Jeff Dalton’s journey into the ministry began when he was a teenager in Corinth and was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“It was an incredibly difficult time,” he said. “School was very challenging for me.”
The tumor had caused significant memory loss, especially short term, making it hard for him to find his way to class during high school.
He underwent surgery and radiation treatments for six weeks in July 1978.
“I was recovering from all of that, about the time I was starting college, and went to a youth retreat and accepted Christ as my savior there and was called to preach the next day,” he said.
“That evening after going down to the altar, I prayed that I wanted to be a Christian. It was the first time I realized you couldn’t do enough to get into heaven on your own. You needed Jesus. I felt I had been forgiven. It was a gift of cleansing and warmth of God’s love. I had a gift of prayer for months afterwards and always felt God’s presence.”
“Early the next morning after my conversion experience, God told me to be a preacher,” he said.
Thirty years later, Dalton is the new pastor of Bruce United Methodist Church. He and his wife, Becky, also a native of Corinth, moved into the pastorium last week and he took part in the devotion program on the Bruce Square during Fourth of July festivities.
“I’m busy trying to get to know everybody right now,” Dalton said.
He earned a bachelors in history from Mississippi State University and a master of divinity degree from Emory University. His first appointment came immediately afterwards in Iuka in 1987.
“I had three churches there on the Iuka North Charge,” he said.
Dalton came to Bruce from Belmont United Methodist Church where he’s been pastor the past several years. He has pastored at eight different churches prior to arriving at Bruce.
“The best part of being a pastor is getting to know people, getting to love them and getting involved in ministry with them,” Dalton said. “Every place I’ve been, God has made people feel like a part of my family.”
His preaching style depends on the text he’s using.
“My favorite is the narrative style where you take a story in the Bible and you tell that story, but you add different insights as you go along and reveal the point,” he said. “The more common style would be applying the Biblical message to our lives today. It’s really a part of every sermon. Trying to make things relevant and talking about things in life that relate to us today.”
Dalton said he had only passed through Bruce before getting this assignment. He is friends with former Bruce UMC pastor Rex Wilburn.
“We served in Union County together years ago and I got to know him well,” Dalton said. “We were in Kiwanis together in New Albany.”
“What I really like about what they’re doing here (at Bruce UMC) is addressing the food insufficiency issue in this county,” Dalton said. “Having a connection with the community, not just being in our building but doing ministry in the area. I believe if a church isn’t doing that it’s not functioning as a church, but just a club. You have to relate to the needs of your community.”