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
Quanah Spence: Rosedale Baptist Church
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In this episode of Outside the Walls, we spend time with Quanah Spence, pastor of Rosedale Baptist Church, at Randall Family Park. From his family's involvement in Native American ministry to his adoption, his call to ministry, and now serving as a pastor in Tuscaloosa, his story is a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness and providence every step of the way!
Featuring:
- Herbby Geer, Lead Mission Strategist, Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association
- Quanah Spence, Pastor, Rosedale Baptist Church
Connect with TCBA:
We're back with Outside the Walls Podcast, and we're really excited today have Kwana Spence with us, and we're here in Randall Family Park, uh, where I think you come and you take your dog, uh, which is named Tozer.
SPEAKER_00Tozer, T-O-Z-E-R. Okay. Like well, we named him after A. W. Tozer if if you're familiar with who that is.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's great. It was great to have you with us, Kwana. And Kwana Spence is the pastor now at uh Rosedale Baptist Church. And so we're really excited to have you and uh you to be with us today. And thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01And it's uh wonderful just to have a conversation with you. Yeah, well, you know, this is the the the best part of this job is we get to have uh these conversations with the just amazing pastors that we have in Tuscaloosa. And so now you were interim, and you how long ago did you become the the uh so my story with Rosedale um happened.
SPEAKER_00I transitioned from one assignment and uh and then pretty quickly found out that Rosedale's pastor had passed away, brother Jerry Coster. And and so um almost uh it was pretty rapidly after, I don't know the exact time frame, but pretty swiftly afterwards I started preaching there. And I maintained a relationship with them for a year or two before I came became interim. Or the Jimmy Garner, who's you know, uh he's a great guy, was a longtime pastor in in Tuscaloosa and uh a man I knew from a distance for years. Um back when I was in college, uh I was connected to Circlewood Baptist, and they had a close connection with Skyland and John Wiggins, Jeremy Burge, and a lot of those guys who influenced me early on um were influenced by guys like Brother Jimmy Garner. Oh yeah. So it's so I knew the name, and then I heard he was the interim, and I was still connected to them just uh through preaching there a few times. And so I had one meal with Brother Jimmy Garner, and really after that meal, he kind of really just paved the way. And you know, he's on up there in age, and yeah, and I don't I don't know all the all the reasoning, but um I I give a lot of credit for God using him to help pave the way for me to be there. Brother Jimmy Garner really did a lot for me and and still still is a huge encourager. Um his wife's passed away recently and he's gone through some stuff medically, and even in that, he's been uh an encouragement to me.
SPEAKER_01So I'm I think for him, I'm getting chill bumps right now because it really this is what an association is is a network of people that help one another. I mean, you just named a number of different people that were influential in your life, a number of different people.
SPEAKER_00I could list a lot more, by the way.
SPEAKER_01And and that's the way it is. It is not that we are just in it for our church, but we're in it for building the body in Tuscaloosa. And that's the beautiful thing about it. And the more that we and we we stand on the shoulders of many giants that uh have just gone before us and paved the way for us. And like you said, and if you go talk to Jim, he could probably tell you other people that influenced him. And that's really the way it should be. That's really the way it should be. So that's really exciting. So, so so then he paved the way for you, yeah, and you were interim then for a while.
