Elam Baptist Church, Ariton, recently honored its bivocational pastor of 11 years, Joe Underwood, for 50 years of ministry.
Underwood, 77, said he felt the call to preach at Kyle Avenue Baptist Church, Gadsden, as a young man.
He graduated from Emma Sansom High School in Gadsden, earned a pastoral training certificate in 1968 from the Baptist Bible Institute of Florida in Graceville, Fla., (now the Baptist College of Florida) and received a bachelor of arts degree from Mobile College (now The University of Mobile) in 1970.
He previously served as pastor of churches in Georgia as well as Rocky Head Baptist Church, Ariton; Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, Ozark; Ebenezer Baptist Church, Ozark; and Roeton Baptist Church, Brundidge.
Underwood has served on several Baptist committees during his ministry and also served two years as vice moderator for Dale Baptist Association.
While serving as pastor of Elam Baptist, Underwood said it was laid on his heart several years ago to contact area churches around Elam about working together and hosting a tent revival.
“We did that for seven years,” he noted, adding the effort turned into what is now known as the Elamville Ministerial Association. “Now we have officers (and) bylaws,” he said of the group.
In addition to his pastoral role at Elam, Underwood continues to work part-time at a Sherwin Williams store where he has been for 32 years. He noted he has been able to pastor and “do what I did in small churches” because of his job.
Elam held a reception June 22 to celebrate Underwood’s 50 years in ministry. He noted with appreciation that people from every church where he served as pastor attended the event.
He and his wife of 57 years, Lanelle, have two children and three grandchildren.
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