State’s oldest DOM celebrates 80th birthday

Instead of a time to slow down, Padgett Cope’s 80th birthday was a time to celebrate and then continue on with the work at hand.

The director of missions (DOM) for Cleburne Baptist Association turned 80 Jan. 31 and celebrated his birthday at a Feb. 1 conference for the state’s directors of missions at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega.

Alabama Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention leaders also attended the party for the state’s oldest active DOM.

Cope, an Alabama native, was called to the ministry when he was 17 and serving in the Pacific theater with the U.S. Navy during World War II. During his 60 years in the ministry, he has served churches, worked for the Home and Foreign mission boards (now the North American and International mission boards) and worked with the Alabama Citizens Action Program. For the past six years, he has served as DOM for Cleburne Association.