A Pastor Shares How Recovery Became A Calling

Ten years of radio teaches you what really matters to a community: clear information when you’re making big decisions, and real stories that remind you people can change. We kick things off by celebrating a decade of the George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast on WHKP, then we share a fast, practical Henderson County real estate market snapshot. Inventory stays low at under 600 homes, demand remains steady, and prices have been holding, but we also explain why your home’s value depends on the details and why timing, strategy, and trust matter when you’re deciding whether to buy before you sell or sell before you buy.

From there, the microphone turns to our Hometown Hero, Pastor Clarence Blackwell of Locust Grove Baptist Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina. He tells his testimony with honesty: an early profession of faith, a call to preach that scared him, years of drifting, and a decade lost to meth addiction and dealing. His turning point comes in rehab, followed by prison, release, and a new life built on surrender and steady service. It’s a story about consequences, but even more about what redemption looks like when it becomes daily practice.

We also talk about his jail and prison ministry in Henderson and Buncombe counties, why he chooses to go back behind bars, and what he’s learned about hope when people feel like they’ve hit the bottom. Along the way, he shares how online outreach unexpectedly grew through Facebook, bringing hundreds of listeners alongside a small in-person congregation. If you care about Western North Carolina, local radio, community service, faith, recovery, and real estate decisions that shape your next season, this conversation will stay with you. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review to help more neighbors find the show.

Transcript

Celebrating Ten Years On WHKP

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 8.45, the George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 8.45 on Friday morning, and that is time for the George Real Estate Group Hometown Heroes salute. And we just love getting together on Friday mornings in our studio here. And we pull up a chair and we start telling tales, and uh you never know what might happen and what might break out. Noah George always joins us, and I'm so glad you do, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Good morning and happy Friday. And it's uh just a privilege and honor to be here every Friday morning sharing some uh great stories, introducing our community to incredible people making a difference.

Henderson County Real Estate Snapshot

SPEAKER_02 1:20

I really like doing this. Uh it's a uh it's a chance to meet some wonderful people, and this morning uh you're gonna get to know uh Preacher Clarence Blackwell. And first of all, though, let's talk a little real estate, Noah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Well, it it is uh we're so grateful to the George Real Estate Group to sponsor the Hometown Hero Series, and and I appreciate just the moment to give a little update on what's going on, you know, in the market. I mean, the market continues to move. We have low inventory level. We still have we have less than six hundred homes in the market in Henderson County, and and yet the demand is remaining strong. It's not what it was a few years ago, but it's it's a healthy, steady demand in Henderson County. We're averaging some 135 single family homes a month selling. Uh prices are holding. Really, over the last two years, prices are holding. Uh but of course your unique situation, your unique home, your neighborhood, your uh, you know, it it's specific and unique to you. And so we do a very uh custom approach specific. Uh and we, if you're curious what your home is worth, or if you're curious, do you sell before you buy, do you buy before you sell? I mean, the market's the market, but but we tailor an approach for you.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Whatever your situation may be, you may be moving in or moving out. You may be moving up or moving down, whatever situation, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

That's right. We we we cover it all. Whether it's your personal home or commercial real estate or investment portfolio with real estate. I mean, uh, or if you've inherited real estate, or maybe you're planning ahead for your estate. I mean, whatever the situation is, we're it's a privilege and honor to serve our community through real estate.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

From Flat Rock, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yes, dangerous location there, right next to the Flat Rock Bakery, Hubba Hubba Barbecue, Campfire Grill, but the George Real Estate Group is located on Rainbow Road in Flat Rock, serving all of Western North Carolina. Follow us on social media, Facebook and Instagram, and we also podcast our radio shows on your favorite podcast platform. Be sure to subscribe. But on social media, we have some open houses and new listings, and you can see all the activity uh that that's there on our Facebook page.

