Ballard marks 20 ‘total’ years with York Baptist

Leon Ballard meant to retire. He had served as Alabama Baptist State Convention president in a season when two convention entities were walking through some difficult times. When he left York Baptist Church in 1999 after 17 years as pastor, he was ready for a rest — or so he thought.

But the very next Sunday, a friend who was supposed to preach at Scooba Baptist Church in Mississippi couldn’t go and he asked Ballard to fill in for him.

“So I went to Scooba and preached,” Ballard said. And for the next nine years, he drove there every Sunday and Wednesday from Meridian, Mississippi, the hometown he moved back to after he retired.

Then in 2008 he became pastor of Grace Fellowship Baptist Church, Meridian.

But in 2014, something sweet happened. He heard York needed a pastor again. The community was shrinking — the grocery store had closed and the hospital was in the process of closing. The five church plants that York Baptist had in its heyday had all disbanded and moved on.

Calling a new pastor had proven difficult.

So in December of that year, Ballard went back.

“The church is facing a lot of things. There are good things, but there have also been difficult things that nobody can control,” he said.

So the church has banded together and at the end of 2017 Ballard reached a total of 20 years at the church.

“I so much enjoy being back with the people,” he said. “I’ve loved the people there for a long time.” (Grace Thornton)