Retirement doesn’t exactly mean retirement to James “Jim” Bruton, pastor of Liberty Park Baptist Church, Birmingham, and its predecessor Woodlawn Baptist Church, for the past 32 years.
“I think it’ll be more of a redirecting rather than retiring,” he said. “ I would not ever want to leave the ministry altogether.”
Bruton announced his retirement in June, 53 years after preaching his first sermon while still in high school.
Upon announcing his retirement, he stepped into the position of senior pastor so a pastor search committee can be formed.
His retirement is officially scheduled for the end of the year, but could actually occur earlier or later, depending on when a new pastor is found.
“It’s a going to be a good opportunity for somebody,” Bruton said. “This is a wonderful church.”
A native of Dothan, Bruton and his family moved to Birmingham in 1971 after he had served as pastor in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In 1993, he led the Woodlawn congregation through the difficult decision of leaving the inner-city neighborhood of which it had been a part for more than 100 years and relocating to the rolling hills of suburban Liberty Park.
Bethel Baptist, a small church near Dothan, was where Bruton got his start. He preached at Bethel two Sundays a month and later alternated Sundays at Bethel with two Sundays a month at Liberty Baptist Church in Ashford.
“They had the old-fashioned annual call,” Bruton recalled of Liberty. “After the first year, they asked me to leave the room so they could vote on whether or not they wanted me to stay.”
After graduating from high school, Bruton attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for a year before returning to Alabama to graduate from Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham.
He then attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Then, he again returned to Alabama to serve as pastor of First Baptist Church, Geneva.
After four years in Geneva, he returned to Louisville to earn his doctorate, serving in student pastorates along the way. He then served at Stage Road Baptist Church in Memphis for two years before the call to Woodlawn came, and he once again found himself back in Alabama.
Bruton said Henry Parker — pastor of First Baptist Church, Dothan, and Bruton’s pastor growing up — was one of the major influences in his decision to be a pastor.
But probably the most influential person in grounding him in God’s Word, said Bruton, was a Sunday School teacher, Jack White, who also taught weeknight Bible studies for young people.
“I learned at least as much from him about the Bible as any professor I ever had in seminary,” Bruton said.
With no definite retirement plans to date, Bruton is still looking forward to the new directions his ministry could take after leaving the pastoral routine behind.
“I’d like to explore the possibility of writing,” he said.
“I also really enjoy opportunities to teach laypeople. Through the years, I’ve had opportunities to teach January Bible studies, and I really like doing that.”
He will also be able to spend more time with his wife, Oleta (who Bruton lovingly referred to as “my best friend in the ministry”), and their daughter and her family.
Unable to name just one favorite aspect of his life as a pastor, Bruton named several.
“I love the continuing challenge, thrill and opportunity of pastoring — that is my passion,” he said. “But I also I really enjoy the interaction with others. I love people.”
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