At community service, Nashville remembers Charles Strobel first and foremost as a friend

Father Charlie Strobel was a friend to many and those friends gathered Friday to celebrate the larger-than-life figure

A stadium full of them.

Filling the stands at First Horizon Park were state lawmakers, mayors of the past, present and hopeful future, Metro Council members, heads of high schools and universities, sports executives, veteran journalists, ministry leaders, clergy and ex-clergy.

And perhaps most important of all, volunteers and guests at Room In The Inn.

There was a shuttle service for Room In The Inn volunteers and guests, or those who receive care from Room In The Inn — primarily people experiencing homelessness — thanks to buses from Father Ryan High School and several area congregations.

Strobel, a Catholic priest and founder of Room In The Inn, died Sunday at the age of 80. Strobel played a prominent role in the community for both his nonprofit work and involvement with a host of other advocacy groups around issues like poverty and homelessness.

He also loved baseball and was an avid fan of the Nashville Sounds, thus the selection of the Sounds' stadium for the event.

“Charlie accomplished a lot in his life, and I suspect that’s not why most of us are here this morning,” Phil Bredesen, a former Tennessee governor and Nashville mayor, said at the service.

Bredesen was among several prominent people at Friday's service. Others included musicians Dave Pomeroy, Emmylou Harris, and Maura O’Connell, who led the audience in song. Room In The Inn's board president, the Rev. Gene Manning, Howard Allen, Jr., co-founder of the Nashville Homeless Underground, and niece Katie Seigenthaler also spoke.

A movement beyond the man: How Charles Strobel's fight for justice lives on

“We’re here because he was our friend," Bredesen said. "And he was very, very good at being our friend."

Bredesen said his relationship with Strobel was a testament to that. Strobel fiercely opposed some of Bredesen’s work as both mayor and governor, the latter surrounding Bredesen’s stance on the death penalty and his decision to scale back the TennCare program.

Strobel was an advocate both in and outside his capacity as a nonprofit leader. In 2005, he transitioned into a pastoral leadership role at Room In The Inn and Rachel Hester became executive director.

“Charlie had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, justice and comradery,” Hedy Weinberg, former executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, said at the service. “Friendship with Charlie was a journey through the moral arc of compassion, hope and justice.”

Despite the solemn occasion, the venue lended to a more relaxed atmosphere. Nods, cheers, laughs and claps filled the stands when a speaker said something especially profound about Strobel or shared a joke about him. Harris’ musical performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” drew raised hands and tearful eyes.

Elected officials wore suits while pastors and ministers donned their clerical attire. Room In The Inn volunteers and guests, spread out through the stands, wore T-shirts with the nonprofit’s label.

Strobel, in addition to leading his own nonprofit, helped mentees who volunteered with Room In The Inn start their own nonprofits. One of those is the Rev. Becca Stevens, who founded Thistle Farms with Strobel’s help 26 years ago for women recovering from addiction and trafficking.

Stevens, an Episcopal priest, delivered the eulogy Friday. “He was about sweat and dirt, which are the healing elements that Jesus used when he went to heal the blind man,” Stevens said. “When you use the sweat and the dirt, it helps us see.”

Related: Nashville mayor proposes to name 90-unit housing center as tribute to Father Charles Strobel

Stevens’ eulogy sung Strobel’s praises but also warned against his sanctification.

In a conversation she had with Strobel shortly before his death, Stevens told him, “Charlie, maybe you are a saint,” Stevens recalled during her eulogy.

“He shot back faster than anything with the words from Dorothy Day, one of his favorite theologians: 'Don’t dismiss me that easily.’”

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter and Threads @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville remembers Charlie Strobel first and foremost as a friend