Meet Pastor Clarence Blackwell

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Fantastic. Uh I would like to introduce to you preacher Clarence Blackwell. Good morning, Pastor.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Good morning, sir. It's an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

How are you? Would you prefer pastor or preacher or either one? Either one works. Well, it's so good to have you here with us. Uh you were nominated by some members of your congregation, and your congregation is at the Locust Grove Baptist Church, right? Tell us about that church and where it is and about who there are at the Locust Grove Baptist Church.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

All right. We are Locust Grove Baptist Church. We are at 1741 Locust Grove Road, Hendersonville, North Carolina. Um, if you came in from the Brookside Camp Road, you would turn at the driver's license office towards um towards the interstate road.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Okay, Howard Gap Road.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Howard Gap Road and just keep growing straight, and Brookside Camp turns into Locust Grove Road.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

And from the other side, you'd have to take McMinn Road to Locust Grove Road.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

How long have you been the pastor there?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I've been the pastor there since 2024. Um I I preached all year long in 2024 in May. They elected me pastor.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Well, great.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Great.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Well, it's incredible. Uh you know, and uh how how are uh I'd love to hear your story how you got into ministry. I mean, I'm always curious uh your your story of how you got called and and your story into ministry.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Very good. Um uh I love my story. Um it's a story of his faithfulness. Um I professed my faith at Upward Baptist Church, April 4th, 1982, and about six months later, just quite frankly, the Lord called me to preach. And um that's the only thing that's ever scared me in my life. And um I read where it said, Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy, and I was afraid, and I said, You know what, Lord, I think I want to grow up and decide what I want to do with my life because I don't even know, I'm not even grown yet, and I kind of just faded away from him, and it's real easy to get away from him just like that, because the world will lead you away. And um to make a long story short, um I did real well and fell real far, and then I fell into darkness. And in fact, um you never know where sin's going to take you. Um, for a decade in my life, um I was uh strung out and a dealer in methamphetamine, and one day, as the Lord saw fit, I found myself in JFK A DAC rehab, and um I felt like the only person uh that that I did not have a problem but that society was my problem. And um on day four I was climbing the walls and some things happened, and I decided darkness had actually taken hold of me and just kind of made me come to this realization maybe if you were gone your sons wouldn't follow you. And I went to my room to get my bag to walk down to the interstate to find a truck that wouldn't stop, they wouldn't have time. And I acknowledged God as I pulled that bag out in my heart. Will you take my life? And he washed ten years of that right out of me on the spot. And I've never been the same, and I never will be. Um I found myself in the Department of Corrections, I surrendered him completely. Um I was released from prison May 21st, 2005, with a clothes on my back that someone gave me to have clothes on my back to walk out of prison. And the story of my life has been Jesus makes a way, even where there is no way, even when the world says no way, he has made me a way. I never dreamed I'd be a preacher or a pastor or anything, and look what God can do with a bad man is my testimony.

Going Back Into Jails To Serve

SPEAKER_02 7:16

That's an impowerful testimony. It really is powerful. Uh so uh that ties right into a next question is uh that one of the reasons you were nominated for our our honor today is that you find time in your schedule to uh do a pre a prison ministry.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I actually do jail and prison ministry. Um I have a full-time job. I'm also the pastor of our church, and I have a ministry at the Henderson County Jail, at the Buncombe County Jail as well. I've did Buncombe County for 15 years now.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Wait, hold on. You have a your your your full-time job is not the pastor. Right. You have an you're doing multiple full-time jobs right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I work for a wonderful medical component company in Mills River, North Carolina. Okay, full-time. And I do pastor work and my and my ministry. So yes, I'm very busy. Well, you are, but I love what I do because the Lord is in all of those things. Every one of those things. And he makes time and he makes a way. Um, last Wednesday, a week ago, a man who didn't know who Jesus was came in and listened to me for 30 minutes and accepted him as his Lord and Savior. On Saturday, someone who was a pillar in our community and a pillar in our church, 94 years old, hospice called in. He also accepted Christ as his savior in his hospital bed, a party hospital.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

So that's why you do what you do.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

That's why I do what I do.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Tell us about the uh the prison ministries and the and the and the jail ministries. You that is uh that has to be a uh sort of a special burden you have. You're dealing with people at the very bottom of their lives. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

The the same place where I had left Jesus and Jesus found me. You see, I left him far behind for a long period in my life. That's the place where he found me. Um as I left prison that day, I had um spoke with the Lord in my heart. I'll do anything you ask. I'll uncover a septic tank and pump it out. I'm not a guy who can stand smells. I'll even do that. I'll dig a ditch, I'll do anything that you say, Lord. Please don't let me have to come back to this place. And he posed a question in my heart Will you come back for my sake? About seven years later I answered that at a d at a disciple table at Mills River United Methodist Church, at their disciple Monday morning disciple, when uh the question was asked, has God ever has God ever called you to do anything? And I wound up becoming a big part of their jail ministry at Buncombe County Jail. And I actually chaired that ministry for a while, even though I was the Sunday school director at Dana Baptist Church at the same time. So I've learned to wear many hats and for this, when he calls, go. Just go.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Because that first time you d you you ran away.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, that was the last place I ever wanted to go back to. But you know what? With my knees knocking a little bit, I went back. And you and to feel that Holy Spirit, if they locked me up and threw away the key, if they locked me up and told me they would take my life tomorrow, I would preach my heart out all night because I found what I was looking for. The world is looking for something, and if they ever come to Jesus, they found what they're looking for. But it seems too easy to them. But behind bars, you're willing to listen to anything and see. And I love what Jesus invited those two that followed him away from John in John chapter one. He said, Come and see. Come and see. I don't see anywhere where they ever turned around and went back because they found what they were looking for. And it's my joy to go behind those bars and let men find what they were looking for.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