SPEAKER_00So uh, yeah, it was Easter. Uh, so we just celebrate Easter recently, and it was uh the Easter before that I actually uh officially became the interim. And so um this Easter was a one year as the interim, and then this month was my was Mark's me being the pastor at Rosedale. They voted me in uh earlier this month, and here we are.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're really praying for Rosedale. We know it's in a very influential place, and we're just continuing just to pray that the Lord is going to use that place and the light of Jesus is gonna shine out from it. Now, uh you you uh actually came here originally to school, and you were going in one direction, I believe, and then the Lord kind of moved you in another direction. How did that happen?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um uh uh actually, while y'all were setting up the media stuff, I was asking questions and I was reminded just of my affinity uh to the media world and my brother, I'm an identical to him. My brother's always been he's the professional, I'm the amateur, uh-huh, but I'm interested in it. So I was asking questions. And it got it, we got into a conversation about uh there was a time where I wanted to go into that. And I was gonna transfer from Shelton where I went two years to the university where they had a telecommunications and film degree. And and before all that, the Lord got a hold of me and I decided to finish out my undergrad at New Orleans Seminary. I at age 19, I got up and moved to New Orleans and spent three years down there, finished uh my undergrad there. But um, as far as coming here, I'm I'm from the area. My dad uh and mom are still in Mounville. Um their church is actually a part of the Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association. They uh dad's still in ministry down there. He was bivocational for decades, retired from Coral Industries, where he retired as the uh plant manager. Oh wow. Uh he was there for 50 years, by the way. 50 years. Yes, he finished he hung up that and um he's still pastoring and and farming down in Mounville. But um so all that's to say is uh this is home to me. I went to school at ACA uh starting in fifth grade. Um so so I feel like I've been around Tuscaloosa the vast majority of my life. Oh wow, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_01The uh now, okay, so you transitioned, but how did the Lord speak to you? Because uh really this is a mystery to so many people. I think the Lord has called a lot of people into ministries a different way. I I mean I believe all of us are uh through the priesthood of the believer have a ministry to perform for the Lord within our body and going outside of our body, outside the walls to take the gospel out. But this is a very specific call to vocational ministry of some type. So how did you sense that call?
SPEAKER_00Well, I already mentioned Circlewood. Yeah, when I was uh I graduated high school at 17. Um, and even in that year, my senior year of high school, felt like the Lord was beginning to tug at my heart. And uh an ownership of my faith started occurring that had just just it started really revolutionizing the way I thought about the Lord and my spiritual responsibilities. And two years later, when I was 18 or 19, um uh I was at Circlewood, and it was I was invited by Jeremy Burch to help lead some of the youth, I think out of D Now or something. Yeah. You know, and that's where I think of some of these guys that I saw in ministry early on, like like Jeremy and um Colby Michael and David Um David Gazaia and John Wiggins, and there's others, but these, you know, that so I saw I started seeing ministers more than just my dad, who I love and who's been the the biggest influence of my life, but that's I grew up in a very small church in Moundville, and I just wasn't around a lot of other minist you know ministers. And so um I maybe just relating to these guys more or something. Of course, the spirit's leading. And and in that weekend where I was asked to do some leading, I was actually the one led by the spirit, um, you know, starting on a journey of ministry. But it what it looked like as far as what my memory um holds is that one night, uh actually the guest preacher who is still in town preaching, Rob Cain. Okay, he may not even know this, um, but uh he preached and it was about just responding to um, I guess a called, I mean, I I don't know if it was explicit, implicit, but it was uh it was where I responded to a called ministry, serving the Lord. And so it was it was highly um in my mind, just highly memorable because and I've described it like this before. I I've I said, if I were to, I was I remember my eyes being closed in prayer, and and I said, if I look up quick enough, the Holy Spirit's gonna be like right there. I'm gonna be like that's how dense I I I felt that call in that moment. And um there's probably a lot a lot going on within me. And um I immediately after that service talked to Jeremy and uh he encouraged me to talk to my dad, which was the best advice ever, because well, he just it just was. He he helped me get to a place where our church in Melville licensed me into the ministry pretty swiftly. Um and I started preaching occasionally different churches, uh usually small country churches. Um and that that it just went on from there. So Wow.
SPEAKER_01You know, I I think that's the uniqueness of it is that the Lord calls us all into ministry in very different ways. Now, I had already felt called to ministry, but it was actually in a church that somebody actually made that challenge. Are you being called? And it was in that time that you kind of cemented, and you know that the Lord's been talking to you about it, but it brings you to that point of saying, okay, I'm making the commitment. Now I got to figure out how to move out from here. And so that's that's interesting. I'm not, I'm not sure if we make sure that we are calling the call ones out from us sometimes. So maybe we tend to neglect it because we don't see people coming. But like you said, he didn't even know that that probably happened with you.
