Roy Isbell has spent a lot of his life studying. He has a seminary degree, and has written a number of books including “The Eternal Living God,” “Walking With Jesus: The Blessings of Dwelling Daily With God” and “Fall in Love With Jesus.”
Today, at 102, if he isn’t reading the Bible or the books he owns, he said he’s almost certainly reading The Alabama Baptist.
Isbell’s nephew, Danny Wood, pastor emeritus of Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, called him “an amazing man.”
Isbell spent most of his ministry working with Baptist Campus Ministries with the Missouri and Mississippi Baptist conventions. These days, he is a resident of Elmcroft of Grayson Valley in Clay, and when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented outside ministers from coming in to lead services there, he started leading them.
His son Sherman, a Presbyterian minister in Virginia, said his father would put many other preachers to shame on Monday mornings “plunging with enthusiasm into his sermon preparation for the next week’s service and working away at it all week.”
Isbell recites the sermon to his nursing aide on Saturday, organizes song sheets for the service and changes out the text on his message board two times a week, using a constant turnover of Scripture passages.
Wood said he’s hoping he to have “a bunch of the Isbell genes.”
“And what is the preferred reading of 102-year-old men?” Wood asked. “None other than The Alabama Baptist paper!”
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