Outside the Walls
Join us as we sit down with pastors and leaders to hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and see another side of the people who serve our churches and communities so faithfully! We’re excited to discover how God is working in unexpected places and find inspiration in the voices that lead us.
Outside the Walls
Will Byars: Carrolls Creek Baptist Church
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This time on Outside the Walls, we travel to the Government Plaza with Will Byars, the new pastor of Carrolls Creek Baptist Church, to hear his story of coming to faith, answering God’s call to ministry at a young age, and stepping into pastoral leadership in one of Northport’s fastest-growing communities. What an encouraging look at what God is doing through the local church!
Featuring:
- Herbby Geer, Lead Mission Strategist, Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association
- Will Byars, Senior Pastor, Carrolls Creek Baptist Church
Connect with TCBA:
So we're back with Outside the Walls Podcast. It's uh good to be with you. We're out here today with Will Byers. He's the new pastor at Carl's Creek Baptist Church, and uh we're in the Government Plaza, which is really part of the bicentennial uh celebrations when they redid this park. And we just thought it was a great place to be able to meet today because tomorrow, and you'll see this later, but tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. And this is, of course, the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and uh since 1776. So uh it's a great time to be out. It's a nice park to be in. And uh Will is just one of the newest uh members of the Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association coming in as a pastor here at Carols Creek Baptist Church. So welcome, Will. Good to have you with us.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
SPEAKER_00So now you just started with Carroll Street Quinn.
SPEAKER_01Uh January 21st was the first Wednesday night that I was there. So I've been there since the end of January, just a few months. I'm getting I'm getting acclimated though. I don't I don't feel like the new guy so much anymore.
SPEAKER_00That's good. That's good. I mean, uh now you're not coming from far away because you're from I'm from Fett, yeah, born and raised in Fett.
SPEAKER_01So Tuscaloosa feels like home.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well that's that's good, you know. I mean, uh being from Gordo, we know Fed, but it's usually an adversarial uh on the gridiron relationship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my my wife is from Gordo and I'm from Fed, so we understand the rivalry really well.
SPEAKER_00Almost like Gordo and uh I mean like uh Auburn and Alabama.
SPEAKER_01A little bit, that's that's true, especially since uh Coach Tucker came over to the Fed and became our coach.
SPEAKER_00I think that yeah, we're not gonna bring that part up. We're not that was tough. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it hasn't been much of a rivalry in recent years to my friends from Gordo. They uh they've they've beat us pretty good at just about everything.
SPEAKER_00So well, we I I I really that's the thing I love about this part. West Alabama, really good uh competition between us, but really good uh relationships that we have all together. And that's oh yeah, that's really what a network is too, you know. We know each other, we know what the Lord is doing and how we stir, so it's really, really cool. Yeah. Now you you you grew up in Fat. Now, where did you do your uh like your undergraduate study?
SPEAKER_01So I actually uh graduated college from the Mississippi University for Women. So I was doing uh yeah, I know. I was doing uh youth ministry at First Baptist Church in Reform, Alabama, which was like 25 minutes away from campus, and I was living there at their parsonage. Uh my wife, who I said from is from Gordo, she was going to MUW, she lived on campus, and she was my girlfriend at the time, and I had a lot of incentives to go over there. So uh I I followed her over there, I guess you could say, and um, it worked out for me. About we got married in 2019, two kids later. You know, I think it I think it worked out.
SPEAKER_00It sounds like it worked real good. So you you wound up with a degree and a wife. I'm not sure if it gets better than that.
SPEAKER_01That's right, yeah, yeah. I'll take it. Well, good. And your undergraduate was in uh business administration.
SPEAKER_00Okay, cool. Now uh you're in fat, you've already now you're already when you go to college, you're already working with uh reform.
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. Yeah, just part-time youth ministry, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00And how did you get called into that? How did you how did you get started? Because I mean that's that's very young to already be doing youth ministry. So how did how do you feel the Lord called you into all that?
SPEAKER_01So uh I went to uh church camp uh right after I got saved, and uh it was with Rick Gage and Go Tell Ministries in Tacoa, Georgia. And Rick did a very clear altar call uh one night. Um I I had only been a Christian a few months, and so uh he was like, I I think that there are some of you who um God is calling into full-time ministry, and I just I don't know how to describe it, other than I felt like God was talking to me, and so I responded to that altar call and um I interned with that same ministry for two summers in a row after that, and just really felt like that's what God was was leading me to do. You know, I I I felt that at the in that moment, but then I also had you know people kind of um affirm that in me and tell me they thought that I, you know, I was gifted to do it, and so I you know just was obedient to the Lord and walked through the open doors that were there. And so I I say that's descriptive of of my situation. It's not necessarily prescriptive to you know to just hop into ministry just a year or so after you get saved, but that's that's what my story.
SPEAKER_00So well, I mean, I think uh the Lord calls different people at different times. I mean, I know some people that knew from very young age, uh that they they were how old were you at that time?
