Pastors find example in former DOM

After 60 years in the ministry, most people would be thinking about retirement. But not former Friendship Baptist Association Director of Missions (DOM) Alfred Palmer Sr. Even after two major health setbacks in the past year — a heart attack in April 2004 and a stroke in July 2004 — Palmer is raring to go.
   
“Once I get over all this, I’m ready to go wherever the Lord wants to send me,” said Palmer, who served as Friendship DOM from 1963 until 1969.
   
The 77-year-old Palmer, now a member of New Center Baptist Church, Hartselle, has served churches across Alabama, including — in an interim capacity — his current church. He also served as pastor in Prichard, Grove Hill, Opelika, Brighton, Vinemont, Addison, Maplesville, Hanceville and Arley.
   
“I was saved on Sept. 24, 1944, and I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew right away that God was calling me into the ministry,” he said. 
   
Palmer preached his first sermon at a New Year’s Eve watch night service. Although he doesn’t recall the topic, he clearly recalls the place, a mission church of Tatnall Square Baptist Church near Mercer University in Macon, Ga. 
   
A Georgia native and graduate of Toccoa Falls (Ga.) College, Palmer met his wife of 51 years, Georgia, at his first pastorate in Perry, Ga. 
   
In 1999, the call of family led the couple to move to Hartselle to be near their daughter and her family.
   
A respected member of the Alabama Baptist community, Palmer is known for being a friend and mentor to younger pastors. “He’s a great man, a very wise man,” said Donnell Brown, director of missions for Morgan Baptist Association. 
   
“He was pastor at Vinemont while I was at Center Grove, so our churches were less than 10 miles apart. He was always there for me and a good resource for a young pastor. I always looked to him as an older, wiser man from whom I could gain insight.”
   
Brown, who spoke at a recent Sunday morning tribute to Palmer at New Center, expressed admiration for his skills as a preacher as well as a pastor.
   
“He preached one of the greatest sermons ever preached during an Alabama Baptist State Convention (annual meeting) in the 1970s,” he recalled. “And over the years, I’ve enjoyed watching him be pastor, friend and shepherd to his people.”
   
Long active in state denominational circles, Palmer served on the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions executive committee and the Alabama Baptist State Convention credentials committee. 
   
For six years, Palmer taught in the Samford Extension Division in Blount and Cullman counties and was named 2001 Retired Minister of the Year by Samford University.
   
But “retired” is not a label Palmer has ever endured for very long. “I’ve retired about five times,” he said, and when asked if he ever plans to retire for good, the response is an unequivocal “no.”
   
“He [Palmer] called me just a few days ago to let me know he’s ready to do whatever I need him to do,” Brown said.
  
And with all the counsel and advice he’s offered to young pastors over the years, what would he say to those entering the ministry today? “To love their people and be willing to sacrifice for them,” he said. 
   
The Palmers have three sons, one daughter, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.