‘Voice’ of Mud Creek Association retiring

With a voice like J. Rod Milam’s, it likely will reverberate through Mud Creek Baptist Association’s 24 churches for years to come. Planning a December retirement as director of missions (DOM) for Mud Creek Association, Milam, 71, is well known for his deep voice.
   
“I kid him about it being so low,” said James Bradford Jr., pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church, Hueytown, in Mud Creek Association. “But he has a great voice, a great voice.”
   
The basso profundo, who will sing just about anywhere he is allowed, has been praising the Lord with music nearly his entire life. Following the teenage glory of Milam’s southern-gospel quartet The RhythmMasters (whose lead singer Dale Shellnut went on to found The Dixie Echoes) came his college days at Samford University in Birmingham and then 18 years as music minister at Industrial City Baptist Church, Hueytown, in Bessemer Baptist Association. Through it all, he has kept the beat and kept it well — though his voice didn’t always have the anchor that it does now.
   
“Right before my voice changed, I heard a team from Baylor University and Frank Boggs was the singer, and when I heard him, he had the most beautiful resonant bass voice I’d heard in all my life,” Milam said. 
   
He promised that if God would give him a voice like that, then he would use it for Him. “I went from being a high soprano down to a low bass, and my mother reminded me, ‘You made a promise to the Lord so use that voice,’” Milam said. 
   
Whether in a bass line or through a word of encouragement, he has made a career out of keeping his word. Milam has been a music, youth and education minister and associate pastor. And even though he’s never been a senior pastor, those who know him think he could have been one. 
   
But his potential took him somewhere different. 
   
Eight years ago, while Milam was still serving at Industrial City Baptist, Mud Creek Association needed a new DOM. 
   
Bradford asked Milam if he would be interested in the position. “Prior to that, my wife, Peggy, and I had been praying for God to lead us into something He wanted us to do — we just didn’t know what,” Milam said.
   
He knew immediately he wanted the job. Bradford’s idea was powerful confirmation for him that associational administration was the Lord’s next step for his life. 
   
“I just remember him being so dedicated to that church (Industrial City), so dedicated to serving,” Bradford said. “He’s very enjoyable to be around. When he’s inspired and excited, his eyes open real wide and his eyebrows go up. He really enjoys what he does. I think he’s going to really hate to let go of this.”
   
Though he is “doing great,” a recent battle with cancer is the primary reason Milam is stepping down from the position he has come to love. Chemotherapy has recently robbed him of his hair, but the cancer can’t seem to do anything to his faith, which is deeper than even his voice. 
   
“The Lord has been gracious and I’m just grateful,” he said. “I told the doctor, ‘I’ve got 24 churches full of people praying for me — that’s doing more than any medicine could do.’”