At 85, New Harmony pastor, Travis Hitt, still going strong preaching that ‘old time religion’

When Travis Hitt preaches, his fire-and-brimstone style reminds some of his listeners of another era. It’s a style that Hitt has had plenty of time to perfect. Hitt, who celebrated his 85th birthday March 10, has been a pastor more than 50 years, spending nearly all that time serving churches in the Alabama Crenshaw Association.
   
Yet Hitt’s message — and his style — maintain a timelessness and relevance for a new millennium. As pastor of New Harmony Baptist Church, a small congregation near Luverne, Hitt still gets behind the pulpit every Sunday to deliver a fervent Word from the Lord. “I try to limit my message to 30 minutes — at least not over 40,” he says. “But I give a good time. I don’t fumble around.” 
   
He also occasionally breaks into song. “I sing solos once in a while — when they let me.”
   
“He doesn’t change much,” says his wife, Getty. “It’s more or less the same style. When he gets through I tell him, ‘You let them have it today.’” The Hitts have a daughter, Penny, who is married to Jimmy Morgan; two grandsons, Jace and Jon, and a great-granddaughter, Sydney.
   
Hitt, who was born in 1917, grew up in Sumter County near York until moving to Crenshaw County in 1947 shortly before his marriage. Already ordained as a deacon in his home church, Siloam Baptist in Bigbee Association, he was starting to feel the call of God on his life for full-time ministry when he and Getty married. “I told Getty I might have to preach one day.”
   
That day came soon afterward. Hitt served as a supply pastor in the area for a while and then accepted the call from New Harmony Baptist Church to become its pastor. He was ordained Dec. 12, 1948, at Patsburg Baptist Church in Luverne.
   
Although Hitt has come full circle in his service as pastor — his full-time ministry began at New Harmony and that same church is once again his place of service. He also has served as pastor of Mount Zion, Rutledge First, Patsburg, Chapel Hill, Gravel Hill and Bethel Churches, all in Alabama-Crenshaw Association. He served as pastor one year at Pine Level in Montgomery Association.
   
During those years he preached 104 revivals, officiated at 147 weddings, conducted 886 funerals and served 40 years as clerk of the Alabama-Crenshaw Association. His contribution to the association has been significant, according to Jody Bentley, director of missions, but Bentley also attributes personal benefits to his association with Hitt.
   
“He means a great deal to me and my family,” Bentley notes. When Bentley arrived on the scene more than three years ago, it was Hitt who took him around the local ministry circuit. “There’s a great wealth of [knowledge] there that I’ve been able to draw from.”
   
Although Hitt is 85 and exhibits what Bentley terms a “reverence” for God’s Word when he preaches, there is nothing feeble about his delivery, according to Bentley. “When you hear Bro. Hitt pray or preach, it’s different from a lot of our pastors today.  It’s not much of a teaching style. It’s a true preaching style in a straightforward, evangelistic, fire-and-brimstone message. He doesn’t hold anything back.”
   
Although he tries to stay active, both at home and on the church field, gardening and conducting prayer meetings on Wednesday nights, Hitt acknowledges that he has made some concessions to age. Preparing sermons is not quite the chore it once was, mostly because he’s spent so much time studying through the years. He takes part in regular pastors meetings and still makes the hospital rounds. “But I don’t make as many visits as I used to 30 years ago.”
   
Hitt was out of the pulpit for several weeks following a heart attack last October in his longest absence to date. It was this recovery from open-heart surgery, as much as other natural effects of aging, that has effectively slowed him down. 
   
But not much. And there’s no end in Hitt’s sight. “I don’t want to quit,” he says. “I want to let the Lord quit me.”