Beeson Podcast, Episode #603 Reverend Dr. Mary Moss May 24, 2022 >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney. I am here with my co-host, Kristen Padilla. We are excited today to have on the program with us a Beeson legend. Somebody who is so well known and beloved here at Beeson that there is a scholarship named after her. Someone who is so energetically involved in the ministries at Beeson that she’s a member of the steering committee for the Dr. Smith Scholarship that we’re raising right now. Somebody who is so faithful to the Lord in pastoral ministry that we invited her to come and preach in chapel this morning. She gave a marvelous sermon that we’ll ask about in just a minute. Kristen, would you please introduce today’s special guest? >>Kristen Padilla: Yes. Thank you, Doug. Hello, everyone. Today on the show we have the Reverend Dr. Mary Moss. Dr. Moss is Senior Pastor of St. Alma Baptist Church in Lakeland, Louisiana. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Louisiana Area Women In Ministry and Director of the Southeast Regional Biblical Institute. Dr. Moss is a Beeson alumna, having graduated in 2009 with a DMIN degree. So, welcome, Dr. Moss to the Beeson Podcast. >>Dr. Moss: Thank you, Kristen. Thank you. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, it’s good to have you back on the show. We had you on the show I believe in 2020 when we did a special series focusing on racism and you were one of four alumni on that panel conversation. But I believe this is the first time with just you as our guest. So, I would love for you to begin by introducing yourself telling our listeners where you are from and how you came to faith in Jesus Christ? >>Dr. Moss: Thank you. First of all, I want to thank Dr. Doug Sweeney and certainly you, Kristen, for keeping up with me and making sure that I arrived safely here. This is actually the first time that I’ve been on campus and in a podcast of this nature by myself. So, we want to say “thank you” to Beeson for inviting Mary Moss to come back to these hallowed grounds that mean so much to me. Not meant, means so much to me. Just to tell you a little bit about myself. I’m from [Watson 00:02:52], Louisiana – a little rural community in Louisiana. I’m one of eight children of my mom and dad. When I say that, we are a small place but we are a little country place. I grew up with ... and it was very evident in my sermon today my dad was an entrepreneur with building, but he also raised animals of all kinds and all sorts. And so we were able to draw from that. He also was a carpenter. So, we come from that kind of background. My mother was a Sunday School teacher for many, many years in our little country church. I grew up at a time when there were circuit preachers. They came once or twice a month. And it was from the revivals. We did actually two weeks of revivals at that time. Revivals were unique. I don’t know if they are still doing them. I don’t know if my grandchildren would appreciate that kind of revival we had with two weeks and one week you’ll sit in nothing but prayer and then you would sit on something called a mourner’s bench and they would always tell us that you can’t ... And I think I found out what they were talking about ... until you have met Jesus for yourself through the teaching and the preaching of the Word. Then you will not be a candidate for baptism. So, we experienced Jesus through the teaching and preaching through that revival. This is the way that I came to the Lord. But I cannot tag it just to a revival. Because my dad was a deacon and as I said my mother was a Sunday School teacher. We were taught in home and at home about God and the things of God. It started even from the little prayers that we would have. We had to say prayers at night, every night. And you literally, I guess I’m telling my age now, but we literally had to get on our knees and say our, little children, now lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take. So, we grew up in that background with all of that in our household. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Moss, you published a book not too long ago called, “Preach Moss: When She Heard the Call.” That talks about your entrance into pastoral ministry. We want our listeners to know a little bit about that book. We also want our listeners to know a little bit more about your call to pastoral ministry and your life as a pastor. So, would you tell us what that book is about? And what your call was like? >>Dr. Moss: Sure. The book is entitled, “Preach Moss” and many people have asked, “Where did you get that title from?” “Preach Moss.” Well, I’ve been preaching now, it’s 30 years now that I’ve been in the preaching ministry. And when I started preaching people would always say, “Preach Moss.” Because we grew up with a call and response tradition. And so as I