SPEAKER_00Maybe not. I can't remember. You know, I feel bad if I haven't told him because I've seen Rob, I know Rob. Yeah, yeah. And um, and I I I feel like I might have, but it's been a while if if not. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The the neat thing is, I mean, I've had people come back to me years after and said, You remember when we were walking down the hill together and you said this? I had no recollection of it. He said, That's the thing that God used to call me. And I think sometimes it's not the big things we do, it's just the faithful things we do. And that the Lord uses. And so that's the that's that's really neat. That's a great story. Now, okay. All right, I gotta ask, okay, Kana. That's that's not a typical name we hear around here. Where does Kwana come from?
SPEAKER_00It is uh named after Kwana Parker, who was a Comanche chief. Uh-huh. Um, his story is well known in American history, it at least, especially in Texas, that's where um he ended up residing. But uh so most people who know my name, I you know, I usually sense a Texas uh uh tie. Yeah. Nowadays, though, I'm getting more people who recognize my name because there was a popular book that came out that uh it's called Empire of the Summer Moon.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00And it's about Quanta Parker's story.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00And uh more interest, perhaps more interestingly, about his mother, Cynthia Ann Parker. And uh, she was white. And um Comanche Raiders raided the Parker Fort. They took Cynthia Ann when she was nine, and she became basically incorporated into the Comanche tribe. Um, had a baby with the chief, and Kwana was was that so he was half white, half native, uh, grew up kind of walking both those worlds, and um, and so there's a lot of interesting things about his story. Uh, I'm not as cool as him, but that's who I am named after. Okay, I'm not Comanche either. I'm part of a Western tribe, but it's not Comanche.
SPEAKER_01So you're you are First Nations.
SPEAKER_00I am. I'm a card-carrying member of the Wallapie tribe. The Wallapi. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Very good.
SPEAKER_00So the Wallapi are part of the Pi people, okay. Um, which are the Havespai, Soup Pai. Um, I hope I'm not leaving one out. Okay. Um, Havespai, Soup Pai, Wallapie. I think there could be one more, but they're all uh in the Grand Canyon area. Okay. Um uh they do have a reservation, but that is still their ancestral land. A lot of tribes don't uh no longer live on their ancestral land, you know, that's you know, that that that they always lived on. Our tribe does. Uh even though it's a reservation, it is land that that has always been uh uh affiliated with that with that tribe, that people.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so that now this is a whole interesting story. So First Nations, I know that your um mom and dad here had been reaching out to First Nations people. Uh I mean, can you two things? I mean, I I got so many questions now. Okay, and and I I know you can't go into a whole lot of depth right now in the small podcast, but okay, what does it look like doing ministry among First Nations people? Is that different than you would see most ministry here, or is it very similar? And then the second question is okay, how did that work that you wound up here?
SPEAKER_00So let's start with that my first comment and response to how does it look is me. Yeah. They were doing ministry in California among my parents were doing ministry in well, let me back up just to um as I'm talking to the Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association. Uh tell me now um uh strategist.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, um uh it's it's called the lead mission strategist, usually the AMS, the associational mission strategist. You're a mess. I'm a mess, exactly right. That's why I like that title, because I can say I'm Herbie and I'm a mess. So that's good.
