Stac’s Place

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church.  From the time I entered 6th grade until I left for college, my family and I attended Second Baptist Church of Warner Robins, GA.  I loved it there.  Good preaching, huge choir, growing congregation, new building about the time I hit high school…I learned a lot there.  Our pastor was Brother Rastus Salter, and we loved him.  In fact, all the leaders of the church (men) were called “Brother _________ (insert first name here).”  If you got called on to pray for the offering, Brother Rastus would say something like, “Brother Jack, would you ask the Lord’s blessing on our offering?”  That was a sign that you’d arrived, so to speak.

I’ve heard lots of titles over the years, especially since I’m one of those pastor types.  Brother, Preacher, Elder, Bishop, Dr, Reverend, Pastor.  Some of the pastors have tried to get away from the formality of a title, preferring to use initials.  My wife and I were married by PD (Pastor Don.)  My bro-in-law is known as PR (Pastor Randy) by lots of his peeps.  I’m not sure how well that plays out if your name is Pete or Paul…

At our church here in State College, we’ve pretty much dropped the titles.  Our lead pastor is Dan (Nold.)  Our executive pastor is Dan (Dorsey.)  At one point we had another pastor on staff named Danny (Miller.)  I was the only non-Dan around…now there’s Dan, Dan, Vic, Bruce, and me.

I won’t get into the confusion that comes from me being named Stacy.  Let’s just say that lots of people wonder if we have a female pastor on staff…

What do you call your pastor?

Brother Rastus served as the pastor of Second Baptist for 48 years