BIRMINGHAM METRO ASSOCIATION
Years ago, when Michael Adler went to lead music ministry at a church in San Antonio, he followed a minister who had been at the church for 24 years before he retired.
“Making a culture shift in worship in a large church is like turning a battleship — you have to do it a little bit at a time,” he said.
Nine years later, he had an “amazing team,” and everything was going great — and he got a call from Danny Wood, pastor of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham.
Wood wanted him to do the same thing at his church.
“My predecessor, Aubrey Edwards, had been here 24 years too,” Adler said.
Now Adler himself is the worship pastor with the long tenure — Shades recently honored him for two decades of service.
Wood called Adler’s time there “an amazing 20 years.”
“I get the opportunity every day to see the integrity of your character and the tenderness of your heart and the love you have for the Lord and for people,” Wood told Adler during the March 28 service.
Adler said through that time and the 18 years before as he and his wife, Linda, served in music ministry together, their heart has been to give away what they’ve been given. The two sang with traveling musical group Truth before starting church music ministry, and Adler said God started teaching him right away to sacrifice his own preferences for the sake of others.
“If you give away what you’ve been given, your level of fulfillment will far exceed chasing after your art vision,” he said. “That will be our formula forever.”
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