Alma
Alma, Georgia 31510
9126324782

• Education: Mary Ella and I met and graduated together from Emory University in Atlanta; she earned an education degree and I earned a biology/chemistry degree. After four years in the Navy, I attended and graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary with Masters of Divinity and Masters of Christian Education degrees. My area of interest was "spiritual development."
• Experience: I’ve led a varied and interesting life as an electrician for my dad, an soda jerk in college, a salesman at Rich’s in Atlanta, a biology teacher near Atlanta, a chemist in the Navy, a medical lab instructor in Lexington, a pastor, an ethics and Bible teacher at a college prep school, a resource development director at a treatment center for abused children, and now a local pastor again in Alma.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: I can give you a structure, a couple of great stories, and some ideas; you have to provide the depth.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: David Seamands (I forget the sermon and the series) once said, "God is willing to hurt you to make you holy."
• One of my favorite illustrations: The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on Dec. 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sunk when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 6 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way to the church, he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored; crochet tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors, and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder and hangers to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. It was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job. What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a concentration camp. He had not seen his wife nor his home for 35 years. The pastor asked him if he would like go for a ride. They drove to Staten Island to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and witnessed the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
• Family: Mary Ella and I have two sons; Al teaches special education in Thomasville and Jim owns Alabama Family Dental in Mobile. Al has four children; Nicole, Cayse, Brady, and Greyson.
• What my parents think of my sermons: They were always proud of me... good and/or bad! :)
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: She thinks I’m an interesting preacher; I’m able to keep her interest.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: A sermon is not a twenty-minute presentation; it’s a twenty-minute presentation multiplied by the number of people who hear it... make it worth all that time!
• Books that have had an impact: Bible, Don’t Waste Your Sorrows, Communicating for a Change, and Purpose Driven Life.
• Hobbies: Mary Ella and I love to travel, we bicycle together, and we walk (preferably in the mountains or along the beach). I love to fish and hunt. We collect angels and are beginning to cook together (in a new parsonage here in Alma).
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: If you only remember one thing I’ve ever said, remember this, "Love God, each other, and youselves!"
• Something funny that happened while preaching: A gnat flew into the ministry... i.e. into my mouth!
• What I want on my tombstone: Tempted to live someone else’s life, he lived his own!