SPEAKER_01Uh I was 17, yeah. 17. Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think I I think my first time I actually preached, I was probably maybe 17 or 18. Wow. Uh it's a little little chapel outside of Gordo that they were sending just people out to preach at. All right. And I just had felt the Lord was saying I needed to be preaching. I didn't know I was called a full-time ministry at the time, though. I just I was still in engineering, so that's really cool. Yeah. So wow. So from that time, you already began to work your way through and say, okay, Lord, what does it take to do this?
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. Now, did your parents, did they see that at first, or did they say, well, I mean, well, I you know, I don't I don't think they they wanted to discourage me, I think, but I think they were a little bit surprised. So I actually um I I was a junior in high school whenever I gave my life to Christ and just really got committed to um youth group at Southside Baptist and uh kind of you know got poured into by a lot of good guys that were just really invested in my life. And so I went after I graduated high school, and I kept saying, you know, I wanted to do full-time ministry. And uh after I graduated high school, I went back to the camp that I surrendered into ministry at and uh was a camp intern for the entire summer. And talking to some of the leadership at the camp that summer, that they told us that they had some uh uh full tuition scholarships to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. And so I um had a full ride to Bevel State, the local community college in Fed. I had the ambassador scholarship over there, and my parents were you know excited for me to go do that. And I thought maybe I'd go there and I'd transfer here to Bama or something, and then uh found out I've had that full tuition scholarship to Fort Worth. I was like, well, I don't want to pass this up, I can get some Bible training. And uh so I came home from being away for six, eight weeks that summer and told my parents, yeah, I think I'm gonna move to Fort Worth. And they didn't like that very much, but uh it worked out. I went there for a year and did some uh did my first freshman year of college in in Southwestern and then you know came back. So I got a little bit of training too, just took a couple of just general biblical studies classes, and uh it helped me out to really get a good foundation of how to study the Bible from the guys there when I came back and started doing student ministry. So uh yeah, I didn't I didn't finish my career there in academics or anything, but uh it gave me uh it gave me a good foundation to build from for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think this is really an exciting thing because what we are seeing right now is a move among young men. All right, that God is calling young men, and I think for the first time we're seeing that the men coming back to church and the men are starting to stand up quicker than the women. And that that's really historically not been what we've seen, especially in uh in uh the later years, but we're seeing something change now, and I think it's really important to know that God can call us at whatever stage. And within our association, we have people that weren't called until they were in their 30s and 40 years old. Wow. But then we have people who are called when they're 17 and probably even younger than that. So I think the thing is when the Lord speaks, we just need to be able to listen and be able to respond with our as we say, put our check on the table, have our yes already ready. So whatever he calls us to do, we're ready to move forward with it. So wow, that's a great story, just how the Lord has guided you through that. So uh now you're at Carol's Creek. Now, okay. All right. Uh hard questions. All right. Right, right. Now, Carol's Creek, every year they have a whole fishing thing that goes on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sportsman's dinner, that's right.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, right. And that's that's really fishing, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. A lot of fishermen at Carol's Creek.
SPEAKER_00Now, are you a fisherman?
SPEAKER_01Not not so much, you know. I I I enjoy it, but I've just never been very good at it. I this is what I tell people, I I love to catch, but I don't really like to fish so much. So, yeah, if you can put me on some some fish or it's they're they're biting really well, I I could do that all afternoon, but I just don't have much luck at it. So I guess that's where I'm at. My idea of fishing is with like a bobber and a court and you know, uh, you know, a cricket or a worm or something, and just watching that bobber go under. I don't do much of the bass fishing stuff.
SPEAKER_00Well, for the for the guys at Carroll Creek, let me let me say this. Your your your correct answer is not yet.
SPEAKER_01Not not yet. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So yeah, that'll be good. So uh so you're you've been there, you're starting to find your way. I mean, uh I know you've just getting into the area, but you're starting to see a lot of things going on in that side of town. What what are you seeing as far as your church? What are you seeing as far as uh maybe the demographics out there? What what's God kind of giving you to see? I mean, we know we were you're early in your ministry there, but I know the Lord's already been talking to you.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it's just it's so cool to see how uh Northport has really expanded. You know, it's uh I I read some stats that said that Northport, Alabama is the second fastest growing city in the state, behind like the Huntsville, Madison area. Wow. And I don't know how accurate that is now or how updated it might be, but there really is a move of people out into the Northport, like even really in the Samantha, you know, growing outwards to the north side area. And so with us being at Carroll's Creek, I think, you know, maybe 30, 40 years ago, it was kind of set out in the country, not really in a in a spot where there was a a lot of traffic or a lot of people, but now these neighborhoods are just moving and expanding, and it's like there's people building houses on our in our front door. And so that's really exciting to um really work with our children's ministry and our our family ministries to see how we can reach those people that are just right across the street there at Carroll's Creek. And uh we we've had so many people that have said, you know, we we just we just came because we live across the road, we just moved in here and we wanted to come by and check it out. So I thought that was that was it's neat to see that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, like in all of our churches, I mean when I walked into Carroll's Creek, uh, nobody knowing who I was at first because just coming back, but the the people there are just really friendly. And I and again, I think that inviting atmosphere within our churches really helps people because how are we going to find those that are lost among them and those that are unchurched? Because I think after COVID, you had a lot of people that's drifted away from the church, got out of the habit of church, and they haven't been able to find their way back. So I think uh how do we find that within our communities that are right around our churches? And uh, we have a number of churches in this area, but the numbers are growing much faster than the number of churches we have out this way. So I'm just looking to see what the Lord's gonna do in this North Port, north part of Northport.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah. We're excited. Yeah, absolutely. Well, good deal.
