Huxford pastor builds ministry in marriage enrichment

When Linda Gorum and her husband, Danny, started in private counseling with Don Ricks, marriage was “more a commodity than a commitment,” Gorum said. More than a year later, the spiritual lessons the Gorums learned from time with their pastor at Huxford Baptist Church in Escambia Association continue to bring vitality to their marriage and parenthood.
   
Ricks guided the Gorums’ attention away from their marital problems so they could refocus on God, Gorum recalled. Consequently, she and Danny found the strength they needed to face the issues between them. “Since going through counseling, we haven’t missed a day of church,” she said. “Now, Danny opens the Bible for family devotions.”
   
Like many other young married couples at Huxford, the Gorums are grateful for the time and prayers shared with Ricks. That’s why, with mixed feelings, they participated in a recent worship service to commission him into full-time service as a marriage and family therapist with Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries.
   
“We’re sorry that Brother Don won’t be our pastor anymore, but we want more married couples to experience the blessings we’ve experienced with him,” Gorum said. She and her husband are members of the Sunday School class Ricks’ wife, Emma Dean, will continue to teach at Huxford. “Brother Don and Emma Dean come across as everyday people — they’re not tense, and they quickly make us comfortable. Danny and I have never felt like they would defy our confidentiality.”
   
Huxford’s Sunday School director, Ercell Womack, said she likes the way Ricks has encouraged the church to be involved in nurturing marriages. “Brother Don is very gifted and talented in the area of working with children and families. He has taken a lot of extra time to work closely with the children in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, and his witness has meant a lot to them.”
   
Jim Chinners, area director for the Children’s Homes in southwestern Alabama, said the addition of Ricks to the professional counseling staff and several requests from associations “were catalysts for us to start a  professional counseling ministry in southwestern Alabama.” Chinners offers counseling services at his office in Mobile while Ricks serves clients at the offices of Bethlehem, Clarke, Escambia and Washington associations.
   
“Through professional counseling, children, youth and their families are supported, encouraged and equipped to be cleansed by God so they can be His faithful servants,” Chinners said in his Isaiah 6 message during Ricks’ commissioning service. “For Don, this is not a matter of God calling him away from church service, but instead a calling to a new role.”
   
Rod Marshall, director of counseling for the Children’s Homes, said Rick’s “heart for people is impressive. In answering God’s call to a ministry of professional counseling in southwestern Alabama, he is courageously engaging in true evangelism by offering services in the name of Jesus Christ that may otherwise be unavailable to the unchurched in this part of the state.
   
“Don will depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit to become a conduit for grace and restoration to families on the brink of disintegration,” Marshall said. “He will point the way toward family integrity and allow children and families to experience the miraculous. He will have opportunities to minister in ways and in places where ministry is lacking — in the truest sense, he will be a missionary.”
   
God has been preparing Ricks spiritually, emotionally and academically for his new ministry with the Children’s Homes for more than 20 years. “Several months ago I prayed for God’s presence to be with me in the counseling room. Couples realize, often without me telling them, that God is not where they need to allow Him to be in their lives and marriages,” Ricks said.
   
A graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with doctor of ministry and master of divinity degrees, Ricks has been involved in pastoral counseling in the local church setting for 23 years. He has led more than 150 marriage enrichment events, many with his wife.
   
“Along the way, I have discovered that marriage enrichment is the issue of the church,” said Ricks. He served as pastor of Whitehouse Forks Baptist Church in Bay Minette, Southside Baptist Church in Bay Minette and Open Door Baptist Church in Enterprise before coming to Huxford four years ago.
   
“One of the church’s greatest challenges is to care for each family to keep them out of the counseling room,” Ricks said. “In over 6,000 sessions with married couples and other family members, I have never offered divorce as an option. I’ve been quick to tell them that the fruit of reconciliation is always sweeter than the fruit of separation.”
   
In 1990, Ricks began and completed more specific training in marriage and family therapy at the University of Mobile. He says he has an “advocacy role”
   
“I’m not intimidated by pastors,” Ricks said. “Because I have walked in their shoes and because I have training that most of them don’t have to do professional counseling, I have an inroad to speak to them and show them that I want to be their partner, not their competitor.