Two directors of missions leave positions, become pastors of churches in their associations

Ask anyone in Bethlehem and Pine Barren Baptist associations and they will tell you — the big news is that their director of missions (DOM), Wayne McMillian, is leaving the position to become pastor of an area church.
   
But McMillian says that’s not really big news at all. 
   
“There are much better things to talk about around here than me,” he said with a laugh.
   
Better things, McMillian said, such as the children who accepted Christ as Savior at his new church’s Vacation Bible School in June. Then there is the rebirth of the old Bear Creek Baptist Church near Caledonia and the men’s construction team that’s work this year already spans several states.
   
“There’s big stuff going on among the people here,” he said.
   
McMillian recently moved his family seven miles down the road from a house next door to the Bethlehem Association office to the pastorium next door to the association’s Mexia Baptist Church. A Monroe County native, he’s a little emotional leaving the DOM position after he watched men fill it over the years and held each of them in high esteem.
   
“I knew all the directors of missions over the years, and it was a great honor for us to serve in this position,” McMillian said.
   
“Us” refers to the ministry team he and his wife, Alice, have made over the years, serving as missionaries to Africa and South Dakota, as well as pastor and pastor’s wife of several south Alabama churches, including First Baptist Church, Satsuma; First Baptist Church, Foley; and First Baptist Church, Monroeville.
   
It was the missions mind-set that drove him to challenge churches in his associations to “get out the door” and reach people cross-dimensionally over the past two years.
   
“If they look like us, talk like us and smell like us, we’re generally good at reaching them. We’re trying to get better at reaching the ones who don’t,” McMillian said.
   
The result was a three-year effort of intentional prayer, intentional evangelism and intentional discipleship. A new church start was slated for the fourth year.
   
But after two years, the pastor’s heart tugged him back toward his previous calling.
   
“I missed the personal outreach, and I missed being a part of people’s lives during life-change events like weddings and funerals,” he said. 
   
One Sunday while supply preaching at Mexia Baptist, a young girl hugged McMillian and said, “My mom and dad have been wondering why you won’t be our pastor.”
  
It was all over then, he said with a laugh. “My wife and I prayer drove the area, and I felt God was leading me to the pastorate.”
   
Steve Patrick, who recently left his position as DOM for Bibb Baptist Association, found his calling led him in the same direction.
   
“Once you’re a pastor at heart, you’ll never be anything else,” said Patrick, who has served as pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, West Blocton, in Bibb Association for the past two months. 
   
His church, which is approaching the 200 mark in Sunday services, is busting at the seams in its current building and in the early stages of considering a building project. Patrick said he couldn’t be more excited.
   
“It’s good to be able to connect with the people and be there to intervene in crisis situations,” he said. “It can seem like a heavy load but that’s my calling.”
   
He is no stranger to heavy loads.
   
Three years ago — after 20 years in pastoral ministry — Patrick became Bibb Association’s DOM. During that time, a string of tragic events — the church arsons in early February — impacted four of his churches and shoved him into the national spotlight.
   
“I had no idea such things would take place and that I would be thrust into the middle of that,” he said. 
   
But Patrick still adds that he wouldn’t trade the opportunity to minister to those churches for anything.
   
For both McMillian and Patrick, the DOM experience was a very positive one, said Gary Swafford, director of the office of associational missions and church planting for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “They are simply moving because this is where the Lord is leading them. And both say that now that they have been in the associational office, they are ready and prepared to be key supporters of their successors,” Swafford said.
   
Patrick will still be close at hand, living nearby the associational office and keeping an eye out for his fellow pastors.
   
McMillian will be doing the same, following through on projects he started from the pastor side now, as well as staying on board as missions development coordinator for Bethlehem Association.
   
“I’m having a great time with this,” Patrick said.
   
McMillian agreed, adding, “There’s definitely an excitement in the air to keep the challenge going in our association and at our church. God put this together.”