Alford to retire from work with literacy, language missions for Alabama Baptists

Alford to retire from work with literacy, language missions for Alabama Baptists

Sixteen years ago when Richard Alford joined the staff of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), he didn’t have to press 1 for English on most of the phone calls he made.

It was a different Alabama when he became an associate in the office of associational missions and church planting. It was 1991 and Alford, fluent in sign language, was the perfect fit for the position, which concentrated on language missions and church and community ministries.

At that time, the deaf of Alabama were by far the largest language group.

The deaf, however, are no longer the largest language population. "The Hispanics have far outgrown everybody," Alford said.

Despite the cultural shift, Alford, an active member of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association, embraced the challenges of multicultural evangelism with verve.

But in June, Alford, a North American Mission Board-appointed church-planting missionary, will retire from the fre-netic pace of a cross-
cultural gospel liaison and explore quieter avenues of missions work.

"I’m excited about … enjoying ministry with less stringent time requirements than a full-time job," he said.

According to his co-workers, Alford will be missed.

"Richard Alford is a uniquely gifted minister who has devoted himself to ministering to those who have some challenges in receiving the gospel," said Rick Lance, SBOM executive director.

"Long before the term ‘cross–cultural evangelism’ became commonplace among Southern Baptists and other evangelicals, Richard Alford was hard at work behind the scenes, ministering to language groups and those who were in need of knowing the truths of the gospel but were not physically capable of hearing the words and sounds of the message," he said.

In addition to working with the state’s deaf and Hispanic populations, Alford has facilitated evangelism among Alabama’s growing number of Asians and about 10 other populations. Part of his role is to facilitate the setup and continuation of ongoing community ministries to meet the needs of these people groups.

He is also a passionate literacy advocate, a Talladega Superspeedway chaplain and director of Alabama Raceway Ministries, serving the missions field of NASCAR at Talladega.

"We’ve helped lost children, started dead (car) batteries, helped people who were stranded get back home, performed weddings, assisted in grief situations — you get 250,000 (people there), somebody’s going to have some grief," Alford said of his asphalt evangelism at Talladega, a vehicle for ministry he plans to drive into retirement.

But even though Alford doesn’t plan to slow way down necessarily, he believes it’s time to have someone new at the wheel in his role at the SBOM.

"I’ve enjoyed this job very much. I’ve enjoyed working with cross-cultural people … but I think a part of the reason I should retire is I think it’s time for a new leader to take things to the next level," Alford said.

On his first day of the job, only four Hispanic missions were reporting to his office. Today there are at least 30, he said, adding "there may be more but these are the ones that are reporting."

"I think the Hispanic challenge is going to continue to be there and grow," Alford said. "This will be the challenge of this century within language work for Alabama."