FBC Saks celebrates pastor’s 50 years in ministry

Fifty years ago Cecil Sewell felt the Lord call him to be a pastor, and he’s not stopped ministering since.
   
“I suppose that when they won’t let me preach anymore, I’ll do something different,” he said. “I do know that I won’t ever not be involved in some kind of ministry.”
   
Being a pastor comes naturally to Sewell.
   
He grew up the son of a pastor and at 17 was licensed by North Highlands Baptist Church, Hueytown, where his father served as pastor.
   
“I’ve always been a pastor at heart,” Sewell said. “I just love people and I’ve found that if you love them not only will they love you but they’ll also love each other.
   
“It permeates through the fabric of the church. A church becomes what the leader is,” he said.
From 1955 to 2000 he served as pastor in six churches in Alabama, Texas and France.
   
Technically Sewell, who will be 68 in August, should be retired. He did retire in 2000 from the full-time pastorate after a battle with prostate cancer.
   
“Several of my contemporaries died around that time and my wife wanted more time with me,” he said. “That was the catalyst that made me willing to retire. However, pastoring was so much a part of me that she soon saw I was only happy doing that.”
   
After retiring, Sewell spent three years serving as an interim preacher at four different churches in Alabama.
   
Even though being an interim pastor normally entails preaching only, Sewell said it was in his nature to also perform other pastoral duties.
   
“I would visit members who were sick in the hospital, evangelize and go to the deacons meetings,”  he said. “These things were so much a part of my heart and life. It was natural for me to do them.”
   
Jimbo Bass attended two of the churches where Sewell served as interim — once as a church member and once as a fellow staff member.
   
“What has most impressed me is his pastoral love and concern for the people,” Bass said.
   
“In a day when many ministers are embracing a corporate model for ministry, Dr. Sewell displays an uncommon commitment to the pastoral duties of a minister of the gospel,” he said.
   
Sewell began his last interim job at First Baptist Church, Saks, in Anniston in the fall of 2003.
   
John Bonds served on the church’s pastor search committee and said they knew they had found not only their interim but their permanent pastor as well when they met and heard Sewell.
   
“He’s got such a leadership spirit,” he said. “We were having some conflict in our church but now that he’s pastor he’s bonded us all back together.”
   
The church offered the full-time pastor position to Sewell who needed some time to contemplate the decision. “They continually asked me to be their pastor,” Sewell said. “In February of this year I finally gave in.”
  
When church member Hazel Jacobs found out Sewell had been in the ministry for 50 years, she went to the deacons to suggest they plan a celebration for their new pastor.
   
“We love him and he’s a wonderful pastor and preacher,” she said. “You just don’t get that in every man.”
   
On April 25, the 50th anniversary of the day Sewell was called and licensed into ministry, the First, Saks, honored Sewell with a reception.
   
Besides having many guests come from across the Southeast to honor him, Sewell also received citations from local county commissioners, the Alabama House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives.
   
Sewell said he enjoyed the reception immensely and was touched by the demonstration of the church’s appreciation.
   
“I felt like a stack of pancakes with syrup poured over me,” he said. “They flattered me too much.”
   
Sewell continues to follow in his father’s footsteps — the elder Sewell still preaches at the age of 94 — and has no plans to ever stop. “I’ll probably die in the pulpit,” he said. “As long as I have health, I’ll continue.”
   
Sewell and his wife, Sharon, have been married for 49 years. They have two children and four grandchildren.