SPEAKER_00That's good. I remember that joke, and it's actually very helpful to remember uh you're old. But as I'm talking to the mess. Um uh so dad basically started feeling a sense to be on mission. And as a pastor, he wanted to not only lead his family into that, but lead his congregation. And so um what that looked like, he's called the home mission board. That's what it was called back then. He said he called the home mission board and said, I want to do something. And it and it wasn't even on his radar, Native American ministry. Um, he just said, I want to do something. I want to take my family somewhere. Uh that's how it was going to start. And so they connected him with um, I don't know if this was the first connection, but ultimately they connected him with a guy named Bill Barnett. And when I say that name, Bill Barnett, um, to me that that name is it, I I I picture such a giant in the ministry because he is to me, he is to my dad. He's now passed away, passed away um with COVID uh a few years ago, but he was he's full blooded Creek and a Baptist pastor in Oklahoma for decades and decades at uh at Indian Nations Baptist Church in Semino, Oklahoma. My dad got connected with him through the um home mission board, and and this guy was going all over the country. He uh Canada, uh, Florida, California, of course, Oklahoma, all over the place, uh, New Mexico, and uh and and doing Native American ministry. And um what it looked like practically was going to these camps, typically family camps where Native American families and churches would come and they would do ministry, children's church and preaching and things like that. And so dad started basically going with them, he and his family, um, which all of them are just uh so precious to me. Still to this day, that uh Mary Joe, his wife, and Bill have passed away now, but their three daughters, um, very dear friends of mine. I see them as other sisters, and uh, their mother was full-blooded Cherokee. Like I said, Bill was Creek. Um, and they are very, very uh involved in Native American ministry, very dear to my heart. And that is the family my dad was so influenced by regarding Native American ministry. And early on, not long, well, several years after they met, they went out to this small camp in Northern California in the Redwood Forest. Uh, and they uh were at this small camp, and my brother and I were there.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00And uh there's a long story about how I even got there, but it was basically through an aunt and an uncle that well, I was I was born in California, living in California, not in Northern California. I was born in the desert, Barstow, California. And um, but uh long chain of events, I ended up at this camp with my aunt and uncle, and the story about uh my brother and I's journey, which was kind of uh inconsistent and all over the place and in and out of different homes, um, got relayed to the Spence family. And so as they were doing ministry, um they went a step further and brought us home. Oh wow. So yeah, that even that they adopted you. They did. Well, it was um yes, uh for yes, they did. I it was a longer journey, I'm sure. Yes, I was um I think because of some of the tribal uh uh deal, and you know, um I I don't know all the legality of it, but I I was uh I became a a ward of the state. Uh and the Spences were my legal guardians. Uh-huh.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00Um, and it was actually when I was 26 years old I got married. That's when I took the name Spence.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Um so that is uh I was 26 years old, and that that was when I took the name Spence. I dad did the wedding. It was at the rehearsal, and I I told dad he got one thing wrong. And I gave him the legal name change documents where I changed my last name. And oh wow. Um that's a uh you know, a wonderful memory to me. And um there's a lot packed into that, but yeah. Oh, that is that's a wonderful story.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think uh is is I think you know, he had no clue that's where the Lord is leading him. He just knew the Lord's calling us to mission some way, and as he walks the path, then the Lord makes it very clear which way to walk in. And so, I mean, so he walks a path he's not familiar with, a place he's never gone, with people he's never met. He builds a relationship, so relationships just build up that leads to you, that brings you here. I mean, the Lord, how how amazing is that? Yeah, I mean, the Lord is just amazing. And now you're pastoring one of our churches here in Tuscaloosa, and the Lord is continuing to use you. And I, you know, I think is and and it wasn't a big church. No, and I think sometimes we feel like our smaller churches don't have the power, but they are empowered by the Holy Spirit and can use uh every size church that we have in our association, from the large ones that have resources to the small ones that have very few. But as we work it all together and we see the Lord working through different people within the association, different churches in the association, we find what resources we have together, then it impacts the lives of people all the way out in California. I mean, you know, we think that we can have a lot of impact in the world. We're Southern Baptists, we we do missions. But do we ever think we we could really have impact in California or New York? And yet we do see continually our churches reaching out in these areas and having a huge impact, not because of who we are, but because the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness to the body if we make ourselves available to Him. Yeah. So that's that's that's just a wonderful, wonderful story. I mean, I think we we may have to come back at another time and just do more. Because maybe maybe even I get your dad to talk about uh uh about uh ministry out to the uh uh First Nations people. You could use another term, not just First Nations use. Is that is it called First Nations ministry or what's the um First Nations is fine.
