Pastoral. Principled. People Builder. Profound. Prolific. Passionate for Jesus Christ. These are six alliterative adjectives that describe Pastor David Wesley Craig. The pastor’s testimony is evidence that God does not travel in a straight line when He is working in our life.
I learned about the Pastor’s six qualities while interviewing him over the span of a few days.
Pastoral. Pastor Craig has been in Ministry for 46 years. He has been the Shepherd of the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church flock for 44 of those years. In June of this year, the church celebrated its 97th Anniversary.
Reflecting, Pastor Craig said, “Our first church service was held in an old building on 55th Street and Avenue C in Fairfield. There were no parking spaces and no room to grow.”
Principled. He continued, “God showed me the potential and greatness of this church. We wrote and printed our own Sunday School lessons. I challenged the choir to write their own music.”
He added, “We had to dream to get to where we are now. When the enemy can steal your ability to dream and rob you of your creativity, we call it the great heist.”
People Builder. Pastor Craig continued, “Situations in life such as lack, death, catastrophes, unforgiveness, anger, offense can either crush and tear us apart or become a stepping stone to the greatness that God has for us.”
He emphasized, “We are helping people to grow in their relationship with God. In line with Ephesians 4:11, we are equipping the saints for the work of the ministry…building people for the Kingdom of God. The five L’s of the church’s Mission Statement are: Locate the hurting, Lead them to a personal relationship with God, assist them in Learning, involve them in the Labor Force, and lastly, we Love them unconditionally. The Power of God can restore our life,” he added.
“It is my prayer that Mt. Pilgrim Church will continue to do what we are doing to reach people for the Kingdom of God. Churches can go dormant. I want us to remain a vibrant church. We must stay alive and active. Mt. Pilgrim must move forward and not lose its vision. Even beyond my years, I pray that the church will continue to grow and develop”, said the pastor.
In order for the church to keep growing and developing, Pastor Craig said continuous learning must take place through an intentional Discipleship Program.
Profound. He added, “I am a lifelong learner. I’m always taking classes. Even after Seminary graduation, I have always tried to place myself in a position to learn. The more you learn, the more you have to disseminate. We must always focus on learning, reading, hearing and gathering information. Information helps you to grow.”
Prolific. The Pastor said in addition to reading and learning, he likes to write. “I enjoy writing. I look at writing as a vehicle that transports knowledge. Writing takes words and messages, then gets them from one place to another from one person to the next. I used to write poems when I was a little boy,” he shared.
Over recent years, Pastor Craig has become a published author. He has written four books titled, “Revival Begins With You and Me”, “Finances- Why I Should Not Be Broke”, “The Revival of the Local Church, Your Church Has Real Possibilities”, and “A Focus on Faith-Our Journey is a Faith Journey-Trust GOD.”
Passionate for Jesus Christ. When asked to tell the readers a few things about himself, Pastor Craig said, “I’m just me. I am committed to the Lord. I just want to serve Him. I am also a teacher. I believe in the authority of the Scriptures. God is always right. God is faithful. I trust and rely on the Scriptures. If I were not a Pastor/Teacher, I do not know what I would be doing because I don’t want to do anything else, but I would be fulfilling my calling in some other way serving God and His people.”
Mt. Pilgrim Church is located at 143 Seminole Circle, Fairfield, Alabama 35064. To contact the church please dial 205-780-5068. The pastor’s email address is cdavid724@aol.com.