Drew Chapman: First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa

We sit down for coffee with Drew Chapman, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa, at The Alamite in the heart of downtown Tuscaloosa.

In our conversation, we explore God's leading in his life, from art student and entrepreneur to pastor, how faithful believers invested in him along the way, and why local churches have a responsibility to identify and encourage the gifts God places in others.

Featuring:

Herbby Geer, Lead Mission Strategist, Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association

Drew Chapman, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

So we're here with uh at the Alamite Hotel, right on the streets of Tuscaloosa today with uh Outside the Walls. And we have with us uh Drew Chapman from uh First Baptist Tuscaloosa. Really happy to have you with us today. It's really interesting that we're here because uh as you were just explaining to me, this used to be part of the parking lot for First Baptist.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I it's almost like almost all of downtown at some point was part of First Baptist. I mean, I don't know just over the over the years, but yeah, this parking lot or this facility belonged to First Baptist and was some parking spaces. And so then uh we're approached to sell it at one point and we did, and now we have a partnership with the hotel and using the parking lot and things like that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Wow. Well, it must be really something as you come in uh to uh I think you've been here just a little bit more than a year, year and a half, maybe almost a year and a half.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

All right, January of 2025. So almost a year and a half. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

But I came in by the same time you did. That's right. That's right. I'm coming back though. So well, uh, but really you come in, but you know that you don't come into a new story, you're coming to something that's got a history. So it's really neat to know that you're finding the history.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

I have a 208-year history. So I think officially two years before Tuscaloosa was incorporated, First Baptist was planted. So we're talking 208 years. Yeah, so there's a lot of people that came before me. And there'll be a lot of people after me, too. Yeah, there's a lot of history. God, God has been at work through our congregation way before I got here. So wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Well, I think it's appropriate with outside the walls. We're just sitting here on the streets of uh Tuscaloosa. And uh I think we've all had uh for a long time, and I think you've even mentioned it to me before, uh just this burden, not only just for Tuscaloosa County, but also for the city of Tuscaloosa. And that's of course where First Baptist is planted.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

And yeah, we're unique uh in downtown. I mean, our location is right in the heart of downtown. Even at one point, the tagline for First Baptist was a city in the heart of the or uh a church in the heart of the city with the city in its heart, you know, and so it is, it's literally right downtown. And I do think just even what's unique about Tuscaloosa is the how vibrant the downtown still is. I mean, there's just still so much going on here. And I think that's what we my wife and I, when we first came, it was a Thursday night. I think it was in the falls, it was probably a game weekend. I mean, there was a lot happening. I think we were just amazed at how vibrant the city was, and that's where I think the Lord really started to stir our heart for this place and for these people. And so, yeah, we have a heart, like as we're in the downtown, and it's not that Tuscaloosa is so massive that you've got this downtown, and then 30 minutes from here, you've got the neighboring communities and all of that. No, like 10 minutes from here and 15 minutes from here. And so there's just a really unique thing about Tuscaloosa that we just love, and just the the people, especially in trying to reach this community. Uh right here around the the campus, but then also 10-15 minute drive times from here. We really just have a heart for the people.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Wow. Now, where did you where did you come from?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

I moved here from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Okay. So Hattiesburg, Mississippi is kind of south Mississippi. It's about 45 minutes from the coast of Mississippi, and so we were there 13 years. Uh I served at a church called Temple Baptist Church uh in Hattiesburg, and so um, and I had served several different roles there. But yeah, we were there, we moved there in 2012, and then we moved here just last year. So we were there just about 13 years.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Oh, okay. So, I mean that's a a big move now. Okay. Oh miss, really?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Me, no. I graduated Mississippi State, so yeah, I'm a Mississippi State fan. You gotta get the right one, gotta get to the Mississippi State fan, which is funny. You know, it's it's a different world over here with uh the university and stuff, and I think even being a Mississippi State grad, it's not even uh like they don't even see Mississippi State as competition here. It's just almost like we just feel sorry for you or like bless your heart kind of like perspective when it comes to Mississippi State. So it's it's uh it's served me well. So I I didn't come from I didn't graduate from Tennessee, you know. And when I was going through the search process, Vanderbilt uh had had just beat them, and I was like, man, I'm glad I'm not a Vanderbilt, you know, grad either. You know, there's this you know, LSU, I'm glad I don't have history in those places.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

So it's really really fun because your background, I mean, your your background's quite different. I mean, your background is in uh art, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah, so yeah, you know, people are like, what do you do with an art degree? You know, I wanted to teach college art. That was my plan. I wanted to be a college professor, and so I wanted to teach college art, and so um knew I had to get a master's. So I actually enrolled at University of Alabama, but the same time I enrolled uh was getting ready to maybe head this direction. A buddy of mine asked to uh back from central Mississippi where I grew up. He's like, why don't we start? I've always wanted to kind of do a screen print business. I just want I'll be honest, I wanted to wear t-shirts to work. I didn't that was my I didn't want to dress up.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

