Pastor, church planter and author Clifford Matthews died June 17. He was 87.
Matthews served numerous Alabama Baptist churches during more than 65 years of ministry, including Hales Chapel, Shiloh, St. John, Dorcas and Pocosin, all in Jack.
His memoir, “Worth Dying For,” recounts his life in ministry, beginning with his childhood in South Alabama during the pre-World War II era. He became a Christian as a teenager, and as a youth heeded an early call to become licensed to preach, to serve churches and even to lead a citywide revival.
By the early 1960s, he and his wife, Peggy, were living in the Panama Canal Zone and assisting with missions work when he unexpectedly found himself in the middle of a riot. His conviction that ministry is worth the risk didn’t wane during that tumult in the Republic of Panama, and this conviction also guided him during his church planting efforts in Alabama, New York, Florida and wherever the Lord would lead.
Matthews is survived by his wife, daughter, son, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
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