Harold Baggett, of Bay Minette, never expected to become a preacher, let alone spend 50 years in the ministry, but he has loved every minute of it nonetheless.
Baggett’s half-century of doing the Lord’s work was commemorated April 6 at one of the first churches he served, Pleasant Home Baptist, Brantley, in Alabama-Crenshaw Baptist Association.
The celebration included testimonies from members of churches Baggett served. Attendance for Sunday morning worship services at Pleasant Home normally averages 40, but almost 150 attended to hear him preach again.
"He’s always been very articulate and communicates very well with people and gets along with people so well," said Burney Enzor, interim pastor of Pleasant Home.
Johnny Wood, who has known Baggett during most of his time in the ministry, described him as the right individual for the rural churches he served.
"He’s an old-fashioned preacher," Wood said, adding "he’s a real good country preacher," despite the fact it’s something Baggett never thought he’d be.
Baggett, 83, had always assumed that he would be a farmer like his father. "That was all I had thought about, because that was all I had ever known," he said. "That was the furthest thing from my mind that I would be a preacher."
Reared by Primitive Baptist parents who carried him to church, Baggett said they taught him Christian principles that led him to accept Christ when he was 19.
In 1952, he was plowing a field on his tractor when God called him to preach.
"The Lord spoke to me," Baggett said. "Not audibly, but He said, ‘I want you to preach.’"
It was March 1958 before he officially began his ministry, preaching each month at Zion Baptist Church, Dozier.
Over the next 50 years, Baggett led several churches in Alabama-Crenshaw Association and Damascus Baptist Church, Greenville, in Butler Baptist Association.
In addition to Pleasant Home and Zion Baptist, Don Yancey, director of missions for Alabama-Crenshaw Association, said Baggett served eight other churches in that association — Chapel Hill Baptist, Honoraville; Highland Home Baptist; Joquin Baptist, Goshen; New Ebenezer Baptist, Lapine; First Baptist, Rutledge; Union Baptist, Honoraville; Gravel Hill Baptist, Luverne; and Second Baptist, Rutledge.
And he was pastor of some of them more than once.
His contributions to the association included serving as moderator from 1960 to 1961 in addition to holding other leadership positions.
And Baggett’s ministry continues. He visits Oakwood nursing home in Bay Minette every week to teach Sunday School before attending worship at Southside Baptist Church, Bay Minette, in Baldwin Baptist Association.
Baggett also keeps busy with his two living children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
His wife died in 1993, after 44 years of marriage.
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