“Lord, are you sure you want me to do this? If you do your part, I’ll do mine.”
That’s what Pastor Eddie Jones prayed in 1979, not long after he received Christ as his Lord and Savior and felt the call to go into ministry.
Growing up as the son of a Christian Episcopal Methodist church pastor in southern Mississippi, Jones had no desire to be a pastor. But even as a child who had yet to accept Jesus into his heart, Jones’ path was being shaped by God for a future in hands-on ministry work.
Jones grew up as one of 12 children and attended an all-Black school. That is, until around 1964, when his local Black school merged with a white school as part of a pilot program during desegregation. Little did he know that bridging gaps would extend beyond his school experience and become part of his lifelong calling.
After marrying his bride, Barbara, and moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Jones worked in a shipyard and gave his life to Jesus in 1979. At the shipyard, he led a Bible study that eventually attracted an unexpected visitor. “I wondered why this white, well-dressed man kept showing up at a Bible study I was leading at noonday at a shipyard,” Eddie recalls.
One day, the visitor introduced himself as Charlie and asked Jones if he was a pastor. Jones replied that he wasn’t, even while his spirit stirred with the familiar desire to enter ministry work. After more conversation, Charlie encouraged Jones to visit the Jackson County Baptist Association Offices, where they could help him fund a new church plant.
Jones took Charlie’s suggestion, wondering if this would be how God would fulfill that desire. When he arrived at the offices, three men greeted him with strong handshakes, saying, “We’ve been praying that God would send us someone just like you.” The men working there had heard about Jones’ Bible study and wanted to help him start a church.
With backing from the Jackson County Baptist Association, Jones began Christ Temple Baptist Church in 1982 from his home, which eventually met in a Methodist church before moving to its own building.
In 1987, Jones had a calling to start another church in Greenville, Mississippi, alongside First Baptist Church Greenville. The church Jones started, Victory Temple Baptist Church, remains active today. But, just like when his school integrated, Jones experienced a level of scrutiny.
He recalls local Black churchgoers asking him about his church in Greenville, “Why are you with the white people?” To which Jones responded, “God called me to start a church with the Southern Baptists.” He firmly believes that being a church planter is one part of his calling, and the other is to build bridges between racial divides.
Learn more or enroll in the SBC Church Retirement Plan at GuideStone.org/SBCChurchBenefits.
After founding Victory Temple, Jones helped plant churches in Arkansas and Oklahoma. In that experience, he met one of his mentors, J.D. Lundy, who encouraged him to start saving for his retirement by participating in the Southern Baptist Church Retirement Plan through GuideStone. Jones recalls telling Lundy, “I can’t afford to do that. When I left my job at the shipyard, I didn’t have any extra money.” But when Lundy squarely told him, “Brother Eddie, you can’t afford not to put something in the plan,” something clicked for Jones.
He didn’t have much to contribute, but he started saving. Taking that wisdom became one of many instances in which Jones was mentored by men in ministry, eventually leading him to mentor others in the same way.
Jones says, “The mentor and mentee relationship was needed in planting churches, because not everything is a bed of roses.” During his first church planting experience, Jones was mentored by Pastor Frank Henry and Dr. David Lee, who ensured that he had the necessary resources to connect with Southern Baptists.
“When trying to start that second church, I knocked on doors, trying to get people to join me and help me,” says Jones. “So, I talked to the sponsoring church pastor from the Washington County Baptist Association, thinking he would give me a big hug and tell me that everything would be okay. Instead, he stood up in his cowboy boots and said, ‘suck it up, Brother Eddie.’ That was the best mentorship I ever had.”
Throughout his decades-long career of sponsoring and planting churches, Jones has learned how to navigate the complexities that can come with the job, and he seeks to pass on his knowledge. He organizes free workshops and training sessions for pastors, equipping them to start new churches. “When it comes to being a church planter, the sponsoring church is key,” he shares. “You have to work with them. They may ask you to do things you don’t want to do, but it’s important to uphold your commitment so that there won’t be a divide. And then, when you need help from them, they will be there for you. Identify the gatekeepers within the congregation and collaborate with them. They can teach you a lot about working together with a purpose.”
Visit GuideStone.org/RRA to take your Retirement Readiness Assessment.
By humbly heeding Lundy’s advice to start saving at an early age for retirement, Jones sacrificially set aside contributions of his own and also benefited from employer contributions, when the church budget allowed for them. Like the workers in the Parable of the Talents, Jones trusted in the Lord to multiply what he had, no matter how small his portion seemed.
When Jones felt called to retire, he and Barbara called GuideStone to discuss their options. After a few conversations with a specialist about their financial circumstances, retirement budget needs and the hope of ministry in their later years, the Joneses felt settled on a smart financial strategy for their retirement income and best of all, peace about their future.
It was the wisdom of saving diligently in their younger years that equipped them to retire from church planting in 2018 and experience the freedom to return to their home church, Victory Temple, with Eddie as the congregation’s pastor.
Just as his faithfulness and obedience to retirement savings created a long-lasting impact on his life, his work through church planting and mentoring leaders created a long-lasting impact on God’s Kingdom. And because Eddie has the freedom to finish well, he gets to serve in a different and deeply satisfying way in this new season of life.
Now, he has celebrated 50 years of marriage with his wife and is the proud parent of five children, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Reflecting on his years of ministry work, he shares, “Nothing is impossible for God. Whether you are a pastor or a layperson, God has called each of us to punch holes in the darkness. And we should take that responsibility not with a silver spoon but as a privilege. Remember that every opportunity God gives you is pregnant with possibilities.”
Learn more about our faith-based retirement and health plans, specifically designed for church planters, at GuideStone.org/ChurchPlantResources.
Explore free videos, guides, tools and much more in the Ministerial Resources Center, covering relevant topics like:
Article
