Tammy Long
Ministry is in the DNA of Rev. Tammy Long. Her father, Rev. Stanley Long, was the long-time pastor of a church in Northern California’s Bay Area region that joined the ECC after a substantial discernment process in 2020. Tammy’s son, Troy Nichols, is currently serving as the Lead Pastor of Common Ground, a Covenant Church about ninety minutes away from the church her father founded, the church that became South Bay Community Church (SBCC) of Fremont, California.
Reverend Tammy Long was born in 1960 New Jersey to a Christian family. A pastor’s kid, her parents were instrumental in her faith formation and ministry journey. Tammy decided to follow Jesus at a very young age and had always had a heart and sensitivity to the things of God. Growing up, Tammy was very active in her church. She taught Sunday school, worked in a Christian camp, and served in VBS. As a young adult, Tammy served in youth ministry and taught Christian formation classes.
Tammy’s family became connected to the Covenant when her father, Stanley Long, the founding pastor of South Bay Community Church of Fremont, California, and the elder board felt it was time to join a denomination for community, accountability, support, and resources. After exploring several denominations, they felt the Evangelical Covenant Church was a great fit, due to its values and distinctives. After a discerning process, South Bay Community Church joined the Covenant around 2000.
Tammy’s formal training is in education, and she holds a master’s degree in education. Tammy was a principal of a Christian school while serving in church as a lay leader. After a period of tent ministry in the construction industry, Tammy returned to school administration during the 2008 recession. However, God had a different plan. At that time, the elders of South Bay felt that with Tammy’s leadership skills and experience as a school administrator, she would make an excellent executive pastor to partner with a new lead pastor who was succeeding her father after his retirement. Tammy had already been serving as the Director of Adult Christian Formation for nearly ten years and was experienced in administration as a school principal, so she accepted. At that time, Tammy assumed this would be a temporary role.
Soon after, Pastor Bryan Murphy, previously Associate Pastor at South Bay, succeeded Rev. Long as senior pastor. Due to their positive experience partnering in ministry, Bryan invited Tammy to serve as executive pastor in 2011. Bryan was very egalitarian and from the beginning treated Tammy as a co-pastor, sharing the pastoral work based on individual strengths and giftings.
In this new role, Tammy recognized this was not a temporary position but where God was calling her, so she enrolled in North Park Seminary and completed her Masters in Christian Formation degree. Tammy was ordained in 2018, after which Bryan invited Tammy to co-pastor alongside him. The elder board and the church moved forward with an affirmative vote and a by-laws revision. Thus Tammy officially became co-lead pastor.
When Bryan was called to lead the Pacific Southwest Conference as superintendent several years later, Tammy candidate again at South Bay, this time for the role of sole lead pastor. Confirmed in this role, Tammy has led South Bay Community Church since 2021. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Tammy’s leadership at SBCC was integral to the church becoming a community support for mental health and successfully created accessible on ramps to church participation and hybrid/online fellowship for marginalized populations.
God used many people to encourage Tammy in her ministry call. Besides the invitations and affirmation of the elder board and Bryan Murphy, Tammy’s father was one of her strong supporters. In addition, her mother Ruby Long is one of Tammy’s biggest cheerleaders, helping her to believe in her own voice. There were others in the ECC whom God used to speak to Tammy and affirm her as well. One time at Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW) breakfast, God used a woman to prophetically speak to Tammy, saying she felt that Tammy would be a sole lead pastor one day. To this day, Tammy remembers that conversation with fondness and amazement. At that time such a role was not even imagination.
Tammy never expected to be a pastor or even a lead pastor. She never expected to preach or serve in the ways she now does. Though her parents are egalitarian, Tammy did not grow up with many role models of women in ministry, and the few she did see had very different personalities than hers. Tammy had an image of a woman pastor and preacher, which did not match her own self-understanding. Her biggest challenge has been growing into who God has made her to be, finding her voice, deciding what ministry looks like for her, embracing her personality and her way of being, and growing in trust in her call. Tammy is a great role model for women who are on the same journey of hearing God’s call to ministry and leadership and accepting themselves for how God created them.
Tammy’s ministry legacy extends far beyond the Bay Area, as she serves as the current chair of the ECC Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW), leading the ACCW in reimagining what “better together” looks like as men and women serve shoulder to shoulder across the denomination for God’s glory and neighbor’s good. Tammy is passionate about coming alongside and supporting women who are sensing a call to ministry or credentialed and does not shy away from acknowledging both the joys and challenges experienced by women in ministry. In August 2025 Tammy paired with Rev. Susan Cosio for the first ever PSWC “Still Finding My Voice” retreat at Mission Springs in Scotts Valley, California. Over twenty women from several different ECC churches in Northern California attended the three-day retreat to discern, connect, and dream about what God may be unfolding in life and ministry. In considering the future of women in ministry in the ECC, Tammy often quotes the ACCW motto “until the culture of our churches matches the ethos of our denomination, we have work to do.”
In addition to ACCW, Tammy serves on the Pacific Southwest Conference Executive Board and as a preacher, teacher, and mentor to many. Tammy also enjoys spending time in nature, reading, and, of course, visiting her children and grandchildren.
Sermons
Cathy Ou (MACF) is a second-generation Asian American. She pastors in Mountain View, California.
Rev. Bronwyn Murphy is an ordained pastor in the ECC, currently serving in youth ministry at Common Ground Covenant Church in Sacramento, a preschool teacher at University Covenant preschool in Davis, and a chaplain resident at a hospital in Roseville (all California). Bronwyn also serves as the chair of the ECC’s Disability Commission as well as an Executive Board Member for Advocates of Covenant Clergy Women and the PSWC Ministerial Association. She loses her car keys often and lets her phone battery run to 2% before plugging in to charge.