Dothan church grows in wake of tragic loss of pastor’s son

When Scotty Scott accepted the pulpit at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Dothan — his first pastorate — he didn’t realize his pastor’s dream come true would be followed swiftly by every parent’s worst nightmare.
   
One Sunday afternoon in March — about a month after he and his wife, Amy, answered the call to the Columbia Baptist Association church — their 3-and-a-half-year-old son Trey wandered away from family gathered at their home. Minutes later, he fell into the pond behind their home.
   
When Trey was found after a frantic search, as relatives tried to resuscitate him, Amy Scott hit her knees on the banks of the pond and pleaded with God for the outcome that would bring Him the most glory.
   
Trey didn’t make it.
   
“When you walk through such a tragedy as a child of God, you never question His love or the promise of His Word that He works things out for good,” said Rick Evans, Amy Scott’s father and pastor of Dalraida Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association. “We wept but anticipated that good, so we looked for God to work out something big.”
   
And He did — from nearly the moment He welcomed Trey into heaven, Evans said. In the wake of the tragedy, God used Trey’s impact to draw people to Himself — both inside Trey’s “little white church” and out.
   
Jerry Grandstaff, director of missions for Columbia Association, called Trey a “church builder” when he spoke at his funeral. That day, Grandstaff gave an evangelistic message and people all over the room accepted Christ. One was a co-worker of Scotty Scott’s at the store where he works as a full-time pharmacist.
   
Another woman who had lost a young child years ago came to the Scotts’ home after the accident to minister to Amy Scott and ended up being ministered to instead.
   
“She said after the death of her child, she hadn’t had the peace we had had since Trey’s death,” Amy Scott said.
    The two knelt in the Scotts’ bedroom, and the woman prayed to receive Christ.
    Both of the Scotts agree that though the pain is intense, the comfort is great in knowing that God is working good from their tragic loss.
   
“We don’t have anything left here — we would rather be in heaven with Trey. But we see God is at work here, and we know God has left us here for a reason,” Scotty Scott said.
   
Members of Mount Pleasant Baptist agree that one of those reasons is for a little church that’s been teetering on the edge of extinction for years and is now growing strong again. The congregation that was running 14 or 15 in Sunday School when the Scotts arrived is now running 40 or more each week — 15 or 16 of which are young adults.
   
Tears run down 83-year-old Sherman Kilcrease’s face when he talks about the influx of young people at Mount Pleasant, where he’s been a member for 46 years.
   
“It’s been a rough road here — for decades, we’ve had nothing but elderly people, and we knew if young people didn’t come, the church would die,” Kilcrease said. “Now we’re meeting the needs of younger people and they’re coming. And we’re looking forward to moving into our new building.”
   
The building he speaks of is a brick sanctuary being built just a few feet from the current wooden one, a new worship center that will hold 200 people, according to Scotty Scott. The foundation of the building had been laid for years but the building had never been framed up until now, he said.
   
The church is growing in the wake of Trey’s death, both in number and in resources. Nearly $30,000 has been donated to Mount Pleasant in Trey’s honor, and the numbers have grown with people attracted to the Scotts because they want to see someone “they know is for real,” Evans said. “People are drawn to them and to what God is doing for them and doing for that church.”
   
Seven months after the accident, tears still spring easily to Amy Scott’s eyes as she stands in the pew and sings, “He hideth my soul … in the cleft of the rock … and covers me there with His hand.”
   
But she’s still able to smile through her tears. “It’s hard every day but we’re able to see more and more of the big picture every day of how God has worked since Trey’s death and that helps us through.”
   
Scotty Scott’s smile is sincere, too, as he opens the Word to Matthew 11:28–30 to preach on how the Lord carries our burdens with us.
   
The night’s passage is close enough to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 that a photo of Trey that Amy Scott keeps tucked near that passage falls out of her Bible, along with several dried flowers.
   
“The day of Trey’s accident was a Sunday, and he had quoted the Lord’s Prayer that morning on the way to church,” she explained. “And these flowers were growing along the pond the day of his funeral.”
   
After church, a toddler gets loose from his mother and runs up the aisle toward the front of the church. Scotty Scott plays peekaboo with him around the pulpit, and he runs laughing back down the aisle.
   
Amy Scott smiles and Kilcrease grins.
   
“God has brought new life to Mount Pleasant,” he said.