Picture of Longpond Baptist Church and Al cutting cake taken by Fran Meservy
Interim Pastor
by: Frances M. McCrory-Meservy May 1982 - November 1982Al felt like God was calling him to be a preacher and publicly surrendered to the call. He was not sure if God wanted him to be a pastor or not. Our church licensed him to preach.
He preached at the Nursing Home once a month, at the Star of Hope Mission once a month and at the Almost Heaven Campground once a month. Our pastor let him preach in his stead when he was out of town. God blessed his preaching and he led a lot of men to the Lord.
We were at a regional meeting when a deacon from Long Pond Baptist mentioned to our pastor that they were looking for a BI-vocational pastor. Our pastor pointed at Al and said, "here’s your man." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "Get the behind me Satan." I did not know why but I felt strongly that God did not want Al to pastor a church. In my heart I knew he was a revivalist preacher.
To everyone it seemed except me – "If God called you to preach, you were supposed to be a pastor of a church somewhere." That’s a churchy teaching. God also gives us Prophets (revivalist preachers/for the church) and Evangelists (missionaries/for the unsaved world).
Al preached for the search committee and they liked him. He preached at Long Pond and 100% voted for him to be their pastor. He accepted.
The Southern Baptist Convention investigated him and Al was ordained.
Al worked Monday through Friday at Houston Beechcraft repairing aircraft radar. He spent Saturdays preparing the Sermon for Sunday. We would spend all day Sunday at Long Pond and then go back Wednesday night for an hour. Long Pond was about 60 miles away.
Al didn’t see how he would have time to mow our huge yard. We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of a tractor. Our church custodian had finished mowing the church grounds and come across the street to mow ours. He said God told him to. He mowed our yard every Saturday as long as Al was pastor of Long Pond Baptist.
My wonderful husband was an all or nothing person. He had a hard time juggling working full time at Beech and part time at the church. He felt he really needed Monday off.
He finally decided to open a TV shop in our garage because that would give him flexible hours. We had owned a TV shop before and it was successful. He gave two weeks notice at Beech and put an Ad in the paper. No one called.
He prayed about the whole thing and God showed him he should keep working at Beech. Turned out his boss at Beach had put him on personal leave of absence from work and had not terminated him. He just had a gut feeling that Al would be back.
Al was struggling with pastoring the church. He had no problem with the sermons. They flowed so fast that he had a hard time writing them down as fast as God was giving them to him.
The church would give him a check and he would sign the back and drop it in the morning offering plate.
In June our landlady decided she wanted to live in her house again so we found a house across the street from Alvin High School where I children when to school. We were also half way between Beech in Houston and Long Pond Baptist in Angleton.
I was teaching doctrine at Manville Baptist and Al was pastoring Long Pond while we were getting moved from Manville to Alvin. Thank God we were young and had the energy.
Turned out there was a Southern Baptist mission church within two miles of Long Pond. We had the local SBC meeting at our church about a month after Al became a pastor. He brought up the question about the mission church – why was one so close to an established church? They did not realize there was one and promised to check into it.
Our church was full of elderly folks and a few young people. Al was in his 40s and he was the youngest father on father’s day. All the younger folks were going to the mission 2 miles away. The pastor over there was young and great with the young folks.
Right after we left the church, the mission was merged with the main church and the whole thing took off like gangbusters. The pastor of the mission became the youth minister at Long Pond. Eventually they picked up the whole church and moved it into the community where most of the members lived.
Long Pond was a bit complicated and had more than a few internal and external problems. Al told the church that after much praying God had shown him that the church need and elderly, retired, experienced pastor. He promised he would stay until they found one. Every one there loved Al and wanted him to stay but he knew it was not what God wanted him to do.
Al reached a lot of people for Jesus while he was the pastor at Long Pond. He also through Biblical principles was able to bring the church members to repentance of things they were doing that was undermining the church.
The church found a pastor just like Al suggested. He turned out to be the perfect pastor for Long Pond.
God brought revival to Long Pond through Al and showed Al he was not a pastor preacher. He was a revivalist preacher/teacher. If you don’t know what a revivalist preacher does, study about what a prophet did. They tell God’s people (Christians) what they need to know or do to be right with God. They also got stoned.
An Evangelist leads the unsaved into faith and grace. All preachers are also to do the work of an Evangelist but there are also Evangelists who are called to full time work as missionaries.
Not every preacher is called to be a pastor (shepherd). This person needs to be able to preach, teach, encourage, admonish and lead. They are the ones who feed the flock. Evangelists and revivalist preachers come and go but the pastor stays and takes care of his congregation. He loves and nourishes them.
It took a long time for Al to realize he could be a preacher and not be a pastor. God made Al a vagabond. He moved too much to be a pastor. God gave him the gifts of prophecy, teaching, discerning spirits and giving. These show him to be a revivalist preacher.
What did I do during this time? I did a lot of praying for Al; taught training union; went to church with my husband, encouraged him and took care of our home and children. I knew the showing on this one would have to be from God to Al. I left it in His hands and went along for the ride.
God blessed Al’s ministry in Long Pond. That’s why I named this "Interim Pastor." That’s what it turned out to be. One of the nice ladies at Long Pond called about a year after we left and told us that they had followed Al’s advice in everything and the church had gone from 50 to over 200. God is so good.
1 Tim 3:1-7 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Eccl 12:8-14 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "All is vanity." And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright; words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Eph 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ; from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
1 Pet 5:2-4 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Psa 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
2 Tim 4:5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Rom 12:4-8 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.