Why and how are pastors called to preach? It’s a question we ask of most of our subjects in our Calhoun pastors series.
Charles Tillman said he knew some guys who got in trouble and he went to the Calhoun County Jail in Pittsboro to talk to them.
“It just grew from there. I did that for a long time,” Tillman said. “I did that even before I accepted the call.”
“Like most people do, I ran from it,” said Marlon Long, new pastor at Grace Southern in Calhoun City. “It was one of those things where I couldn’t get any peace or satisfaction. In the midst of a few things going on, I said it’s time to give in to the Lord.
Erwin Phillips
Rev. Tracy Foxx of Friendship MBC south of Calhoun City said he was a long time deacon at his home church Blackjack Missionary Baptist and just started preaching one day “and just never stopped.”
Danny Kelley of Victory Baptist Church east of Bruce said he entered the ministry because it “seemed like the right thing to do. It seemed easier to do it than not do it.”
Dr. Timothy Cook of Taylor Church near Vardaman, who also serves as principal of Vardaman High School, was called into the ministry as a teenager. His father is a retired pastor. His two older brothers are also pastors.
“I didn’t really want to do it. I wanted something different, but God called me,” Dr. Cook said. “I started preaching when I was 16. I was scared to death but I just stepped into it. I’m still growing.”
Erwin Phillips, pastor of Robbs MBC said he dreamed about the ministry as a child and read his Bible constantly.
“I preached my first sermon when I was in the eleventh grade,” Phillips said. “I played basketball at Water Valley and we had a game at Charleston that night, and my coach forfeited the game to bring the whole team to hear me preach my first sermon.”
Chris Conlee, pastor of Big Creek Baptist, said he was 27 when he began to feel the call to preach.
“It was a difficult decision for me, because I had never done any type of public speaking. I was very shy and reserved.” Conlee said he struggled with it for a year before “stepping out on faith and surrendering to God’s ministry.”
Gene King, Sr. of Clark’s Chapel east of Bruce said he was called to preach in February of 1996 and he preached his first sermon that July. He comes from a long line of pastors. His father, two brothers, a sister and other family members are all pastors.
“I just had that feel early in life,” King said. “I was probably 18 when I started having visions of preaching in church.”
Shed King, pastor at Bridges Chapel in Pittsboro said he was driving one day when he was overwhelmed by the Spirit and went to his pastor and said he was called to preach.
Chad O’Brian, principal at Smithville High School and pastor of Trinity Bible near Derma said he “doesn’t think preaching is something we chose, rather we are obedient to the call. My dad is also a preacher and growing up I was asked by folks if I was going to be a preacher when I grow up. I would always reply, ‘I sure hope not.’”
Franklin Dunn, pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist near Gore Springs, said his path to preaching occurred when he was saved at the age of 12 and was asked by an evangelist what Jesus had done for him, Dunn recalled answering “He chased the devil clean out of me.”
Bobby Cobb, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Bruce, ran a service station in New Albany in the late 1960s before leaving to take a truck driving position. During that time he was “saved, but never satisfied.”
He became active in his church and the Southern Baptist Association working in almost every position you could until he finally recognized he should be a pastor.
Johnny Halderman first started preaching at Sherman Baptist Church west of Bruce when he was asked to fill in for his father-in-law, James Calder, who had become ill.
“He was pastor here for 25 years, and he got sick and I just went to filling in,” Halderman said. “I continued to fill in for two years, so I got ordained to minister, and when he got to the point where he had to resign, the church asked me if I would just stay on as pastor.”
Bro. Robert Earl Alexander preached his first sermon at Lantrip Baptist Church in October of 1964.
“I was ordained in December of that year,” he said. “It was the day after my 19th birthday.”
Among his earliest influences was Dero Bollinger, pastor at Alexander’s home church of Poplar Springs off Hwy. 341 north of Vardaman. Bollinger was also a barber around Bruce.
“He had me fill in for him just out of the blue one Sunday at Poplar Springs. I was 16 at the time,” Alexander said. “After that, I thought that the Lord was showing me something and I gave in believing I was meant to preach.”