Manor Baptist Church was as good as dead. The six remaining members voted to close and gave all the church’s money to charitable causes. The only thing left to do was chain the doors closed.
But before they could secure the chains, God showed up. As a last-ditch effort at survival, the aging white Mobile congregation called Donald Turner, an African American, as pastor two years ago. They hoped he might help them reach black neighbors in their ethnically transitioning community.
“The church’s facilities had deteriorated,” Turner said, “so my family saved up two months of our tithes and used the money to clean up the building. We worked for three weeks then reopened.”
Turnaround
That first Sunday of the relaunch included eight of Turner’s family members plus the remaining six members who called him as pastor. Those six planned to leave, but Turner persuaded them to give him one week.
That’s when the turnaround began.
Four or five new people joined the church weekly for nearly nine months. Then the average number of weekly new members dropped to one or two. By God’s grace, and a steady diet of biblical preaching by Turner, Manor went from half a dozen people preparing for the church’s death to a multiethnic community of more than 70 who are experiencing new life in Christ. Thirty of those people have been baptized in the last two years.
“In a time when many of our communities are becoming increasingly diverse, Manor Baptist Church stands as an example of the unifying power of the gospel,” said Kevin Blackwell, executive director of the Mobile Baptist Network. “Under the faithful leadership of pastor Donald Turner, this congregation has become a beautiful picture of believers from different backgrounds worshiping and serving together under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
“Having preached there recently, I was encouraged by the genuine love, unity and mission-minded heart of the church,” Blackwell said. “Manor Baptist is intentionally engaging its community with the hope of the gospel, and we need more churches that faithfully reflect this kind of Christ-centered vision.”
Turner is not your typical Southern Baptist pastor. After retiring from the Air Force in 2006, he launched a career in the oil and gas industry. He came to faith in Christ in 2007 and committed to intense Bible reading— very intense. He read Scripture eight hours a day on the days he worked in Mobile Bay on an offshore drilling rig and 16 hours a day on his off days.
“It’s hard to describe what the Lord has done through my Scripture reading,” Turner said. “I’m now halfway through my seventh time reading the Bible.”
Called to the ministry in 2017, Turner started two churches in ExxonMobil camps in Papua New Guinea, while he worked there from 2019–23. Back in the U.S., he connected with Manor in God’s perfect timing.
But without the latest training in church growth, marketing and family ministry, could Turner revitalize a dying church? Absolutely, and with decidedly countercultural methods.
Testimonies piling up
Sunday sermons focused heavily on sin and the reality that Christ’s death does not secure salvation for anyone who fails to trust Him as Lord. God used that to save one Anglo couple who had attended Manor for a decade but resisted the attempts of 10 interim pastors to win them to faith in Christ.
“My first Sunday as pastor, I preached on the Lord’s Supper,” Turner said. The husband “told me he was struck by the statement that Jesus shed His blood for many. He realized he was a nonbeliever and outside of the many people reaping the benefits of Christ’s death. Now this couple is heavily involved in the church.”
Testimonies like that are piling up. In addition to Sunday services, Turner started a midweek Bible study. First, he taught through Revelation verse by verse. Then he moved to John. Currently, he is working through Acts.
Sunday School included only Turner’s family the first six months. It has grown to 25, with classes for men, women and children.
Momentum
The momentum is still going.
Outreach efforts this summer led three new families to faith in Christ. Two have been baptized. The third is undergoing preliminary discipleship and awaiting baptism. The congregation is approximately 80% black and 20% white.
“God is just going out ahead of us to do this,” Turner said of Manor’s revitalization. On Sundays, “I haven’t preached a series yet. God just leads weekly to the right Bible passage. It has to be God.”
Turner’s advice to other dying churches is not to give up and not to minister in their own strength.
“Pastors can carry a lot of weight if they try to do it all themselves,” he said. “That was a big problem my first three months. Then a church member told me I was on track to burn myself out. Since then, I have tried to rely on God.
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