SPEAKER_00So uh coming back, anything that you have. Well, well, one thing we I always like to ask this, okay? Okay, people as pastors uh we do a lot, and uh you're young in pastorhood. Every pastor bears scars. It just comes from that close, close relationship that we have with our congregations, and and communication is probably one of the most uh inaccurate things we have. We're always gonna miss somebody somewhere, and so because of that, we have to work our way through some difficult situations from time to time. Uh but to do that, you gotta be able to deal with the stress in your life and to make sure you de-stress. You do you have something you do that helps you de-stress?
SPEAKER_01Uh I I do like to I like to go to the gym, I like to work out. Uh, I haven't been as committed to that as I'd like to be in the past you know six months or so. But I I really enjoy uh getting in the gym and uh just spending some time. And honestly, it it gives me some some time just to think and spend some time with the Lord. I'll listen to a podcast or just music and it gives me a kind of an outlet, a break from what's going on with the rest of the world. But uh yeah, I think it's good. And the gym is something too, like you know, in ministry, it you there it's like you you you work, but the work's almost never done, you know. It's like you just constantly are doing and um you have people that you want to continue to invest in and disciple. That's right. Um, you know, that that'll never be done until we go on to glory, right? That's right. But the gym gives me something hard that I can do every day. It's like I I could check that box, say, hey, I accomplished that today. And so it does it gives you a sense of accomplishment too. So I enjoy the gym a lot.
SPEAKER_00Well, it gets you in that zone, yeah, it gives you the accomplishment, and it works your the stress out of your body. That's that's a win-win-win.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00That's great. Well, is anything, I mean, you're part of an association now, and what we're trying to make sure is people know that we are part of uh associations some kind can have different meanings to different people. What we're trying to make sure people know is that we're actually an active living network that allows us to work together. So you probably haven't been able to meet that many pastors around yet, just getting your feet on the ground.
SPEAKER_01Right. So I do have a couple friends that you know taking some classes at the New Orleans Extension Center uh and at uh Valley Dale in Birmingham. Uh there's a lot of guys from the Tuscaloosa Association that are in different ministry positions that were taking classes there. So I really have two guys that I know. One's at Capstone, one's at First Baptist, and uh I've I've been able to connect with them and we've gone out to coffee or you know, had lunch, and so that that's been nice, at least knowing some people over here. So that's great.
SPEAKER_00Well, I we're we're looking forward to our different different meetings. We're looking at ways that we can actually network together as both pastors and those that are on staff and those that are maybe carrying the different uh uh giftings within the churches, those that are doing missions or youth or children, and figure out how do we how do we leverage all the gifts we have within Tuscaloosa County that we're all better together? One thing I found is that if you have a puzzle piece and it doesn't fit in your puzzle, often we just throw it away because we don't know what the puzzle looks like over at the next church.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00But if we know what each other's puzzles look like, we say, oh, well, I don't need a worship leader right now. But this church over here, man, they're really hurting right now. Let's see if we can get them together, see if it's something that fits in their puzzle. So I I really like that idea of ways that we can figure out things that we can do better together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we actually have an open worship ministry position right now, it's part-time. And so if we anybody that's watching this podcast that's uh you know that may be interested in worship ministry, maybe you've got somebody at your church that uh is interested in doing worship ministry and they're just not ready for you know the stage at your church yet, then uh we would love to you know talk to them. You know, we we've got a growing church at Carroll's Creek, and we we just need somebody to come take the reins of our worship ministry right now. So that's right.
SPEAKER_00The word's out, okay? The word's out. Great. And so and uh again, I hope as uh as an association we can put things within the website that can be helpful to churches. So if you have anything, if any other pastors have things to say, hey, we just need to we have this that we want to be able to offer to other churches, or we have this that we need to get back. Let's figure out ways we can get that up so we can see what each other uh so we can use the gifts more effectively within Tuscaloosa County. That's awesome. So uh to to tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer, going to be in this park, right at the pavilion behind us. And so from 12 to 1, uh it's gonna be uh everybody's gonna be praying. Now this will be released after that. Okay, but I want to remember that this is not a day of prayer. This is where we belong as churches. That's right. Not only just praying, but play praying out in the marketplace, praying for the marketplace, paying for the people in Tuscaloosa County, praying for our states, praying for our nation, and praying for those who've never heard around the world. So uh as we come together, we know that we can an army, they they say they can't outrun their supply line. They the the army travels on its belly, okay? They got you got to feed the soldiers. We cannot outrun our prayer uh networks that we have. So we need to make sure that we are setting that as number one. So a great place to have it today. Thank you for being able to come out, yeah, and thank you that we can just uh join together in what the Lord's doing. So we'll be praying for Carol Creek, we'll be praying for you as uh we all go forward together. Thank you, Will.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. It's been a blessing. Yes, sir.