Jesus is Lord Church in Vardaman started in 1994 with the first services in the late Lorene Havens’ living room.
“About six months after that we got some rental property on Main Street from Lucille Bailey,” said Bro. Johnny Davidson, the church’s pastor since its founding.
They built their current church building, just off Hwy. 8 on the west end of the Vardaman Sportsplex, seven years ago.
Davidson, a native of Maben, has been pastor since the church’s founding. He and his wife Linda moved to Vardaman in 1994.
“I’d never have picked Vardaman as a place to live, and now I don’t ever want to leave,” Davidson said. “It’s amazing what God works out.”
The church is an independent ministry not belonging to a specific denomination.
“We’re a Bible believing church,” Davidson said. “We reach out to the community as much as we can. We’ve seen a lot come and get baptized.”
The church does belong to a fellowship – International Congress of Churches and Ministers (ICCM) out of Chattanooga.
“We own our own church, our own property and operate as a 501C3,” Davidson said.
Davidson is the ICCM overseer for Mississippi. The Vardaman church is the only one from the fellowship in North Mississippi, but there are several more farther south.
The church’s mission is “to love God, love your neighbor and to share Jesus.” Davidson also shares a brochure with visitors that shows the church’s strategy as to “present the gospel, teach God’s word, and go like Jesus.”
They average close to 30 people each Sunday.
“We’re a small church but we’ve been very blessed,” he said. “We have a great volunteer staff and wonderful members.”
“We work with area churches, not against them,” Davidson said in attracting visitors. “We have a core group that really supports the church. Then we have the congregation that are people that recently joined the church and are still just getting involved and that takes time. We try not to push anybody. Then you have the community, where we have people visiting.”
Davidson knew at age 19 he was called into the ministry. He attended Bible college and came home to Maben where he worked with an independent church. He then pastored a former Methodist church in Potts Camp for more than three years before coming to Vardaman.
He works as an optician handling services for two different clinics.
“That’s what I do during the day time,” Davidson said. “It works well with the church, because I can usually come and go as I need to.”
Being active in the community is important to Davidson and the church as a whole. Last year they hosted a tent revival on the church’s property that proved very successful.
“We had a great response from that,” Davidson said.
They operate a small food pantry from their kitchen.
“We don’t do a monthly distribution but from time to time people come to us and need assistance, so we try to help them,” Davidson said. “We keep a benevolence fund to go buy fresh products when needed.”
The church does have its own cemetery that it maintains.
“That’s been a blessing to be able to serve the community with that and provide services,” Davidson said.
The church has a long term goal of building a fellowship hall and a basketball court.
“We take small steps and work toward that,” Davidson said.