SPEAKER_00Uh Native American is fine. I don't get I don't I I I don't think the natives I know are not too uptight about that. I mean almost all every native I know is real laid back with regard to any of that. Um it does look different in different places though, and I'm not an authority on, you know, there are over 500 federally recognized tribes. I'm a part of the Walla Pi, which is less than 3,000 members. A very small tribe. I'm also Hidatsa, I'm not registered a part of that tribe, but these are both very small tribes. Hidatsa is in the Dakotas area, that's where my grandfather came from. Okay. Um and when you start getting into some of the tribes that are in the Alps, like in the Wyoming area, you know, which holds the largest reservation in North America, the Wind River, which I actually lived on when I was younger with one of my aunts when I was moving around something. Um briefly I lived with my aunt. And you go there and it's vastly different than a reservation in, you know, Oklahoma or especially where there's a high church population. When we go to these camps, typically it is not too different than our Southern Baptist culture that we're familiar with. It it just has a Native American flavor to it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And I don't want to belittle it or or anything like that. I'm just trying to give you a um a picture of what I see when I go.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's I think it what we've learned in missions over and over again is yes, the gospel doesn't change for any people group. The gospel is the gospel, but we don't rip the culture away from the people. The culture is is their culture, and they have to take it and enculturate the gospel in there, not changing the gospel, but acculturating it so that it's understood and they keep their traditions because they keep their identity. I mean, Jewish identity is very important within uh within Israel, I think even before God, that the identity that when we see around his throne from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people, that we can see every tongue, tribe, nation, and people, we're one in Jesus, but he shows the diversity of what he's done across the world. Yeah, and he is glorified in that. And that's the that's a neat thing.
SPEAKER_00So you know, it's uh a lot of folks know the importance of religious liberty, and especially for Baptists who were influential in the development early on through um Roger Williams and Rhode Island and the test they did up there. And a lot of people might forget the test that I say test, you know, Roger Williams basically um started this community in Rhode Island as a test for religious liberty. Yeah, yeah. And it was among Native Americans that he felt compelled to allow their culture to still be a part of their religious practices. And and it's so I like to uh with my Baptist heritage and my native heritage, I like to uh talk about the significance of religious liberty regarding both heritages.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's so uh because this is one thing we actually use within uh uh in sharing the gospel within Israel, that Southern Baptists, we don't force anything on anybody. We allow the gospel to speak and the Holy Spirit to speak to each individual and to bring them to it. But he's made the gospel uh available to all peoples, all tongues, tribes, nations, and people. And so uh then he works by his spirit to do what he will do within those people groups.
SPEAKER_00So I'll be uh next week, actually. Well, let's see. I think I gotta look at my calendar, but uh either next week or the next, I'll be in Oklahoma um and Talquah. A lot of people might know that if you if you're a fans of red where the red fern grows. Okay, that's uh Talquah. So I'll be I'll be preaching in Talquah at a at a uh at one of these camps I'm talking about. I got invited to be the camp pastor, which means I just uh I'll preach every night that uh for that camp. Oh, that's wonderful. And so I I'm honored to be able to step in the shoes of uh where my dad actually my dad and mom are in Oklahoma uh this week. They're gonna be there this week, and then they're gonna turn around and go back with my wife and I just to tag along with us, spend some time with them. And and so they are both retired, road warriors still. Dad's 75, I think, and they are still getting after it. Incredible, incredible.
SPEAKER_01Well, I just want to say thank you, Kwana, for just taking the time to come and join us. We're so excited that you just are continuing your journey of what God has done and what he's called you to, and that you're here in Tuscaloosa part of our association. And we're just really praying for Rosedale and for the people of Rosedale. Fine folks, we were just out there with you the Wednesday night, had a great time, and so and they know a lot of my family, so that was really fun. So uh we're just really praying for you guys.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I could use it. Um uh I've been in ministry for a little while, but I've not been a lead pastor but for a month now, and I'm terrified, excited.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but you got such a great cloud of witnesses around you. I mean, all these guys that you can talk to. That's what the that's why we don't do it alone, is within an association we got a lot of camaraderie. We can make it all work together, and we don't do it alone.
SPEAKER_00That's thank you, thank you for that reminder, and I will take you up on that. Okay, Lord bless you. Thank you.