Someone You Should Know — James Dendy

Someone You Should Know — James Dendy

First Baptist Church, Pell City
St. Clair Baptist Association

Favorite Verse: Philippians 4:19

Favorite Hymn: “In Christ Alone”

Hobby: Working in workshop

Family Status: Married to wife Ann for 10 years; late wife, Blanch Bain Dendy (married for 48 years until her death); late children, Freida Ennett and Chris Dendy; five step-children, Tom Mann, Jim Mann, Susie McClanahan, Cindy Alarid and Judy Shockey; three grandchildren; nine step-grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; one step-great-grandchild 

James Dendy, 83, is a chaplain for the Pell City Police Department and St. Clair Baptist Association Disaster Relief, serving in such areas as Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Athens, Ala., after the recent April 28 tornado. He attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has served as pastor of East Centre Baptist Church, Centre, in Cherokee Baptist Association; Clay Baptist Church, in North Jefferson Baptist Association and First Baptist Church, Odenville, in St. Clair Baptist Association. Dendy has served on missions teams and has worked with Habitat for Humanity. He and his wife, Ann, have a ministry of visiting people in nursing homes. In addition to ministry service, Dendy — who was a Marine during the Korean Conflict — worked in secular jobs through the years, retiring fully only 10 years ago.  

Q: What influences in your life pointed you to Christ at the beginning of your faith journey?

A: An uncle who was a minister. I was raised in a Christian home. That had a big influence. That was the largest influence — the influence of my mother, my father and my uncle.

Q: When and how were you led into the ministry? 

A: Edgewood Baptist Church in Gadsden in ’48 or ’49.

Q: What does the ministry demand?

A: It demands total commitment.

Q: What do you get from the ministry?

A: A sense of fulfillment and purpose.

Q: How do family members support you?

A: Wholeheartedly. Ann goes with me as a partner in our ministry in the nursing home. She’s supportive of my missions trips.

Q: How do you see yourself involved in this in the future?

A: I’ll continue as best I can to serve as chaplain with the police department and supply preaching. I also do a monthly chapel program at the Village at Cook Springs (nursing home and assisted living facility). I’ll continue to do chaplaincy with disaster relief.

Q: What difference will this ministry make for you in the future?

A: I trust that it will maintain a sense of fulfillment and purpose, knowing that I am doing God’s will. One of the blessings of foreign missions trips and disaster relief is seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ in a much more open way than every day in the United States. 

Q: What difference has Jesus Christ made in your life?

A: Peace of mind, contentment, purpose and a sure hope, joy.