A Life Well Given: Remembering Pastor Bob Bean
Founding pastor of Emerald Youth Foundation and longtime Knoxville minister, Robert “Bob” Bean, died today, August 27. He was 94 years old.
For nearly a quarter century, Bean was pastor of Emerald Avenue United Methodist Church, and in that role, he planted a seed that has grown into something far beyond what anyone could have imagined.
That seed became Emerald Youth Foundation, an urban youth ministry that today reaches more than 3,500 young people annually through programs and outcomes focused on faith, learning and health.
A Call to the City
When Bean was appointed pastor of Emerald Avenue UMC in 1986, he arrived with an unusual background for an urban congregation – years of faithful service in rural East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Not everyone was convinced he was the right fit.
“When I was being considered for the appointment at Emerald Avenue, not everyone thought I’d be a good fit, because I was coming from a background of serving rural communities. The move to an urban church was definitely going to be a switch,” Bean said upon his retirement in 2010.
But Bean and his new congregation shared a conviction: reaching the whole community would require an intentional focus on its young people. Emerald Avenue’s search committee had three criteria for their new pastor — someone young, who could preach well and who could reconnect the church with the Oakwood-Lincoln Park neighborhood.
“I was 53, so I didn’t meet their age requirement, but I suppose I fit their other conditions,” he laughingly shared.
The Summer That Changed Everything
In the summer of 1988, Emerald Avenue UMC began working with neighborhood youth.
That single summer program eventually grew into Emerald Youth Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization that was formed to carry the ministry forward.
“What has evolved has been amazing. I never could have imagined back in the summer of 1988 the fruit that would be produced. It’s been wonderful to see how God used our congregation so many years ago to affect the lives of children back then and continuing today. I am just humbled and honored that the Lord allowed me to be a part of this.”
His legacy lives on through every young person whose life has been touched by Emerald Youth Foundation, and in the words of those who worked alongside him.
“Bob’s understanding and his leadership to reach out to the community is the model for Emerald Youth Foundation’s ministry. Bob was instrumental in making Emerald Youth Foundation a reality. He’s been a dear friend and mentor to me, and the cornerstone to our work. I will certainly miss him and his Christlike example,” said Steve Diggs, president and CEO, Emerald Youth Foundation.
A Faith Rooted Early, Renewed at Home
Bean was raised at Logan’s Chapel UMC in Maryville, Tennessee, but like many, his path to full-time ministry wasn’t a straight line.
“As I grew up, I steered away from the Lord. Upon marrying and having our first child, my wife was instrumental in getting me back to church. She said, ‘Bob, we were both raised in church, don’t you think it’s important we do the same for our daughter?’”
Bean agreed, but only on the condition they attend Logan’s Chapel. Back in the pew, it didn’t take long for the thirty-something husband and father to sense a deeper calling.
“I did just about everything in the church — taught Sunday school, sang in the choir and helped with the young adult ministry. I think God just started working on my heart to serve him in a full-time capacity, so after much thought, prayer and counsel, I got my local preacher’s license as a Methodist.”
He served as a student pastor in the mid-1960s and graduated in 1969 from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
Over the decades that followed, he led congregations across East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia before arriving at Emerald Avenue — where his most enduring work would take root.
Forty-Eight Years of Faithful Service
Bob Bean retired in 2010 after 48 years of ordained ministry, including 24 as pastor of Emerald Avenue UMC.
But retirement never diminished his investment in Emerald Youth Foundation or its mission. He remained a beloved figure in the community he had served – a living reminder of what it looks like to answer a call with courage and faithfulness, year after year.
Bob Bean has truly lived out his calling in the heart of Knoxville. And the thousands of young people whose lives have been shaped by the ministry he helped start are his lasting legacy.
Funeral arrangements are pending, and this post will be updated when confirmed.
