In a surprise service Oct. 3, Autaugaville Baptist Church recognized the 40-year tenure of Alvin Bryant, the church’s minister of music.
Bryant, a pastor’s son, grew up around church music, he said. One experience hearing a church choir in Birmingham ignited his passion for music. Bryant never received formal training, but was taught by the music directors of the churches his father served.
Bryant felt called to Autaugaville while serving as a deacon in Chisholm Baptist Church, Montgomery. He had never been music director of a church, but he felt God calling him to the position. “God told me I was going to lead music there … He impressed that on me,” Bryant said. He and his wife, Theresa, joined Autaugaville in 1972, when Fred Keller was serving as pastor.
The church’s service to honor Bryant “was totally a surprise,” he said. Autaugaville presented Bryant and Theresa with plaques and a picture with text from Isaiah 40.
Garner Clark, who has served as Autaugaville’s pastor for 28 years, said the congregation is “totally supportive of his musical leadership.
“They trust him fully with worship on Sundays,” he said.
Clark described Bryant as “someone who stays attuned to God’s leadership in music and worship, providing a Christlike role model for the church in humility, dependability, faithfulness and steadfast loyalty.”
Clark also said that Bryant’s reputation had so preceded him to Autaugaville that the church called him as a deacon on the very Sunday that Bryant changed his membership to the church.
Reflecting on his time with the church, Bryant emphasized the sense of privilege he has felt “in being associated with some of the most loving, caring Christian people on the face of the earth.”
(Joseph Rhea)
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