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Published on Saturday, November 17, 2007

Staff photo by Marc Hall

Pastor Jessie Williams is retiring after more than 40 years of service at the First United Pentecostal Church on Cumberland Road.

Jesse Williams knows a thing or two about building churches: physically and spiritually.

“I guess you could say I’m bi-vocational,” Williams said from his office at First United Pentecostal Church on Cumberland Road. “I knew a lot about building before I became a pastor, and I’ve learned a lot about that ever since.”

Sunday night Williams will step aside from one vocation to concentrate on another. At age 80, he’ll retire as pastor of the church he built 40 years ago. The Rev. Robbie Mitchell will become the second pastor in church history

The “passing of the mantle,” as Williams calls it, may end his career as an active pastor. But it certainly won’t slow him down. Thin and fit, leaping the stairs to his second-floor office two steps at a time, this Army veteran still looks like he could put down a Bible on Sunday, pick up a hammer and head to the job site on Monday.

Even as he walks through the narrow halls of First Pentecostal, he moves at a brisk clip, keys jingling in his hand. Clearly Williams isn’t heading for a rocking chair.

“Oh heavens no!” he said, emphatically shaking his head. “There will be plenty to do here, and my wife’s got a nice honey-do list waiting as well. We’ll take a vacation, and I’ve already got invitations to preach at other churches.”

Williams grew up in Wilmington, but became familiar with Fayetteville during a stint at Fort Bragg. While he found the Army a great builder of men, he felt it lacking as a saver of souls.

“So many young men need that spiritual guidance,” he said.

That’s what led him to take his wife, Sue, and four children from Wilmington in 1966 to start a church here. He borrowed seats from a funeral home and held services in his home for a year before leasing a building — the original First United Pentecostal Church — in 1967. A year later his congregation built the first church on Cumberland Road.

Now, they’ve outgrown the 450-seat sanctuary. Plans are in place to expand to about 1,100 seats.

Along the way, dozens of young men have left the church and become ministers elsewhere. “One is in Africa, another in Japan, Germany and all across America,” Williams said. “I consider them multiplying the faith, rather than just adding to it.”

Still, he chafes a bit at all the attention to his retirement. He doesn’t want a tribute, just a celebration of the blessings the church has enjoyed. He’s just been blessed by the opportunities of faith at what he calls a “crossroads of the world.”

“Fayetteville is such a wonderful place to share the Gospel,” he said. “From here it can go all around the world.

“In my opinion, I have been blessed by being here. But there’s so much left. I’ll still have plenty of things to do.”