Two preachers. One pulpit. Sound like a good sermon or a good argument?
It’s an answer to two years of prayer for Loveless Park Baptist Church in Bessemer, whose pastor search committee recently found a fit for a big pair of shoes — a pair of pastors.
Joel Frederick, 30, who served three years ago as the church’s youth minister, recently accepted the title of pastor/evangelist at Loveless Park — his first pastorate.
But he accepted it on one condition — that he serve alongside new part-time Senior Pastor Frank Sims, 70, a retired pastor then serving as the church’s interim pastor.
“The church loves Bro. Frank, and they love Joel,” said David Abernathy, chairman of the pastor search committee at Loveless Park. “Joel felt he wasn’t ready for a senior pastorate, and Bro. Frank felt there was a certain age group he wasn’t reaching.”
Together, Abernathy said, the vision is complete: a valuable mentor for Frederick in Sims, a youthful vision for Sims in Frederick — and a church thrilled about two very different men who together can lead their church into a new level of ministry.
Beginning Sept. 1, the two will share the pulpit and administrative duties with the Lord’s leading, a situation Frederick called “a gold mine.”
“For 10 years I desired a pastor as a mentor and felt the call to pastoring and to evangelism, but I wasn’t ready to walk cold turkey into a pastorate,” said Frederick, who has served as area director for First Priority of Alabama since leaving Loveless Park in 2001.
“This is an answer to prayer, and no seminary can offer the kind of experience I’ll have learning from Bro. Frank,” Frederick said. “It’s a unique opportunity for me to stand on this man’s shoulders and glean so much wisdom.”
Committee members said they feared the idea might seem too “out of the box” to the church — a young man with no experience whatsoever as a pastor, and an older man who himself laughed and said he was long past the age when many churches put their pastors “out to pasture.”
But the church rejoiced in the suggestion immediately, questioning not how they would afford two pastors or divide duties but only asking, “Why can’t it start tonight?”
“There is so much our church can gain and (we can) grow from so much shared vision,” Abernathy said. After retiring from 45 years as a full-time pastor, Sims led Loveless Park through a growth spurt that has left the buildings bursting at the seams.
And the church — mostly made up of members ages 50 and older — suddenly has been surrounded by an influx of young people moving right next door.
“I didn’t come to be his boss. There’s so much in this community to be done, we don’t want him to be limited,” Sims said. “I stand in awe of the working of the Lord, and I want to stand right with Joel to encourage him.”
Sims said he hopes through Loveless Park’s faith and the leadership of God, other churches who need both youthful energy and the experience of someone who has “been there” will consider this type of mentorship.
“I can learn from him too, and my prayer is that it will enhance his ministry.”
It’s a fantastic mentoring relationship that’s clearly biblical, and it should be done more and more, Abernathy said. Not to mention the fact that the church is growing rapidly — in all age groups — due to the excitement and vision across the board.
Frederick said there is generational tension in a church with dueling age groups, but not so at Loveless Park.
“There are many times those who want to celebrate tradition, and those who charge into the future so hard and fast they leave wounded in their path,” Frederick said. “But this situation is not like that at all.”
Situations like this support “out-of-the-box” ideas well, said Dale Huff, director of the office of LeaderCare and church administration at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Standing side by side
“Concepts that are outside the norm work well when there is the willingness of people involved to work within that process,” Huff said. “It’s wonderful. I like to see different forms of doing church tried, and if it works and works well, then they have set a new precedent for the way things can be done,” Huff said. “I applaud and affirm them for trying it.”
Many doors had shut on the pastor search efforts until this option became the vision of everyone on the committee.
“Only God could have brought this together at this time,” Sims said. “Young and old, there is an excitement in the church looking forward to the future.”
Neither pastor, Frederick said, could make this situation what God wants it to be alone.
But their love for the Lord and vision for Loveless Park allows them to stand toe-to-toe behind the pulpit in their wingtips and flip flops. “It’s a unique concept, and it’s amazing how God is already using it,” Sims said.
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