would preach along the way someone in the pulpit or someone in the audience would simply say, “Preach Moss.” And that has followed me down through the years until this day. And seemingly it has increased since the book came out. I get all kinds of messages, or people will see me in [inaudible 00:06:29] and no longer call me by name, they just simply say, “Preach Moss.” And so is the name of that book. And then you asked a question about my call. My call came about ten years before I accepted the call. I was working for South Central [Belle 00:06:48] at that time. I was admission. So, I was alone by myself and the Lord spoke to my spirit and said, “You’re gonna preach.” And I looked around because I was like, “Huh? Me?” But it was true to the calling or definition rather of calling because it’s such an urging. It’s a sense of something God is doing and really he held me under arrest until I answered him. I did not want the call for several reasons. I was really having great fun at Southern University. And I did not want to stop having fun. My way. But the Lord said clearly, “I have called you. I prepared you. And I’ve called you to preach.” Then I did not want to deal with the traditional stuff. I did not want to have to deal with backlash of being a female in ministry or a female preacher. And so I was quite fine. I was teaching Sunday School at Shilo Missionary Baptist Church, a large congregation in Baton Rouge. And so I tried to compromise with God. You know? I’m faithful to this task and I’m okay with it. But he said he wasn’t. That was not what he called me to do. So, ultimately I did acknowledge the call and by protocol you would always go in to your pastor and acknowledge the calling on your life. When I did so my pastor said, “I’ve been waiting on you. I realized that call before you even got to me.” And so that was my call. Other than if you read my book the first person I told was my husband, Carl. He was so sure of the call ... I mean, that was baffling because I’m sitting there just going through all kinds of emotions and I’m going, “Carl, Carl, I’m called.” And he go, “Okay. I’m with you all the way.” And ultimately he has proven to do so. But that was the call. That was the initial calling from God. And we’ve continued to see it unfold. Now when it comes to pastoral ministry you thought I wasn’t ready for the call to preach, certainly I wasn’t ready for pastoral ministry. I don’t know if that was because I was reared in the country and it was traditional and somewhat conservative. But I never saw myself as a pastor. Some people say that received a call to pastor. I don’t know if I received that call or God just opened it up for me and said, “This is where you are to be.” Because here’s the story. I was Minister of Christian Education at Shilo Baptist Church and I had graduated from New Orleans Baptist and I was given the job. In my office one day I got a call from Pastor Smith asking me to come to the front. I was like, “Oh Lord, what have I done now? What have I blown?” And so when I got there he said, “Take a seat.” I took a seat and he said, “There’s a church looking at you.” And I sort of, “What?” He said, “Yeah, they want you. They want you to be their pastor.” And I remember the first thing I said to him, I said, “Pastor?” He said, “Yes, they came looking for you and you’re well equipped. You’re well prepared. I think you would be a good fit. They asked my feelings about it. And I told them that you were the best one I had that they could get. And that you knew and you’ve been trained under me,” for I think it was 19 years that I served faithfully under Pastor Smith. And I was trained not just in preaching but administratively. And had the gift of organization and new my spiritual gifts. So, the maturation was there. So, the two deacons came from this little church looking for me. And so I said, “Well, okay, I’ll meet with them.” And they came to my office and met with me and assured me that they had been praying for a pastor. And guess what? The Lord showed them Mary Moss. Well, how could I argue with anybody who said, “God sent us to get you?” And I didn’t. I said, “Well, okay.” And I was still testing God in some way because you know how in the process of getting a pastor you have to do this ... they have all these candidates who are trying to qualify and apply? And I told them, I said, “Look, I’m not doing all that. If y’all say I’m called to be a pastor then that’s it for me.” And so one lady called and said, “Please, just do it for paperwork’s sake.” I said, “That’s the only way. I’m not going to compete with what God has already said that he had done.” And I honor God and respect God. And I knew that when I prayed about it that God had called me and that played out throughout my pastoral ministry. Even when I had to make difficult calls, God always took the lead. >>Kristen Padilla: Now, is this, Dr. Moss, St. Alma Baptist Church that you’re referring to? >>Dr. Moss: I am. St. Alma Baptist Church. >>Kristen Padilla: So, your first church in which you were called to pastor you’re still serving as pastor today, correct? >>Dr. Moss: Yes. I’ll soon be ... In May they will celebrate 15 years of pastoral ministry. That church has split and they called me and since then it must have been a God move because folks started coming back. We started with 15 members and each week the Lord, as the New Testament bear witness to, the Lord added to the church as we continued to give leadership to that congregation. