Spencer Knight said for a long time, he’d wanted to be a music minister. But then when he was at Samford University in 1993, he had “an identity crisis.”
“I was working at a church as a music associate where I developed a great burden for people who would just come and hear the preaching that took place and then they left,” Knight said. “I really developed a burden that they were missing so much in their Christian walk — they’re missing so much discipleship, they’re missing out on so much joy that they could experience by only coming to hear the pastor preach.”
Subscribe to The Alabama Baptist today!
SIGN UP for our weekly Highlights emails.
He didn’t know what to do next, so he called someone from his past — James Long, who had served as the minister of education at the church he had attended in middle school.
‘A lifetime of conversations’
“James not only answered the phone, he also decided to come over to Samford and meet with me and talk with me,” said Knight, who now serves as minister of discipleship at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover. “God used James to explain to me what discipleship is, how the ministry of Sunday School is one of the greatest tools we have to equip and encourage others to not only grow in their discipleship but to make disciples.”
Knight said he didn’t realize at the time just how much Long was pouring into him, but Long became his “Paul.”
“That first conversation became a lifetime of conversations,” Knight said.
And Oct. 2, he presented Long with the Andrew Smith Legacy Leader Award, an honor given annually by the office of Sunday School and discipleship of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“He has had a great impact on me, and he’s had a great impact on almost everyone in this room,” Knight said to those present at the Discipleship Network of Alabama gathering at The Church at Brook Hills. “Today we want to celebrate the work of Jesus through your ministry, and we appreciate the example that you have given to all of us.”
‘Giants in ministry’
Long currently serves as minister of homebound care at First Baptist Church Trussville. He served FBC for nearly 20 years as its minister of education, then served two other churches before coming back to serve in his current role.
Smith, the namesake of the award Long received, served as a pastor of churches in Florida and Alabama, and as the first pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Montgomery. He began serving with the SBOM’s Sunday School office in 1986 and became director in 1996. Along the way, he mentored many, including Daniel Edmonds, who currently directs that office.
“We’ve all been mentored by giants in ministry,” Edmonds said. “Yes, we know God did the work through them, but God put them in our lives for such a time as this, and we’re thankful.”
The Andrew Smith Legacy Leader Award is a way to say thanks to mentors like Long, he said. “There are so many who have a legacy of leadership that is visible … and among those, James would be one of the chief ministers of education that loved others.”
Share with others: