ATLANTA — Walking into Ebenezer Baptist Church is like joining the reunion of a Black Southern family — and exactly the type of people Sen. Raphael Warnock needs to mobilize in his race for reelection in Georgia.

Refrains of, “How you doing, baby?” echo throughout the sanctuary of the historic, onetime spiritual home of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as church members mill around. A sea of Sunday best stands out: bright colored-blazers, tailored suits and large, intricate church hats bobbing among wooden pews with crosses etched into the sides.

One thing that’s absent as the congregation waits for the service to start: political talk. Not before they get their fill. The closest they come adds up to the nicest “no” a reporter can get: “You can ask the reverend if it’s okay, baby.”

“The reverend” is Warnock. When he walks out onto the stage just before 9 a.m. He’s wearing a dark suit with the faintest pinstripe, striped purple tie and black shoes — Sunday best.

The crowd doesn’t react at all. It’s a sharp juxtaposition to what the senator, locked in a tight race for arguably the most watched and most important Senate seat in the country, is greeted with the other six days of the week on the campaign trail. There are no signs here, no cheers or selfies — just his flock waiting to hear the Word.

Throughout the hour-long service, Warnock the preacher is in his element behind the lectern. He rides the applause and the calls of “yes Lord!” and “say that, Reverend!”

But Warnock is a man in two worlds: the spiritual and the political. The connection with his congregation in the first role is clear during the service. It’s in his other role — as U.S. senator — that some Black political strategists worry that Warnock has not elicited the reaction he’ll need from Black voters in order to earn a full term in the chamber.

Throughout the hour-long service, Sen. Raphael Warnock the preacher is in his element behind the lectern.