By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Susan Forehand says she thinks her whole story has just been this — try to do the next right thing.
For years she’s asked God what the next thing was He wanted her to do. And for the past four decades, that “next right thing” was to stay at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham. On June 2 the church honored her for 40 years of service — first in recreation ministry, then in women’s ministry. Shades Mountain Baptist pastor Danny Wood said Forehand’s legacy is loving people and being there for them in good times and in bad.
“I have been fortunate to be here for 25 of her 40 years of ministry and have had the privilege to watch Susan minister to people both within her job description and beyond,” he said. “She consistently listens, loves, counsels, encourages, motivates and, yes, even cries with people.
Sometimes the situation calls for upfront leadership and other times sitting in the background but her presence — which is the most important — is always there.”
Forehand knows the value of presence personally. When she and her sister were young, her mother died of cancer. The women of First Baptist Church, Alexander City, where her father was pastor, helped raise the girls.
“God always brought women into my life to mentor me or speak into my life or tell me I could do something before I thought I could,” Forehand said.
One of those things was to attend Samford University in Birmingham and major in something virtually unheard of at that time — church recreation. It was very new and it was “really so much more” than just having a gym where kids could play, she said.
It was a ministry that was growing at Shades Mountain when Forehand graduated from Samford — the church was in the process of building its community life center.
That building has been “a handle for people to build relationships,” she said. “People would come for recreational programs and events and find out that big church on the hill wasn’t so bad and maybe they would come back.”
For more than a decade Forehand went deep in that ministry, reaching out to children and families and sharing the gospel through it. Then when Wood became pastor he sat down with staff members individually and asked if they thought they were in the role they should be.
And as they talked Forehand realized the “next right thing” might be a move into women’s ministry.
“It was a great time — a crossroads for me,” she said. Getting women of all ages and stages in life together to swap stories was thrilling to Forehand.
“When our younger women get a really deep heart conversation with a wiser godly woman it is just gold to them,” she said. “When everybody takes off [her] makeup it’s just a bunch of girls talking. We want to be loved, feel secure, know our lives can make a difference.”
Forehand has observed a lot happen over the years. She faced a cancer battle of her own several years back but she can tell multiple stories of how God walked her through it. She treasures the relationships she’s built along the way, and she’s grateful for the constant support of her husband, David, and their daughter, Blythe. She remembers when the church first installed computers and when the idea of carrying a phone around seemed far-fetched. Now she’s finding ways to use technology to mentor other women.
‘Just be faithful’
“I think that’s part of my role now, and I love doing that for younger women,” she said. “I would say to women — it’s OK and perfectly normal — if you feel like you don’t know it all or just can’t do it all. Just be faithful in doing what you do know how to do and where God has you and let the Lord take care of the rest.”
And Forehand said she never stops being surprised how God uses broken vessels.
“I don’t know how or why He’s let me be a part of all this,” she said. “I just know He’s good and He’s been faithful and given me what I needed.”
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