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about this church and your pastoral ministry over the last almost 15 years. I read that you were the first female senior pastor of this church. And as you’ve already described you were sought after by this church to come and serve. And then there was wonderful growth in those initial three to four years as pastor. What has God done and still doing today in both your church and in your life and role as its pastor? >>Dr. Moss: God is doing great things. God is amazing. He has kept the energy and he has kept surprises, if you will, in our congregation. He is raising up leaders. One of the things that I am intrigued about is in St. Alma is the balance between male and female. I have just as many men in my church as I do women. And they take mighty good care of this little old lady. And they follow the teachings of the church, of the bible, for the New Testament. That I’m grateful. We have not ... and I’m amazed ... because as I said, I’ve had to make a couple of tough calls because it did not line up with the Word of God. It did not line up with what the New Testament church ought to look like, even down to the role of deacons and some of the practices that were traditional and cultural. And I’m amazed that I’m still there. Because of the fact that [inaudible 00:14:48] scripture. I’d rather obey God than men. But this church has been phenomenal in lining up not only with the Word of God but lining up with the structure that God has for the church. Jesus Christ is our head. And underneath him is the shepherd, the pastor, of the congregation. They honor that and they respect that. And they line up as the body. It’s amazing with so many churches that are splitting and so many church fights that I hear, and so many ... actually, I’m gonna be honest with you. I find pastors who are so discouraged and can’t get vision moving and can’t push the people towards the things of God because of tradition and because of what they think. And I’m amazed at what God is doing in our church because the truth is they truly have been ... they are really an example of a New Testament church. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Moss, I’d like to change the subject just a little bit and ask you about the Southeast Regional Biblical Institute. Kristen mentioned at the top of the show that that’s one of your ministries, you’re the director of that organization. And we’d love for our listeners to know a little bit about it and what it does. >>Dr. Moss: Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s in phase two right now. But the initial start of Southeast Regional Biblical Institute, we call it SRBI, came out of my desire to continue what I started at New Orleans Baptist and at Beeson Divinity School. I wanted people to have the opportunity to study the Word of God past the Sunday School hour. It was my desire to help people to rightly – they had a love for God but there was something else that they had a hunger for and it was to learn of him. And so out of that I just saw the need for another level of Christian education and training to come to our local area. And a lot of folks were not able to do what I did, because of my husband and his support I was able to actually stop working and attend school. So, what happened was I never shall forget I called Dr. Patricia Outlaw and I was like, “I’ve got to do something. I have to help these people.” They’re asking questions and they’re holding me after sermons. I preached somewhere, because of my delivery and what I bring they’ll ask, “Well, how did you arrive at that? Where did you see that? What’s your theological standing on that? What’s the biblical aspect of that?” And they didn’t ask it quite like that but I knew how to shape it for them. And so I called Dr. Patricia Outlaw and I said, “I’ve got to do something.” And she said, “Why don’t you call Beeson? They have a ministry and training program. They should be able to help you. They already have instructors.” You know? I just jumped off the phone with her and I followed up and there it was. So, it started. And Dr. Pounds was in place then. And the Lord gave me everything I needed. “What are you trying to do? Oh, yes, we can help you.” And