Across the Bay we go...

Saturday, Suzanne and I had the opportunity to attend a special celebration in the big city of Crossroads, Alabama. For those of you who are not familiar with the Crossroads community, it's just east of Hurricane and north of Bromley. Didn't help much? If you were to travel north from Spanish Fort in Baldwin County, Alabama towards I-65 you would eventually come to one four-way stop at the Crossroads community. On the southeast corner is a boat shop, on the southwest corner a BP station, to the northwest the old school, and finally, on the northeast you will find the Durant Chapel Baptist Church.

Some 100 years ago, the Durant Chapel church was founded and the community gathered this weekend to celebrate both its founding and its continuing ministry in Crossroads. I'm not familiar with all of the ins and outs of the history of the church, but I am intimately familiar with one small portion of its history. In late November of 2001, I was a young man with a lot of desire to do ministry and little outlet to do it. In July of that year I had begun to feel strongly again God's call on my life to pursue ministry as a career, and set out quickly to get started. I didn't have much of a plan. I was already involved as a volunteer in my church and I continued to serve in those capacities. I felt like the biology degree I was working towards at Spring Hill College might not be that useful for a Southern Baptist minister, so I transferred to the University of Mobile and began my new course of studies there. As a ministerial student, I filled out a profile in ministry which displayed my utter lack of qualifications to all who would take the time to look at it.

In November of that year, I came home from my job at Springhill Memorial Hospital to the news that "some church" had left a message for me. I promptly returned the call and asked for the lady from Deer Ranch Chapel. (Note to young ministers trying to find an opportunity to serve: When you call somebody, make sure you have the name of their church right) The church was looking for an interim youth director, and they were wondering if I might be interested in coming over on a Wednesday night to lead a youth Bible study. I didn't know what to expect, but I went, both excited and afraid to lead their youth service that night.

If you've never had the opportunity to be the new minister in town, it's a little surreal. They had a good crowd of kids that night who had come to "check out the new guy". I suppose the night must have went pretty well, because the committee asked me to stay after for a few minutes to talk. I'm not a good interviewee. I don't have a lot to add to the conversation, and I'm often painfully honest. One member of the committee asked me, "What special skills do you bring to the table? Do you sing, play an instrument, or do dramas and skits?". I answered the only way I knew how: "No ma'am, but I'm a really nice guy and I'm willing to mop the floors".

The two years that I spent at Durant Chapel were a joy. I loved the church and I'm thankful for the love and patience that they showed me. I was blessed with a lot of excellent students, and I hope that they are able to carry the experiences that we had during that time with them into their young adulthood.

The events Saturday were bittersweet for me. It was good to see many familiar faces, and it was good to meet some of the new leadership in the church. The difficulty in any reunion is the faces that are not there. Durant Chapel has been blessed with some of the finest senior adults that I had the chance to know, and in the intervening years, many of them have passed on. There are others who have left and found other churches or moved out of the community. My closest compatriots from those days, my students, are all young adults now and are striking out into the world, and I missed the opportunity to visit with them. To all of you, I say thank you. Thanks for giving a young boy with no discernible ability or skills to do ministry an opportunity. Were it not for the ministry that you have had in my life, I don't know what would have happened to me. Thanks for every encouragement, gift, and prayer that you've offered on my behalf. You've been a blessing to me. Durant Chapel Baptist Church, happy birthday, and may God richly bless you with many more.