Jolly Retires after 50 years

(Editor's Note: This article by Jonesboro Sun staff writer Karin Hill about the recent retirement of Rev. Jerry Jolly, a 1958 graduate of Rector High School, is reprinted with permission from The Sun.)

Jerry Jolly was 19 when he decided to become a preacher. That was in 1959, which turned out to be a big year for him.

In January 1959 he announced that he felt called to preach. That April he proposed to Freda, or "Sweet Pea" as he calls her; in July, they married.

In September 1959 he was ordained and began working as a pastor at his first church, and in December he found out he was going to be a father.

Now, 50 years later and after 20 consecutive years at the same church -- Temple Baptist -- Jolly is retiring. He will continue to preach until the search committee selects a new senior pastor.

"He'll be irreplaceable," Temple's administrative pastor Chad White said. "There'll be someone else coming on, but no one will take his place."

Although it's not unheard of, serving as pastor of the same church for multiple decades is somewhat uncommon. Jolly had even spent another eight years at Temple earlier, then had a short stint elsewhere before returning to his job of 20 years.

Getting Started

Jolly said his choice of profession was a result of his mother's prayers. His father was a farmer and Jolly always figured he would farm, too.

But life had another path for him.

"I had a sister who was six years older than I who died when she was about 5 1/2, and my mother began to pray that God would give her another child -- that it would be a son -- that God would call him to preach," he said. "She told me all that the night after I told the church that I felt called to preach."

He started at Boydsville in a half-time church where he preached every other Sunday. On alternate Sundays there would be Sunday school instead of a sermon. Over the years he's been a pastor in Arkansas, Misssouri and Alaska, where he pastored a mission church in Anchorage.

"It's an unusual place," he said. "It stays dark most of the winter and daylight most of the summer. It's hard for a guy from Clay County to get used to."

During his travels to preach at revivals around the United States, Jolly has spent a lot of time on airplanes. On one accation he witnessed to Bill Cosby and Eddy Arnold on a cross-country trip.

Jolly first came to Temple Baptist in 1979. The church had been formed just seven years earlier, and church attendance ran around 100. He stayed until 1987.

"At that time I felt that I would like to preach, just do evangelism, so I resigned here to go into evangelism and found out that I didn't care for that," he said. "So in 1989, the pastor they had called left and they invited me back. So on the last Sunday of 1989, I returned as pastor of Temple and have been here ever since. We've enjoyed it. This is our home."

Daughter Cathy King also works at the church as director of programs for children 12 and under. Freda has spent all but the first few years working as the pastor's secretary. The couple also has a son, and several grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

"I've had the privilege of baptizing all my children and grandchildren," he said.

Today there are 2,000 members at Temple, with summer attendance around 700 to 800, Jolly said. The church has grown both in numbers and in its ministries.

The church started using a new format with Life Groups two years ago that has resulted in "people ministering together on a level I've never seen before," Jolly said. Like many churches, it has added new services with more modern music but has kept the traditional worship service to provide something for everyone.

"I think we've really been blessed," he said.

God's given us the privilege to reach out and touch lives and see people changed."

Several building projects over the years have expanded the church's facilities, too.

Highs And Lows

For Jolly, it's been a journey of joy and heartache, as the duties of pastor have brought him through some memorable experiences.

"The most traumatic experience I ever had was when the Westside shooting happened and I was chaplain for Troop C of the State Police," Jolly said.

He stood on the campus of Westside Middle School holding a list of casualities.

"My arms were bruised for weeks after that, people running up, grabbing me, wanting to know if their child was on that list," he said.

Just shortly after that, Jolly had a preaching appointment in Colorado at the same time the Columbine shooting occured.

But participating in weddings and seeing young people grow up and have children of their own has been one of the biggest blessings of the job, he noted.

"I think there's blessings in long-term pastoring that you don't find in short term," Jolly said.

Chad White, who has worked at Temple for seven years but attended since childhood, has experienced Jolly's ministry for many years.

"There's no question that Pastor Jolly, his ministry here took our church from where we were to one of the leading churches in our city and our association," White said. "He's always been willing to change the methods of reaching people without ever changing the message that he was reaching them with. He's always been flexible enough to try new things, to go new directions if it meant reaching more people, and I think God's blessed that."