We need to get some good ones for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I didn't want to dress up. I was kind of a hippie, and so I was just like, man, I just want to wear a t-shirt to uh to work. Well, why not design them? And you know, I just uh so we we started a business. We started a screen printing business, it's still going today. Oh wow uh and loved it. I loved that kind of pioneering entrepreneurial, kind of had I think I've always kind of had that in me. Um and so yeah, that was a I I enjoyed that, but it was probably three years into the business that I was started serving in a local church, just but and it was through that that I sensed kind of a call to ministry. But yeah, so I've got uh I thought that was what I was gonna be doing. I thought I was just gonna be running a business, kind of doing some things like that. But I learned more and more. Proverbs tells us that man makes plans, but God directs his steps. So I've made a lot of plans and God has directed my steps, and now I'm in Tuscaloose.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

How did you how did you feel the call to to move in towards ministry?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, so I was I would say I was born again going into my senior year, my my last semester of college. I was saved. Um I was with I had some friends that just love me. I always kind of say this way, they love me in spite of me. Man, I you know, I just I I had heard about Jesus. I grew up in church. I grew up in the Catholic church, and so I grew up in church. Um, but really just I I think it was never a lifestyle for me. I I didn't see a need, I didn't have any needs, in my opinion. And so growing in um in the college, uh kind of my last couple years of college, I had these two really close friends, and they just really loved me. And I would say that they I never seen somebody just live out Jesus. It was all you know, I'd heard people t talk about him or teach about him, but I'd never seen people live it out. And it was really in that season, I kind of hit rock bottom, um, didn't really have any direction, just really lost. I mean, really, I mean, Jesus calls us lost, and and I was lost. And it was in that that just one night heard about Jesus, heard about, I believe God just woke me up. Um I was at I was up still up there for Christmas break, working, and um just one night early in the morning, two, three o'clock in the morning, woke up in my bed and was just talking to God out loud, like he was there. Um, and so I think, you know, I could probably a whole lot more articulate now. But at the time it was just I just I was talking to him like he was there and he was present, which for me growing up, God was always kind of over there somewhere, wherever that was. Um, and so for me to sense him in the room with me and to be talking to him like I could know him, that was just so different for me. And so I was just talking, and that was the night I surrendered my life. I mean, that was the night I told God I'm I don't want to live like this anymore, I don't want this lifestyle anymore. I'll do whatever you call me to do, I'll do whatever you want me to do. And now, and to be honest, I thought, God, in my mind, I think you're gonna call me to make a million dollars and I'll be generous, you know. Yeah, I didn't know that. So I that was the night of surrender. I just believe that was the night I was saved, born again, the scriptures would say. Because my life was different then. My life was just absolutely different. And then I was working at a liquor store in Startville, Mississippi, and I've been there a couple years, and something after that night, I just I went and talked to my boss, and again, I couldn't articulate. I just said, God's doing something in my life, like it's it's real. Like I've been experiencing him in a real way, and I've got to get I've got to get away from this. I've gotta get this is too easy for me to be around and stuff. And God just was really faithful, took care of me. And then I had one, I had that last semester. I moved back home to Brandon, Mississippi, kind of in central Mississippi. That's where I grew up, and I started getting involved at a church called Crossgates Baptist Church. And for the first time, the scriptures just started to come alive. I actually understood uh what was being taught. I just never had I never experienced that growing up, and so I understood it. I was taught to, you know, consume it for myself and to have this personal relationship with the Lord. And it was through serving there that I just I served there and God just kept giving I I just almost sensed a favor on my life of just responsibility, just kept giving me more responsibility, and I kept just being obedient and and walking in it. And as that happened, it was just like, okay, well, I almost set up chairs. Well, now they're gonna ask, now they want me to lead this small group of high school guys, and now they're asking me to to be a part of this mission trip, and I started serve. So it was like things like that that I just kept being faithful to serve, and it was through serving that I sensed kind of a call to full-time ministry. And it was really when I was so I was serving in a church. By this time I'd met my wife, I or I'd met Mary Allison, who would eventually become my wife, and she was at a she was actually on staff at another church, and when um I'd moved my membership because we had got engaged and I'd been serving and all, and the youth pastor there said, Hey, I want you to teach on a Wednesday night. And I was like, You know me, like you know, and he was like, I know you, like, yeah, I want you to teach. And to be honest, it was probably the worst message I've ever taught. It was probably just terror. I don't even know. I can't even remember what it was on, but what I do remember, it was like in that moment, the Lord just said, like, this is what I'm calling you to do. And not so much, not so much just teach, but to pastor. And so it was after that. I was about three years into the business, and it was after that that I just um I started to seek counsel of some older guys that I trusted. Hey, what does this mean? Like, what does it look like to go into ministry? Because I I thought you were born a pastor. Like, I guess growing up, I guess it never really occurred to me how do churches start, how do people become, you know, get into the ministry? I just had a lot of questions, but that was um about two years I I kind of ran from that call until finally I just embraced it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah, that's really that's really, really interesting because I wondered sometimes how many people in our churches have been maybe inoculated with gospel. We we believe but we really haven't had that experience of knowing his nearness. Yeah, and and it changes everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

