, Second Baptist Church (Elyria, Ohio) by Pastor Dr. Carl P. Small. After settling in Nashville, Pastor Quentin joined the Crystal Fountain Church to serve in the music ministry. He presided over ‪Wednesday night‬ worship services and shortly thereafter, was appointed Dr. Graves’ pastoral assistant. On June 5, 2016, he was ordained by Senior Pastor Dr. Michael V. Graves.

In 2014, Pastor Quentin graduated from Welch College (Nashville, TN), double majoring in Biblical Theology and Christian Ministries. He later graduated from Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA), with a Masters of Arts in Christian Leadership in December, 2016. This year, he founded his own church, “United Family Fellowship,” in Nashville, Tennessee, of which he is the lead pastor. The church held its first service on Sunday, February 12th, 2017. Along with the growth of the church, his future plans include creating a non-profit organization to mentor youth through music production and performance.

In addition to all of this Pastor Quentin has been pastoring an additional church called Hamilton United Methodist Church in Nashville (Antioch), Tennessee as well since July 1st of this year. Even though he is pastoring two churches at once, both churches have united together to push forward with the agenda of growing God’s kingdom.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

Yes, I have. It is entitled The Bean Bag Coffee & Tea Shop. I happened to buy the business back in July of 2020. I bought it so people could have a local place in Antioch, TN to come meet, hang, eat, and of course drink some of the best coffee and tea in the entire world. The Bean Bag is such a special place that I cannot describe in words accurately. The acquisition process was zero stress at all.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think pivot is my middle name at this point in my life. Like any other business person inflation has driven up prices on everything, With that being said I decided to shut down our physical portion of the business temporarily due to rising cost of goods back in October. It was tough but necessary decision. We still are taking online orders and as well doing pop up shops though. We have some plans in the future for another physical but I cannot share that info yet :-)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.unitedfamilyfellowship.org | www.hamilton-umc.org
• Instagram: @quentinmichael | @unitedfamilyfellowship | @hamilton_umc
• Facebook: Pastor Quentin Michael Dickerson | United Family Fellowship | Hamilton United MethodistChurch
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quentin-michael-dickerson-m-a-17985065?challengeId=AQEYUTO3mHCHSgAAAYULU4DO2MJhP4YOpvWWEmvS-jwvr7UJPLFHUYUHytW41fbJ89pgkS533q6PHBhWbnl3h146yJvTFjQqzA&submissionId=1001dad1-1258-3017-2dba-c3930636183c&challengeSource=AgEfWigEfwlomgAAAYULU7kRLsXJgobE-8IrMmUZrYI7U85oNdhaCxphV8RhW6I&challegeType=AgFEfcNpImmY-wAAAYULU7kUrlYwas9HvnUSqnkjadjHTbBne44hf5Y&memberId=AgFgrbQ8zl2UowAAAYULU7kY3q4g9kN8DmLO_pEDYLG4H8s&recognizeDevice=AgH06ylNldYfjQAAAYULU7kb4ujaXAM6xdsR8utlh1tTHpnkQbvn
• Twitter: @quentinmichaeld
• Youtube: @quentinmichael

Image Credits
@photosbyclw