In 48 years of ministry, Emmett Roper of Jacksonville has proven that his feet are important in his ministry.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace!”
While perhaps no one has asked him to take off his shoes to see if this is true, Roper’s feet have carried him to many places to practice his calling.
Roper, 65, has been living vocational evangelism for 23 years. He recognized his calling to ministry when he was 15.
“I’d get out behind the house and preach to the pine trees,” he said.
He began a radio ministry through a station in Gadsden when he was 17 and continued it through one in Jacksonville. Happily, his ministry outlived both stations. Roper never asked for a penny, yet his program always received enough funds to cover expenses.
As a young ordained preacher, Roper didn’t own a car, so he relied on his feet. When he didn’t have a way to the churches where he was to preach, he’d just start walking in that direction. “Someone would always come by and pick me up,” Roper said. “I was never late for a preaching appointment.”
In 1954, he graduated from Alexandria High School. The son of a sharecropper, Roper borrowed books to study in order to further his education at Samford University and Jacksonville State University. In 1969, his feet carried him across the graduation stage at what is now the Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.
Among his previous pastorates are Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Wellington, two different assignments at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Columbia; Bethlehem Baptist Church, Dothan; and Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Gadsden. Roper has served on committees in the Columbia, Calhoun and Etowah associations and two times as vice president of the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference.
He was recently honored by Coldwater Baptist Church, Oxford, for his 48 years of ministry in that area. Currently, he is a member of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville.
In 1982, during a four-month medical hiatus from Bethlehem Baptist, the fastest-growing church in the Dothan area at the time, Roper felt impressed to return to evangelism.
“I had gotten comfortable pastoring,” he said.
He used his feet to step out of his comfort zone and return to his original calling.
Faithful to the prompting, Roper resigned, moved back to north Alabama, and within weeks the calls began coming in asking him to lead revivals.
To date, Roper’s feet have taken him to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, New York, Wyoming, Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi to conduct revivals, crusades and soul-winning conferences. As many as 88 people in a night have come to know Christ as a result of these conferences. Roper keeps a busy schedule, sometimes going as long as 15 weeks without a break. For many years, he averaged 30 meetings annually.
Even his amateur radio hobby opens up avenues for Roper to tell people about Jesus Christ. Though he isn’t allowed to preach over amateur radio, he is not afraid to start up a conversation with fellow radio enthusiasts as a way to share the gospel.
In Dothan, for instance, Roper and his wife spotted an antenna on a house while they were in the neighborhood searching for a home to buy. He stopped at the house to talk with the occupant. A friendship began that later allowed Roper to tell the person about Jesus Christ.
No matter where his feet have taken him — to lead revivals or to talk about amateur radio — Roper has found that everyone is searching and most want to know more about Jesus Christ. He wants to make sure they have a chance to hear, and those feet haven’t failed him yet.
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