If you’re going to be a believer, serve your church — serve anywhere [you] can bring people to Christ. I just thought that was what we’re supposed to do.”
This is the philosophy of 82-year-old Melvin G. Cooper, a member of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association. And that philosophy gave Samford University a reason to name him its 2009 Alabama Baptist Layperson of the Year.
After accepting Christ at age 11, Cooper said he never wondered whether Christian service was an option.
And serve he has — as a longtime member and chairman of the Alabama Baptist Christian Life and Public Affairs Commission, moderator of Autauga Baptist Association and deacon and chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church, Prattville; East Memorial Baptist Church, Prattville; and First, Montgomery.
In addition to his 26-year military career and 20 years of service as the first executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, Cooper taught Sunday School and Bible study classes for 63 years in churches in four states, Washington and the Philippines, where he was stationed at Clark Air Base.
He explained one of his most memorable experiences came while in West Virginia, where he and his wife, Dolores, started a Sunday School class with two other people, and just four years later, it had an attendance of 200.
“You serve where you’re needed,” said Cooper, who received his award at a Jan. 24 service at his church.
Sometimes that means trying new things like teaching English as a Second Language or citizenship classes.
“Mel is a Christian gentleman who serves the Lord with unusual effectiveness and enthusiasm,” said Jay Wolf, pastor of First, Montgomery. “He is an uncommonly wise and winsome person who encourages everyone who crosses his path.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, George Washington University in Washington and West Virginia University in Morgantown, Cooper taught governmental ethics and American government at Auburn University at Montgomery and ethics at Troy University’s Montgomery campus.
“I have been fortunate to receive military awards during my Air Force career, various awards as executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission and as outstanding adjunct professor from Troy University in 2008,” he said. “However, to be told I had been selected to receive Samford University’s outstanding layman of the year was completely and totally overwhelming.”
Cooper said when Kenny Hoomes, associate pastor of First, Montgomery, informed him of his selection, he became quite emotional.
“By the time I told my lovely wife, Dolores, tears were evident,” Cooper said. “I am humbled and grateful for this honor. It is the only award that one day, I can lay at the feet of my Savior.”
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