Gordo pastor still serving at 80

This past August, his church gave him a reception to honor his 50 years in ministry, but Cecil Eugene Junkin said some people in his church mistakenly thought it was a retirement celebration.
   
“I told them I was going to keep going as long as I am able,” he said. “I don’t feel like the Lord is done with me yet.”
   
At 80, Junkin is still going strong as pastor of Double Branches Baptist Church just north of Gordo.
“I just baptized two people who recently came to know the Lord,” he said.
   
Gary Farley, director of missions for Pickens Association, said Junkin just gets better with age.
   
“I think he just got his second wind,” Farley said. “He’s very active — he’s a pastor, friend and is involved in so many of the volunteer activities our association sponsors.”
Junkin, who has always been a bivocational pastor, has also worked in a hardware store, for an insurance company, as a carpenter and now he serves as the lead volunteer chaplain at Pickens County Hospital. Junkin said he made a vow with the Lord as a young man that he still keeps today.
   
“I said, ‘Lord if you want me, provide the place and I’ll do the best to provide the man,’” he said. “I say it’s better to wear out than rust out.” 
   
He began his ministry career at Coal Fire, just west of Reform, in 1954. “I’d been trying to fight the call and finally couldn’t go any further,” Junkin said. “I found relief and surrendered.”
   
He has served churches in Mississippi and Alabama during his career as pastor. One year he led three churches at one time. 
  
“I was pastor at Pine Grove, Spring Hill and Mount Tabor,” he said. “That just lasted one year — I couldn’t do it.”
   
People from 10 of the 13 churches that Junkin has served as pastor over the past 50 years attended the August reception held in his honor. “I told my church members there was proof that other churches liked me and 10 others who would take me,” he said with a chuckle.
   
Ministry has provided Junkin with lifelong friends and he places great value on the eternal significance his occupation provides.
   
“The two best things about being in ministry are seeing somebody get saved and seeing others growing in grace and knowledge,” he said. 
   
Junkin said he is excited about being in heaven with those he’s help lead to the Lord. 
   
“I’m proud, thankful and grateful to have been part of the salvation experience for those people,” he said.
   
A typical workweek for Junkin includes preaching on Sunday mornings, teaching Wednesday nights and serving as a hospital chaplain one day per week. 
   
Although Junkin doesn’t have a seminary degree he has taken countless courses through Samford University’s extension program. 
   
“Every time I would have the opportunity I’d take another class,” he said. 
   
Junkin and his wife, Ruth, have four children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He baptized all of his children and grandchildren and officiated at the weddings for all of his children and three of his grandchildren.