South Alabama pastor balances work, church, long commute

During the week he is known as Dr. Kenneth Fields, a domestic violence and anger management counselor in Mobile.
   
On Wednesday nights and Sundays, he goes by “Brother Ken” as he serves as pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Dixon’s Mills, a small town more than 100 miles north of Mobile.
   
“Being a pastor helps me to be a more sympathetic counselor,” he said. “Being a counselor helps me prepare sermons and know that everyone has issues in life.”
   
Fields, who has been a pastor since he was 18, has served churches full time in Alabama and Florida from 1965 until 1995 when he went into Christian counseling.
The career change took him to Chattanooga, but after working there for two years, he returned to Mobile to help care for his aging parents.
   
“I started a new counseling agency in Mobile and did some supply preaching but I really wanted to pastor a church,” he said. “I love teaching and being with people so I called Gene Walley (retired director of missions for Bethel Association) and asked him about churches that needed pastors.”
   
In March 1997, Shiloh Baptist called Fields as pastor and it’s been a good fit for Fields and the church.
   
Owning his own counseling agency gives Fields the flexibility to schedule his appointments so he can get to church on Wednesday nights.
   
“I work on Wednesdays until about 3 p.m. and then drive to Dixon’s Mills,” he said. “I like to go visiting before prayer meeting if I can. After the service I drive back home.”
   
On Saturdays, Fields works at his counseling agency in the morning and then he and his wife drive to Dixon’s Mills in the afternoon. “The church built and furnished a pastorium and we stay there on Saturday nights,” he said.
   
Fields said he does stay in Dixon’s Mills during the weeks the church hosts a  revival and Vacation Bible School. Likewise, when the counseling profession requires Fields to take workshops or classes to keep up his credentials, he is able to take time off from Shiloh Baptist.
   
“It’s great that we work as a team,” he said. “I wish all churches supported their bivocational pastors like mine supports me.”
   
“It says a lot that they do everything they can to help me out,” he said. “They are exceptionally considerate of the distance and provide help if I can’t get there for some reason,” he said. “If there’s a bad storm or ice on the roads someone fills in for me.”
   
One never to waste time, Fields even uses the time in the car driving to and from church to listen to counseling tapes or catch up with his wife, Terry. “If I’m with my wife, we enjoy the time without a beeper or a phone and just talk,” he said.
   
Fields isn’t the only one who makes great sacrifice each week to be at Shiloh Baptist. His wife, Terry, contributes much to his ministry and counseling agency.
   
“She stays in Mobile and runs our counseling sessions so I can be free to go to church,” he said. “I feel fortunate that we can serve the church together.”
   
Richard Hill, chairman of the deacons at Shiloh Baptist, said having Fields as the church’s pastor has worked well for the church as well as for Fields. “Because of his experience with counseling he knows how to get things done,” Hill said. “He knows how to handle and manage us and how to get the most out of us.”
   
Eva Grey Stephens, who has been a member at Shiloh for 54 years, said she is very thankful to have Fields as her pastor.
   
“We’re very blessed with him and his family,” she said.