It might be at a city council meeting, at a Rotary Club fish fry, or at Liberty State Bank’s veteran’s breakfast, but you will always see Chris Crowell involved with the community. Crowell’s roots go deep — he was born and raised in Lebanon, but even more importantly, he has actively worked to get involved in a variety of ways and with a variety of people.
As a member of the city council, Crowell is involved with several committees, but he also takes the time to get to know the people in his ward, even going door to door at times to meet those he serves. With Liberty State Bank, Crowell is one of the organizers of the TennCommUNITY program, walking alongside other banks to uplift local businesses. At First United Methodist, he serves as a lay leader, worshiping and serving alongside his community there. Most of the organizations Crowell has served with for years, some 30 or more.
“To me, as time has gone on, it becomes kind of a richer experience in the community to be involved, and not just in one thing but in several different things — to meet new people,” Crowell said.
TennCommUNITY is one of the youngest of those organizations. It was organized in 2020 by John McDeerman as a way to support struggling small businesses during COVID-19. The partnership between local banks — Pinnacle, Liberty State, First Freedom, Southern Bank of Tennessee, F&M, FirstBank, and Wilson Bank & Trust as well as the local chambers of commerce — allowed the banks to offer coupons to small businesses in the area after Thanksgiving each year.
While the pandemic is no longer closing businesses, TennCommUNITY continued on. The banks involved enjoyed cooperating with each other, Crowell said, and enjoyed putting money back into the hands of local businesses.
“We hear lots of stories from individuals who it makes a difference for in their shopping experience at Christmas,” Crowell said. “We also hear quite a bit from businesses that our banks have relationships with, and they enjoy seeing the people come in to their businesses to spend.”

While the coupons aren’t worth enough to cover all of someone’s Christmas shopping, it can make their money go further. More importantly, it helps encourage people to spend within the community.
The Lebanon Breakfast Rotary Club has a similar goal of putting money back in the community. Every year they raise some $70,000, then turn right around and write checks back to the community. Service opportunities also abound, and Crowell said anyone who is interested in service only has to ask to find an opportunity.
“There’s so many ways in the community and so many needs that it’s easy, and all of the organizations that I know of here in the community welcome volunteers or any kind of help with open arms,” Crowell said. “There’s lots of work [to] go around and plenty of ways that people can help.”
The trick, he said, is to find something interesting and enjoyable and work alongside others — be it through a faith-based organization, a club, or a nonprofit.
“I certainly would be happy to try to help direct anyone that’s interested in getting more involved in our community and pointing them in the right direction or bringing them alongside several of us here in the community that are working to make it better every day,” Crowell said.
As Lebanon continues to grow, it becomes more and more important for everyone to stay connected, to work with each other and support each other. Chris Crowell is a great example of how to do just that. GN