And even having the idea that actually we ourselves can learn from the word of God as we open it up that this Holy Spirit can teach us. And the other thing I really like about what you said is you were invited in. Okay, you were doing chairs, so they saw you faithful at that small task, but then they invited you to the next task and to the next task. And sometimes I wonder if if we don't have the priesthood or believer as active in our places because we failed to invite people in. And and and it does stretch you, and that was really stretching for you, I'm sure. I mean, especially that first time we were teaching, it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

It is super scary, you know, and I I think I just really believe, I even part of my part of my doctoral work was in this a call to ministry, but even in the local church's responsibility to that, because a guy named Kevin Cooper is the guy that um saw it in me. Because I do think, you know, because I think people are a lot like me, just wondering how do you like how do you get into ministry? Is it just another career? Like, what is what's the difference between a career and a calling? And but Kevin saw it, and I I and I prayed a prayer that I've prayed. I prayed it for it was about six months straight after I was going af there. I just remembered him. I remember, and I said, God, could you make me somebody that could see something in somebody else before they see it in themselves? Because that's what happened with me. I didn't see it, I didn't know it. And he saw it and he called it out of me. He called me and invited me into it. And I've just said, Gord, could you make me somebody like that that could see things in people before they see it in themselves and help call them out, invite them into that? Like, I do think we have a responsibility in the local church to help it. Not everybody needs to go into full-time vocational ministry. We need awesome church members.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

But everybody does have a but each each each member does have a ministry of some type, which may not be vocational ministry, but they have something the Lord wants to use in place.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

There's a guy, uh I Jason, is it Jason Allen? He was the president of uh is it Midwestern Seminary, but um he said, or whichever one's in Kansas City, Missouri, uh he said uh, you know, everybody is called to ministry, some are called to the ministry. And so they're and I believe that, like we do, you know, and that's even outside the walls, you know, there's a reason, there's something about the church walking in that calling, whatever that is. If it's a doctor, lawyer, teacher, stay-at-home mom, uh student, teammate, all like we're there for a reason, sent there for a reason. And I believe we do have a calling to walk in. Some of us, though, have that for whatever reason, God's decided like I want to set you apart for full-time ministry. And I do think the local church has a responsibility in that to help identify that and affirm it. You know, I think that that was important for me was I wasn't some kind of rebel saying, hey, God said this, and I don't care if anybody else sees it in me. I, you know, it's like, no, I think it's both. I think we've got to have that internal call and the external call from the leadership and others that see this in your life and stuff. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

You know, even being in ministry for years and years. When our kids were smaller, they were the connectors. Yeah, they connected us to the community of the unbelievers around us that opened the doors for us to share with many, many people. I mean, they didn't see themselves as ministries, but connecting with people, and uh the the gospel runs on the track of relationship. Yeah, and so uh God used my kids awesomely in that time in ways they didn't even know.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Just by being a kid, just talking to a stranger, you know, it's like kids just connect so much quicker, man.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