so from that point we set up Southeast Regional Biblical Institute. And we literally used, thank God, the curriculum that was already in place with the MIT program. Good and solid textbooks. So, I was in hog heaven. I had all of this at my hand. And it was a certificate program. Because, and I need to say this because a lot of times people try to reduce certificate programs ... but for me and the graduates of SRBI it has been just more than you all probably realize here at Beeson. Because they have gone on from SRBI, many of them, into other seminaries working on their degree. And moving on toward MDIV’s. I mean, I’m just so happy that I made that call to Dr. Outlaw. And so we did that six years, of the classes. We’ve had over 100+ people to come through the program. And I think we had right at about 78 to graduate, something in about that number. Oh my God, you would never know. We had an actual graduation at Shilo Baptist Church. That church holds from 700 to 800 people. Dr. Blackburn or Dr. Blackweld (?) he’s the present person with MIT, he came down. And was a part of it. Just a fanfare. And people from all over the city came to see their loved ones. Man, I tell you. It just gave us great pleasure. And these people have gone on in their local churches and now they’re teaching at another level. Male and female deacons, ministers, pastors even have been a part of that institute. And lastly, I will say from that institute they have built ... One of the things I am very careful to do and sensitive about is recommending and providing texts that they can study. They have every text book that we were given in the syllabus for our program. Kudos to Beeson Divinity School and the MIT program. >>Kristen Padilla: That’s so wonderful, Pastor Moss. You are very passionate about providing education and training and mentoring to ministers, to just the people of God. And I mentioned the Louisiana Area Women in Ministry that’s another place in which you are equipping, mentoring, and raising up future leaders in the church, specifically women. Can you tell us more about that ministry? Why you founded it and what you all are doing through the Louisiana Area Women in Ministry? >>Dr. Moss: Yes. I’d be glad to. Let me start this discussion about Louisiana Area Women in Ministry from again the biblical and theological position that I rest on. The word “ministry” [diaconas 00:22:00] means “to serve.” And many of these ladies were in congregations that they were either not allowed to serve or not prepared to serve and many of them were seated in positions, in wrong positions. Did not know spiritual gifts and all of that. They had a need. So, I went to my pastor. I don’t have a problem going to where I need to go. So, I went to my pastor and shared with him that these ladies were ministers and they really were just not doing anything. And Shilo was a very large congregation. We had been prepared. I had been prepared. And he trusted my education. And so we asked permission to form Louisiana Area Women in Ministry and it will be soon 20 years in December. I wanted Louisiana Area Women in Ministry to be an incubator and an insolater for women in ministry. So, we built this on something, again, I mean, Beeson is just all over me and in me because when I was doing my doctoral work one of the things that I placed in my work and continue to expand on because of Dr. Robert Smith was a three legged stool. And we were dealing with it in my doctoral work from another perspective. But then I took that same three legged stool concept to the Louisiana Area Women in Ministry. And so that ministry is built on three legs. One is training and education. The second one is sisterly support. And the other is service to community, which is ministry. And so since we started that ministry I also did something that’s called initially, “Those Preaching Women.” It came out of Dr. Mitchell. I don’t know if you are familiar with her. Dr. Ella Mitchell. Henrietta Ella Mitchell. And we started something called, “Those Preaching Women.” Which after I would teach them basic biblical teaching and then sermon preparation and et cetera, hermeneutics, homiletics, I taught every class it was. But after receiving that then we did preaching labs. And those women would get an opportunity. We’ll invite the community and their family. So, they had opportunity to preach. So, I believe that good preaching also comes with practicing the craft. So, we were able to have them to do that. But that’s not the only thing they do. We do a great job of taking care of each other and people in the community. But one thing that we’ve really done that I’m very, very proud of is ministry. We went into an underprivileged and an underserved community and we realized that they needed help. Ministry comes out of a need. Families were fragmented. And so we asked God to show us being