For nearly two centuries, Berean Baptist Church has stood in Crown Heights, serving as a spiritual home and cultural anchor for generations of Black Brooklynites. Its legacy is now being preserved in a new six-part documentary series The Audacity of Faith: Freedom From Freedom To.
The series traces the 175-year history of the church, widely regarded as Brooklyn’s oldest Black Baptist congregation, and its role in shaping the borough’s religious, educational and civic life. Through archival research, interviews and intimate footage, Brooklyn filmmaker Jahleel Hills shows how a single church became a symbol of resilience in a rapidly changing city.
Hills runs his own production company, Hype Man Hills Productions, and has directed comedy specials for Amazon Prime as well as live performances by up-and-coming musicians. He produced The Audacity of Faith under the guidance of Berean’s elders.
“I’ve always loved our history,” Hills said. “It’s important to keep telling it so future generations know where we come from. Even before we were a thought, our ancestors were doing amazing things. I feel blessed to help preserve that legacy through film.”
Founded in 1850 by formerly enslaved and free Black New Yorkers, Berean Baptist grew from a small prayer group into a hub for activism and education. Its leaders championed civil rights long before the 1960s movement, and its community programs continue to serve Brooklyn today. Yet the survival of such churches is far from guaranteed. Across the city, historically Black congregations face shrinking memberships and rising property costs. For Berean, the challenge is not only maintaining a building but preserving a lineage of faith and community power.
“Reading about history is great, but when you see the old church, the people, the community still standing 175 years later, it hits differently,” Hills said. “Film lets everyone feel like they’re part of that story, like a piece of them lives in that history.”
Deacon Antoinette Nelson, a second-generation Berean member and community educator, helped launch the documentary after recognizing the need to tell the church’s story in a new way. Each year, Berean’s historian prepared a presentation about the church’s legacy, but Nelson and others saw an opportunity to reach people more deeply through film, across social media, classrooms and the community.
“A lot of times, we’re removed from our history, and many young and old don’t understand the significance of an independent Black institution,” Hills said. “A place no one can control that speaks truth to power. If you take that away, you take away our heartbeat as a people. The Black church kept people together, gave hope, and reminded them they belonged and had something to give back.”
Beyond documenting the history of Berean Baptist Church, The Audacity of Faith explores spirituality and Black identity in urban America. Hills worked closely with the Berean History Committee and church leaders to weave oral histories, sermons, and personal reflections that speak to both loss and renewal.
And for Hills, who grew up in Brooklyn, the project is as much about the present as the past. “It’s about recognizing what we have and what we might lose if we don’t tell our own stories,” he stated.
