Approximately 60 years ago, members of Boone’s Chapel Baptist Church, Prattville, in Autauga Baptist Association could see little Gene Hollon walking to church on Sunday mornings with his uncle and aunt, Clayton and Myrtle Cook, who were charter members of the church.
Today 66-year-old Hollon still walks to Boone’s Chapel Baptist each Sunday morning, and he’s there early because he wants to greet everyone as he or she comes through the doors.
Hollon has given a great deal of himself to his church over the years, but his most recent gift outshines all the others. He donated his home and 13.5 acres of land, and it’s not the first time he’s given land. In the past 10 years, he has given approximately 20 acres to Boone’s Chapel.
“This (most recent) gift from Bro. Hollon could not have come at a better time to challenge everyone to think about giving sacrificially,” said Pastor Rodney Culpepper.
The church had just launched a challenge to build program, Our Challenge, Our Vision, designed to retire the current debt of $430,000 over the next three to four years and set the stage for construction.
“We’d been doing some long-range planning for a year and a half and presented plans for what the new facilities would look like, but we didn’t have the land,” Culpepper said. “His gift answered the question we had been asking … . Now we can actually put together a master building plan.”
Hollon said the decision to donate the land was an easy one. “They were just about [out of land to expand], and I knew that just wouldn’t do. I wanted to see that they had the land they needed to grow,” he said.
But Hollon’s giving attitude toward his church family doesn’t begin or end with land donations.
“I could tell you thing after thing he has done for our church just out of concern and love for the people,” Culpepper said.
In the 1950s, Hollon served as Boone’s Chapel’s janitor, sweeping the small white-frame church, arranging hymnals in the pews and emptying the trash for $1.50 a week. When the church needed a pianist, he put his six to eight months of lessons to good use and served off and on for 20 years. He also served as a Sunday School teacher for 25 years and a deacon for about 20 years.
Hollon spends an hour each Sunday morning calling church members before walking to church to serve as a greeter. During the week, he uses his break time at work each day to call five or six members.
“I guess most people use their break time to get a Coke, but I like to use that time to encourage someone who needs it,” said Hollon, who works for the Alabama Department of Revenue in Montgomery.
Culpepper said his congregation is aware of how Hollon’s generosity has benefited it over the years.
“We’re in a building right now that would not have been possible if not for land Bro. Hollon donated [five years ago],” Culpepper said.
Following Hollon’s donation of land in 1999 and 2002, Boone’s Chapel constructed a multipurpose building used for classroom, fellowship and worship space. When the building was completed, the congregation named it The Carl Eugene Hollon Recreation and Educational Facility in his honor.
Culpepper said Hollon’s most recent donation of land will not only make room for the new sanctuary but should also meet future growth needs for 75–100 years.
Prattville Baptist’s gift of home, property sets church up for full century of growth
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