Pastor of Riverview Baptist Church celebrating 30 years

The more the Rev. Larry Williams sees young people involved with violence and in trouble with the law, the more he wishes every child could experience the way he was raised.

He believes they would be better off for it.

Williams will be celebrating 30 years as pastor of Riverview Baptist Church in Columbus on Aug. 14. It’s also his 60th birthday.

“The challenge has been great,” Williams said of his time at the church on 30th Avenue. “The challenge has been demanding. The reward is overwhelming.”

Williams said he never knew his father, and his mother left him with an aunt when he was not even a year old, but he still has nothing but fond memories of the way he was brought up.

His childhood was spent on a farm in Cataula, Ga.

“We had everything,” Williams said. “We had hogs, cows, ducks, chickens, goats.”

He would go to school then return home to chores.

“I would chop wood and feed livestock. It was challenging, but I learned responsibility and about earning things,” he said.

The reward was often the watermelon and sweet potatoes that were grown on the farm.

He loved to hunt and fish, but that did not come before supervised studies.

“I was expected to do well,” Williams said.

At 15, he did roofing work during the summer to make extra money for the family.

“All of that work led me to make smart choices,” Williams said. “Some of the people I went to Harris County High School with made bad choices. They were not bad people. They just made bad choices. There are a lot of young people like that today. We want to help them make the smart choices.”

He believes parental supervision is important, and too many kids are not getting it. He said he tries to be a father figure whenever he can.

Williams and members of his church are involved in street evangelism, much of it targeted at youth. He said there is “inreach and outreach” at Riverview Baptist Church.

“We try to reach ourselves, then expand to outside the church walls,” he said. “We target youth and want to shed some light, let them know there is a better way to settle things than with weapons and ammunition, and there is good in everybody.”

And do they listen?

“Some accept,” he said. “Some reject. But we are consistent.”

Williams, who is engaged to be married in March, is grateful for the 30 years he has spent at Riverview, and he is not ready to leave anytime soon. The church owns land, and he would like to create a child care center.

He began preaching when he was 20.

Though he attended church regularly as a young boy, he disliked Sunday School. It wasn’t until he turned 15 that things changed and he got the desire to play a bigger role.

It was after high school that he got the calling. He was working at Phenix Mills at the time. He said he began hearing voices in the wee hours of the morning.

“It seemed like a dream, but I knew it wasn’t,” he said.

Telling a pastor what he was experiencing, Williams was told he needed to obey the call to preach.

He first did so in 1976 and was ordained a year later.

Williams has enjoyed his time as a pastor.

“I love people and God,” he said. “I love to see people coming to Christ.”

As far as changes in the church, Williams said he has had to mix in some contemporary with the traditional.

Asked about his sermons, he smiled and said, “I am not quite as fiery.”

He said he still is growing in his ministry.

“I grow by helping others,” Williams said.

He believes it is good for a pastor to spend a long time at one church and really get to know the members, their strengths and weaknesses.

“I always want to be sensitive to the spiritual needs of the people,” Williams said.

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Pastor of Riverview Baptist Church celebrating 30 years."