‘Christian gentleman’

Twenty-four years ago, Johnie Sentell began his career at The Alabama Baptist designing the paper without a computer or other technological advancements. Having worked in nearly every aspect of the paper’s operation over the years, he recently announced his retirement as associate editor effective March 31.
   
“It has been very rewarding being a part of getting a paper out every week to keep people informed and inspired,” he said. “I thank God for the blessing of living in Alabama, a beautiful state with such a wide variety of great people, and for the opportunity to serve here for what seems like a very short 24 years.”
   
Bob Terry, editor of The Alabama Baptist, said, “ It has been a privilege to work alongside Johnie these 10 years. Johnie is one of the truest Christian gentlemen I have ever met. He is a humble man willing to help in any way possible and a gentle person by any definition.”
   
At The Alabama Baptist’s March 11 board of directors’ meeting in Birmingham, Sentell was honored for his dedication to the paper and presented with several gifts including a framed resolution highlighting his “faithful and distinguished service.” The resolution stated, “Johnie Sentell has served the missions, the ministries and the churches of Baptists of Alabama with humility, dedication, wisdom and vision.”
   
At a dinner following the reception, Mark Baggett, former managing editor of The Alabama Baptist and son of former editor Hudson Baggett, and others talked about Sentell’s work. “His has been a powerful ministry of encouragement — in unnoticed ways, in quiet ways, in unpublicized ways, but ultimately in big and lasting ways,” Baggett said. “My father loved him and often said that there was never a more faithful employee to the job and to the larger cause of service and ministry.”
   
A member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birm­ingham, for the past 40 years, Sentell was also addressed by Pastor Gary Fenton who considers him a “true champion of the faith.”
   
“Johnie brings to mind the Galatians 5:22 fruit of the Spirit passage,” Fenton said. “He fulfills many roles at our church in that he serves as deacon, church clerk, choir member and teacher in English as a second language. He not only excels in them all, he does them with a servant’s heart. 
   
“I have observed his work at The Alabama Baptist as well as the roles he has played as father and husband,” Fenton noted. “At work, church and home, he adds great value as he truly performs the work of the servant.” 
   
Sentell’s contribution to The Alabama Baptist has been just as significant as his work in the church and community. “Johnie’s talents are legion,” Terry said. “He can write. He can design. He can proofread. He can promote the paper. And he does all of these most every week.”
   
After graduating from Auburn University with graduate and undergraduate degrees in art and working with his family’s oil company for 15 years, he joined the newspaper staff in November 1980 cutting and pasting the paper together by hand. 
  
Later, he began writing stories, overseeing printing, circulation and advertising and promoting the paper across Alabama, which he has done for the past eight years. After the death of Hudson Baggett in November 1994, Sentell served as acting editor of the paper until Terry began serving in August 1995.
   
“People who go to other countries as missionaries have always been heroes to me,” Sentell said. “Here I got to take time off to visit with missionaries in places like Gibraltar, Guatemala and Hungary. But I have also discovered the great dedication of many bivocational pastors and volunteer staff members across the state.”
   
Considering his work to be a great blessing, Sentell said he has enjoyed getting to know Baptists throughout the state each year. 
   
“It’s very enjoyable to meet fine folks from across the state and see what God is doing through them, and it is good to know that you are helping churches grow stronger,” he said. 
   
“I will miss the regular contacts with some dear friends — folks serving in the churches and the state convention as well as the ones serving on our staff here. I have really enjoyed working with them.”
   
Sentell’s care for those he meets clearly shows, Terry said. “He not only remembers names of people in every part of Alabama, he remembers their stories, their relatives, their interests. He is amazing. In addition, his years with The Alabama Baptist have given him a knowledge of Baptist history that may be unmatched in Alabama Baptist life,” Terry added.
   
Sentell said working at the paper has given him a deeper appreciation for all God is doing through Baptists in the state and around the world. 
   
“I will always be grateful for the opportunity, and I will stay very interested in the ministry of the paper,” he said. This year, Sentell and his wife, Melvine, plan to move back to Ashland, his hometown, and open a coffee shop and bookstore on the courthouse square.
   
Terry said it will be hard to let Sentell go. “We asked him to stay on but understand the pull of a new venture in his hometown. We wish him all the best. He will be missed greatly.”