Decades after serving for 20 years as a church planter in Columbus, Ohio, Delano McMinn is returning there June 16-17 when the Southern Baptist Convention holds is annual meeting in the city.
Southern Baptists have been planting churches in Ohio since the 1930s, when Southerners who moved to the area wanted churches more like the ones they were accustomed to in the South.
McMinn began his work in Columbus in 1960, just six years after the organization of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio. John Kurtz, who is 94 and living in a retirement home in Nashville, was the Ohio convention’s first president. McMinn recalls that time period as an open door for reaching people with the gospel. “Evangelism was really moving in those days,” he said. “We had 19 missions in the city, and our director of missions, Ross Hughes, had a great vision for starting new churches. The people of Columbus received Southern Baptists well in those days.”
The Ohio convention grew from 39 to 300 churches by 1964 and has more than 700 churches today. Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati have been designated “Send Cities” as part of the North American Mission Board’s strategy to reach the population centers of America.
During his student days at Furman University, McMinn served on the staff of Second Baptist Church in Greenville as a youth minister. Later, as a student at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California, he started a church in the Sierra Mountains. His wife, Willene, says, “That was the highlight of our lives. It was beautiful. We held services in a building that was made during the gold rush.” Following his graduation from Golden Gate, McMinn accepted a call to pastor Dug Gap Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga.
While McMinn was serving in Georgia, Ross Hughes, the director of missions from Columbus, came through to Toccoa on his way to Ohio after attending the Southern Baptist Convention. He met McMinn’s parents, who introduced him to their son and daughter-in-law. After a conversation about the need for church planters in the Columbus area, the McMinns prayerfully decided to move to Ohio a short time later.
“They called it pioneer work back then,” Willene said. “We started the church with 28 people, and it multiplied. Men and women were trained to share their faith. The women would visit and witness in the mornings, and the men in the evenings.”
After four years at Woodland Heights, the McMinns planted three other churches in the Columbus area before returning to South Carolina to serve at Rockton Baptist Church in Winnsboro. Soon they were back in Ohio, serving Dayton’s Crestview Baptist Church. “I was there eight years, and we added about 100 new members a year,” said McMinn. “Around 75 a year were being baptized.” The church grew to a membership of 1,500.
Following their stay in Dayton, the couple again returned to South Carolina, where they served Lebanon Baptist Church in Greer for 10 years before McMinn became director of missions for Saluda Baptist Association in Anderson. Fourteen years later, he retired from full-time ministry, although he continues to preach, serve on boards and help with new church starts.
Looking back over his 20 years in Ohio, he observed, “New churches grow faster than established congregations. Things were different when I served in Ohio. The culture has changed.” He added that while things are more difficult today, people can still be reached with the gospel.
McMinn has served as an ordained Southern Baptist pastor for 60 of his 82 years. At this year’s convention, he and his grandson plan to stay in the home of one of his former church members who lives just north of Columbus.