small what part could we play? What would he have us to do? So, we actually in that community only served ten streets. In those ten streets we did an “adopt a street.” We prayed for that street. When we hear something going on in the news because it’s violence and all of that we go into prayer. Not only that but we took that house ... one of the old residences gave us use of that house. We stripped it. 12 women. Zero budget. We stripped that house all the way to the studs. And we restored that house. We did not do it alone. Whenever you’re doing work for God he will always send you somebody. So, we always had partners. Electricians, contractors, even a guy re-drew the plans and all of that. And we built this house. And so now it sits in that community as the resource center. Presently we build programs out of that. We have a tutoring program, but even beyond the tutoring program we have what’s called READ, an acronym that serves as for our intervention program. Kids who are not reading on level. So, we take kids from kindergarten and up to third grade and we work with them individually with professional people to put them on level. Not only out of that we have chess camps. We have art camp. We partner with LSU museum of art. So, it’s just tons of things we do. We do clean up before coming up here. We partnered with Gold Baton Rouge. Go Big Baton Rouge – a game, we partnered with LSU students and they came out and cut branches and cleaned up the landscape and beautified the place. We are involved in ministry. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Moss, our time is short but we are so thankful to the Lord for your association with Beeson that we don’t want to end this show without asking you how the Lord has used Beeson Divinity School in your life and ministry? And what you might say to listeners who are thinking about the possibility of divinity school, seminary, further theological education, about Beeson Divinity School? >>Dr. Moss: Well, that’s not a hard one. Beeson has prepared me and equipped me to stand before anybody to rightly [inaudible 00:27:54] the Word of God, to preach with integrity, to preach a word that will change lives, to preach a word that calls for a response – not the call and respond that I talked about earlier, but a call to whatever the text mandates, what motivates them to move toward the action – Beeson taught me that. Robert Smith drilled that into me. And to this day I preach with an outcome to my sermon. “What would you have me to do?” So, Beeson definitely, definitely did that for me. They equipped me for my journey. What would I say to anyone? I can say about Beeson that they move in integrity, solid in the teaching of the Word of God. I have experienced God in a fresh way and I did it here every time I’ve hit the campus. And so my next spiritual level came from encounters here. Not just information. But another layer of transformation. So, I would tell anybody you get a full program here at Beeson. And I would certainly tell folks that a call to preach, as Dr. Gardner C. Taylor would say, is a call to prepare. Where? I recommend Beeson. >>Kristen Padilla: Thank you, Dr. Moss. Before we end with one last question I just want to tell our listeners that Dr. Moss’s sermon will be on our YouTube Channel which is at www.YouTube.com/BeesonDivinity. I highly encourage you to go to that channel and listen to the chapel message she delivered today on the beauty of holiness from 2 Corinthians. Well, Dr. Moss, this has been a wonderful conversation. We always like to end by asking our guests what the Lord has been doing in your life, teaching you these days, that would encourage our listeners as we wrap up the show? >>Dr. Moss: God has in these times especially behind COVID and all, God has been teaching this – that he’s still God. And regardless of the time he has never taken his eye off of us. I would say to anybody, “Dare to trust God.” I have a very high view of God. And I’m going to leave you with this. I’m not going to get scholarly and bookish but my mama used to say, “If you trust God for some things, trust him for all.” I simply say to all of us, “Dare to trust God even in times like these.” >>Doug Sweeney: Amen. You have been listening to the Reverend Dr. Mary Moss. She is the pastor of the St. Alma Baptist Church in Lakeland, Louisiana. The Founder and Executive Director of Louisiana Area Women in Ministry and the Director of the Southeast Regional Biblical Institute. She is a busy lady. She is an alumnus of Beeson Divinity School. Got her DMIN here in 2009. We are grateful that she’s with us today. Thank you Dr. Moss for spending the day with us, your old friends here at Beeson. We’re grateful for you. We’re grateful for you, our listeners, as well. We’re praying for you. And we say goodbye for now. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.