After nearly 24 years as associate pastor and music minister at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Enterprise, Phil Cooley has retired.
And as he leaves, he will leave a big hole behind, said John Granger, director of missions for Coffee Baptist Association.
“He has been a really faithful servant here,” Granger said.
Over his years at the church, Cooley was “an association- and community-minded person,” well respected by his peers inside and outside the Baptist realm, he said.
“And in the church where he’s served, he’s served well with all the pastors, and in the interim times he carried out the pastoral roles of visiting the sick and doing what needed to be done,” Granger said.
The church honored Cooley’s long ministry with a celebration May 6. Granger spoke, along with interim pastor Roger Richards and other members of the church and Cooley’s family.
Before coming to Mount Pleasant, Cooley served at Ferris Hill Baptist Church, Milton, Florida; First Baptist Church, Carbon Hill; and Central Baptist Church, Tarrant.
He also served other churches while he was studying at Samford University in Birmingham and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Over the years at Mount Pleasant, Cooley led worship, introducing new songs alongside the “great hymns.” He also led the church’s choirs of all ages and led the church’s youth ministry until they added youth ministers to the staff.
Cooley said he and his wife, Evelyn, have been “truly blessed” to be a part of the church and community for more than a third of their lives and more than half of his ministry.
“We love Mount Pleasant and our folks there,” he said. “We have a lot of good friends and good memories. It’s been a wonderful time of ministry and I’m sure we’ll continue, it just won’t be full time.”
He and his wife have three children and six grandchildren. (Grace Thornton)
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