One of my favorites days of my pastorate at Central Baptist Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was our lake baptism on September 30, 2007. After a church-wide picnic, attended by about 300 church members and guests at Clark Center park in Oak Ridge, we had a baptism in the Clinch River/Melton Hill Lake. Assisting me was Chris Alexander, Central's minister of students and missions. I have served with about 40 other ministers as a senior pastor or ministerial staff member at eight churches over 28 years and none was better to work with than Chris. He is a young man of impeccable integrity, unquestionable honesty, uncompromising commitment to the Word of God and the will of God, and undivided loyalty, first to the Lord, then second to his pastor and what was best for the church. I know because I have been able to observe his life firsthand since he was a teenager and I was the minister of singles at the church where he and his family were members at the time, Ridgeway Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He served with me at Cherokee Baptist Church in Memphis when I pastored there as the part-time minister of youth. At the completion of my first year at Central, Chris was called to be minister of students and missions at Central where he served for over five and a half years before resigning. I believe he has his greatest years ahead of him as the Lord leads him to a place to serve as a pastor.
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