As Michael Wilson prepares to retire from Samford University’s Center for Congregational Resources on July 31, he says he sees how God worked to lead him to the position he’s held for the past 15 years.
“I’ve loved this ministry,” he said. “Everything I did before was preparation for it. As a Samford alum, I’m proud of what we do through CCR in helping ministers and congregations plan strategically to do God’s work in their communities.”
The CCR was formed in 2003 as part of the university’s Academic Affairs division, but not within the Religion Department or Beeson Divinity School, Wilson said. The goal was to engage a diverse ecumenical constituency. Over the years, Wilson has collaborated with congregations from 11 denominations and others associated as “community churches” without sponsoring denominations.
“We’re the most denominationally diverse and the most ecumenical group on campus,” he said.
“Our partners have included Pentecostal holiness churches, United Church of Christ clergy, Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and many African American congregations,” he said. “We specialize in working with congregations of 150 attendees or less who perhaps don’t have the resources they need.”
Charting a course
The center’s mission statement is “to come alongside clergy and congregations helping them to chart a course to thriving ministry.” In addition to offering educational and training events, Wilson said two significant ways he’s “come alongside” is through wellness retreats with the Ministering to Ministers Foundation and the CCR Sabbath Leave program.
Alabama native Charles Chandler founded Ministering to Ministers in 1994. The ministry has sponsored more than 150 wellness retreats throughout the nation offering help to ministers in crisis. Wilson hosted 13 retreats during his time at Samford.
“We had two or three of these at Samford before I came, and then MTM moved to Judson College for six years,” he said. “They decided Birmingham was more centrally located and asked to come back. Ministers in crisis spend a week doing group therapy and examining new job skills. They come after what I call ‘train wreck’ situations due to congregational power struggles or mistakes they’ve made. We try to encourage them and their families and help them renew their sense of worth and call.”
After Chandler’s retirement, Columbia Theological Seminary assumed leadership of the program.
Wilson said the Sabbath Leave program offers time away for renewal.
“We’ve funded more than 150 of these in my 15 years,” he said. “We see many ministers experiencing ‘brownout,’ not ‘burnout,’ when they need to get away, study, pray and recharge. It’s encouraging to see the dullness in their eyes give way to a new sparkle for their ministries as we conduct exit interviews.”
Wilson said CCR is currently funded by two Lily Foundation grants, but there was a time when he superintended three grants.
“We have guidelines for the grants we receive, but we also have some flexibility when necessary,” he said. “For example, we offered three respite retreats during COVID when ministers told us they needed some time away. We put these together quickly and enlisted pastoral counselors to be on-site too. We try to be agile, much like we coach churches to be these days.”
Wilson’s start
Wilson, a Prattville native, felt the call to ministry as a teenager at First Baptist Church Prattville.
“We had a wonderfully gifted summer youth minister who helped me grow and to know my calling,” he said. “I also had some caring Sunday School teachers who taught me more about faith and service.”
Wilson’s commitment took him to Samford University and to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.
Wilson said he gained an appreciation for other denominations and learned grant writing in a unique way. After serving in religious education and associate pastoral roles in five churches, he took a Clinical Pastoral Education course and was retained as a contract chaplain at Montclair Baptist Hospital. Then he worked with the Diocese of Catholics in Birmingham to do a revitalization study for Holy Family Catholic High School in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham.
“The school wanted to do something ambitious,” he explained. “They wanted to be a college preparatory school for low-income students using mostly Jesuit instructors and to give students work-study experience. I contacted corporate employers asking for opportunities for students, and I went to Catholic churches all over town and made presentations. We received an $800,000 grant to make this dream happen.”
After serving as a hospice chaplain, Wilson became part of Samford’s nationwide search for a new director at CCR.
“They wanted an ordained Baptist minister with a level of comfort ecumenically and with experience in grant writing,” he explained. “God was in this process.”
When asked about an event of which he was most proud, Wilson said Jennifer Davis Rash, editor-in-chief of The Alabama Baptist, and Ed Landers of Samford’s Media Center collaborated with him to help more than 70 churches begin livestreaming ministries.
“We called this the ‘Technology in Ministry’ program or TIM,” he said.
“This was in 2019 ahead of COVID, before everybody needed to go digital. We were able to give some $150,000 to smaller congregations, mostly Baptist, to help them incorporate these tools in their work. It was fun and very gratifying.”
What’s next
Wilson said with more discretionary time in retirement he wants to work with Habitat for Humanity and do technology consulting with congregations. Currently he collaborates with five congregations in one of CCR’s “learning communities” and will continue to work with them through January.
“I’m 65 but feel 35,” he said with a laugh. “I sit down, drink a lot of coffee with ministers and listen to them. I plan to continue this, and to engage and to strategize.”
Wilson’s wife, Del, retired recently as a public school special ed teacher, and they’re looking forward to spending time with a new granddaughter in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and their 4-year-old grandson in Alabaster.
Michael and Del Wilson are members of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham. Pastor Eric Spivey said he met Wilson in 2017 when seeking assistance in his Georgia church for a pastoral sabbatical.
“I was thrilled to discover when I became pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church a few months ago that the Wilsons have been part of our church for years,” Spivey said. “The kingdom of God is stronger because of the broad reach of Michael’s ministry. I look forward to the next avenues of ministry God opens for him — after he spends more time with his new granddaughter.”
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