A couple of mine were introverts, and one was extrovert, and I'd be out sharing with somebody. I'd look down, and that one was right beside me wanting to be involved in it, and it was really cool. You know, but uh but that makes us all different, but he uses us all too. Yeah, you know, I've been really impressed with uh as we've come in and just looking at the history of First Baptist, but also your vision, our first Baptist of it's not just First Baptist, it's us as the churches within Tuscaloosa County. And how can we help each other and how can we resource each other and how can we figure this thing out together? And I think you know, just seeing uh part of the the vision of First Baptist. I mean, you've always been a hub because your facility is used by a lot of different people that need to meet. And I just want to say number one, how much I appreciate it. And just thought maybe you would like to speak a little bit about just the the vision within that.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I think so. You know, kind of we believe the Lord's kind of given us 2030 vision. And so we have every Sunday I preach, I give next steps at the end of the message, like because I do think people are asking, like, why did why should I care? Why should I listen? What should I do with that? You know, like because it is the the scripture is still relevant, absolutely, and it's I think my job is to help people see, okay, why why did it matter then and now why does it matter now? So we do give next steps. So we want to see 700,000 next steps from our congregation. That's and as you know, we did some math there or whatever. We just want to see people taking steps with the Lord. That's the main thing. We want to see, you know, uh 24,000 neighbors impacted in this community, but a neighbor could be anybody, really, you know, and it's and really as we say as a church, like we want to prove to be a neighbor, as Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Like, we want to prove to be a neighbor to 24,000 people. That's really what that means. 400 healthier families inside and outside the church. We want to see 70 sent into missions and ministry, which is kind of a crazy goal or scope. But hey, we were like, you know, we want something that we we we look back. I mean, would it be so bad if we look back at only 25 people in full-time? Are you kidding me? 25 people in full-time missions and ministry, but we've got to have something to shoot for. Yeah. But then also we want to see four at least four churches strengthened in and around Tuscaloosa, because it does matter. Like, you know, the local church matters. Like the local church is not our idea, the local church is biblical. Like, we see that. There is plenty of evidence where the local church is implied in the scriptures, you know, um, as far as aligning yourself with the local church. And we need all local churches. You know, it is one of those, like we're in the South, so people drive down, they're man, there's a local church on every corner. I'm like, there's 260,000 people in the county of Tuscaloosa. 260,000 people are not aligned in worshiping in a local church on Sunday mornings, you know. Like we need all local churches, and we need more local churches, you know, um, because God's mission is through the local church. Yes. And so we need the local church, and we need other local churches. And I would say just like families are unique, all local churches are unique. There's a re you know on some levels, there's a re you know, people align themselves with this local church or this local church because they are drawn to this or they're drawn to the whatever, you know. We need them all. And I think we want first Baptist to be a church that's for other churches. And we're not a church that's just for first Baptists. Um, we do sense a responsibility, not in an arrogant way or a prideful way, but you know, Paul's Paul taught in Romans 15 that those who are strong have a responsibility to those who are weak. And we see that collectively as leadership. I'm not saying that we're the best church or that we're the biggest church or that we're the strongest church. I do think though, we are strong. We have a legacy, we are established, we have resources, we have a facility, all those kinds of things, not to build up our own kingdom, but to we have a responsibility to those around us, and we just feel that. Like I feel that. You know, the number of senior pastors that have come before me, I'm not, it's not lost on me that there's way, there's plenty of people that came here before me that led this church, and there will be those after me. And it is just my role, I'm just to be faithful in my leg of this race. Um 208 years that we've been established. So, you know, there have been plenty of other guys that have led this congregation, and I just I just know that it's you know, again, that's it's not about us. We want to reach people, we want to disciple people, we want them to connect with First Baptists if possible, but if not, we want them to connect with another local church, and we want to be for the local church.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

You know, I think that's uh really, and I'm hearing this all over that we want to make sure that we figure out how we can not be in competition, but in cooperation.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Uh and I think as the association, we want to see a living, active network of churches because that's what really makes us Baptists. That's yeah, we came together to do the things we can do better together than we can do individually. Right. And some, like you said, some churches have more resource to be able to do that, some less resource, but we've got to be faithful to actually be able to build his kingdom, not our kingdom. And so uh I and I've really been impressed because I hear that consistently from the pastors around.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

There's there's and I don't know if it's just unique to hear, but it really is um that that's been established before I ever even got here. I mean, there just is a desire to work together um and to not compete, you know, and so I think yeah, I and I don't know what what brought it about, but there is just there's a desire from a lot of guys around here to just want to, and and I'm in touch with them. We text back and forth, we pray for each other. We'll even know, like, hey, I heard so-and-so's over at y'all's church, make sure you reach out to them, you know, if it's yeah, whatever, you know, and so I I do think there's just a it's so helpful. It's so helpful to not have to feel any of that in leadership and just to know that that's sort of the spirit.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I I get I guess once we get all of Tuscose County saved and church, then we can be in competition.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

You know, we got a long, we got a long way to go. We got a long way to go.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

I think it's like, you know, there's kingdom competition. You know, we can have fun and we can do something, but at the end of the day, I do think you're right. Yeah, it's like let's just let's continue to reach this community, let's continue to stay close to the Lord. And uh yeah, let's not uh let's not lose sight.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

So Drew, I just want to say how much I appreciate you just taking the time out to come and sit and talk with us. Uh we we appreciate your heart, we appreciate First Baptist, and uh we're just looking forward to seeing what the Lord's gonna do in Tuscaloosa County as He uses all of us and uh and I'm glad you're part of it. I'm glad you come and put your hand to the plow here in Tuscaloosa County, here in Tuscaloosa City, here in First Baptist of Tuscaloosa.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah, well thanks for having me, man. It's been good.