FBC Tanner pastor retires after nearly 40 years with his first full-time church

FBC Tanner pastor retires after nearly 40 years with his first full-time church

In the spring of 1969, Kenneth and Frances Pressnell were looking for a church to join and decided to attend a revival service at First Baptist Church, Tanner, in Limestone Baptist Association. 
   
The visit led to the Pressnells joining the small church, and a particularly positive impact was left by the visiting evangelist, a 32-year-old bivocational pastor named Ray McElhaney.  
   
The good first impression was mutual. Driving home that night, McElhaney told his wife, Clara, he had a feeling they might be returning to Tanner.
   
In July of that year, McElhaney answered the call to serve as pastor of the church in Tanner, a small town just south of Athens. Thirty-seven years later, church members can attest to the lasting impact of first impressions.
   
“I’ve always had the conviction that God wanted me to pastor small churches,” said McElhaney, who retired from First, Tanner, Feb. 26. “Here I’ve had great opportunities to be a part of the people’s lives. I’ve performed weddings of people I saw born into the church. I’ve gotten to work alongside them and be a part of them.”
   
It is McElhaney’s blue-collar mentality and background that endears him to the church, said Kenneth Pressnell, a deacon for 30 years who runs the church’s bus ministry with his wife. 
   
“He’s the kind of guy who would go in and do whatever needed to be done,” Pressnell said. “He’d cut grass, work around the building, come early, open up the church — do whatever it took to make the church go.”
   
A native of Cantonment, Fla., McElhaney was saved as a teen at First Baptist Church, Cantonment, Fla. He answered a call to preach and delivered his first sermon at 18 at First, Cantonment, Fla. At the close of the service, his father prayed to receive Christ.
   
McElhaney attended Pensacola Junior College in Florida for a year before opting for service in the Air Force. His four years of training in electronics led to a job with Monsanto Chemical Company in Pensacola, Fla. A job transfer in 1964 led him and his wife to north Alabama, where he became pastor of Old Town Creek Baptist Church, Moulton, in Muscle Shoals Baptist Association. 
   
A few years later, McElhaney accepted the pastorate at First, Tanner. The church brought him on full time in 1994 after he retired from Monsanto. 
   
Upon his arrival, the church had around 40 members, McElhaney said. That number has grown to 540. 
   
One of his proudest moments from his time at First, Tanner, came in 1994 when he was invited to be the first bivocational pastor ever to deliver the convention message at the annual meeting for the Alabama Baptist State Convention. 
   
He admitted the distinction came with some butterflies. “It was a tremendous honor for me to stand up there and represent bivocational pastors,” McElhaney said. “But it frightened me a little bit to look out there and see all those guys with their degrees listening to me.”
   
Keith Turberville, youth pastor and deacon at First, Tanner, said McElhaney has been both mentor and leader to him. “He is like a father to me,” Turberville said. “He is one of the most godly men I know and has helped me grow in my Christian walk in so many ways. 
   
“Early on, he provided me with the opportunity to preach at our church. I’ve since done pulpit supply in our area, which has helped me grow spiritually,” Turberville said.
   
Experiences shared during nearly four decades worth of ministry have brought the First, Tanner, family closer, McElhaney said. “In April 1974, we had a tornado hit the church and wipe out nearly half of our facilities and all of our educational space,” he said. “That adversity built camraderie among members.”
   
Over the years, McElhaney figures he’s been approached by close to 10 larger churches in view of a pastorate, but he’s turned them down each time. 
   
Pressnell is one of the many glad he did. In 1984, Pressnell’s family was mourning the death of his 14-year-old son Marty. McElhaney’s presence helped in the hurting.
   
“He’s been a personal friend in addition to a pastor,” Pressnell said. “He was already a friend at the time. The relationship just grew stronger after that.”