So you're every week you're there?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Um every other week.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Um I have a couple of guys who helped me out Gary Biedenbaugh and Ken Weist. Those are both retired guys, and they fill in here and there, but I go faithfully every other week, so then that way I'll have a Tuesday and Wednesday off. Tuesday we do Anderson County Jail, Wednesday we do Bunkham County Jail.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Had was someone ever was someone doing that while you were in the world.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

They were, and and and and it was kind of uncanny because I remember seeing Paul Thompson when he first got into his ministry. He was the pastor at Mills River United Methodist, and now he's a pastor at Huntersville, United Methodist. I remember seeing him through the window when they were doing that in there, and I was sitting at a table outside and I could see him in there doing his thing, and and people were laughing and singing, and I thought, I'm not happy. I'm not singing. I got two years of this. And um the first prison that I got to, someone invited me to church. And uh so I went to church. And then the Lord invited me to the altar where I surrendered. And um it's my joy to go back in those places and and share the hope. And share that hope. Because everyone with breath and a pulse has that hope.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah. It's the hope test, right? Are you breathing?

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Exactly. I have a pulse, I have hope today, but my hope is in Jesus, whether I have a pulse or not.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

You've uh become pretty popular on the social media platform. I have, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Tell us about it. My wife told me one day, she says, You have sixteen hundred followers. I looked around and I said, I don't see anyone following me. What are you talking about, dear? She said, Look on your Facebook thing. I looked on there and it said 1.6K followers. I said, Wow, how did that happen? And exactly how it happened was this about two and a half, three years ago, the Lord showed me, put that out, put that out there. It's the gospel. It won't come back void, just like he told Isaiah. And I put it out there and people responded. Now I have twenty or twenty-five people come to church. I a good Sunday is twenty-five people for Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Really?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

And I have hundreds of people join me online. Hundreds.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

So how I got those followers, I don't know, but thanks for listening to the gospel.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Yes. Tell us uh again how you get to the church, and you I know you want to invite everybody to come see y'all at the Locust Grove Bath again at 1741 Locust Grove Road, Hendersonville, 28792.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Um if you come down 25. 25, um, actually 64.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Come down 64 when you get to uh Engles at Howard Gap Road, turn left. Uh go down to the easiest way would be Clear Creek Road. Turn right, turn left on McMinn, then left on Locust Grove Road.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And you'll see the church.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Let your GPS follow you though. 1741 Locust Grove Road. Wise man. That's the best way. We would love for you to come. Um we're just a small country church on the mountain.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

I was actually born into that church in 1970. My uncle was the pastor, and he broke ground for the new building. Wow. I love that um this homecoming this year will be our 128th year. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

That's fantastic. Full circle. I grew up in a small country Baptist church like that. Vacation Bible school and I love VBS. Yes. I bet you you all got vacation.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

We're going to have VBS this year. Are you really? We're a little short on children last year and trying to get everything established and together.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Just as long as somebody makes that Kool-Aid that's got five pounds of sugar in it. And those cookies, too. I remember those cookies.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

That was the whole deal. I could go through a whole day of VBS as long as you give me that function to cookies.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Pastor Clarence Blackwell, we sure are grateful that you came to visit with us today. We've got a certificate over there for you to uh take home, and and we just are really grateful and we thank you for what all you do, and and we really are grateful for your uh nomination to be our hometown hero.

Thanks, Contacts, And Closing Message

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Thank you so much for those who nominated me. Thank you so much for this honor. And uh remember in Matthew 25, Jesus said, I was hungry, and you said.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 a.m. on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 A.M. or stream online at WHKP.com or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8.45.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Maybe the house feels a little too big these days. The stairs a little steeper. The pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing, and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to rise-size, simplify, or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Call us today, 828-3930134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.