God turned the tables on Pastor Spradling's plan

Thanks to God’s sense of humor, the Rev. Bob Spradling is going to celebrate his 25th anniversary next month as pastor of Maywood Baptist Church.

Had it not been for His humorous intervention, the tall Baptist preacher with the Southern drawl wouldn’t be at the western Independence church today.

Sitting in his spacious office at the church he has pastored since June 1984, the Cape Giradeau native says he was “just ready to leave” Maywood some 15 years ago, when a really bad sermon derailed his departure plans.

With the pulpit committee from an Oklahoma Baptist church in attendance to hear him preach, Spradling had a terrible time behind the pulpit.

“I preached the worst sermon on record that Sunday,” Spradling confessed grinning. “I met (the pulpit committee) at the door and they couldn’t get out of the building fast enough.”

Spradling believes the horrible sermon the Lord allowed him to preach was His way of saying, “Bob, I want you to stay put.”

And he did.

Afterwards, he laughed. Then said, “Lord, you really have a sense of humor.”

Spradling says he’s been content to stay ever since.

Pastoring Maywood for quarter of a century wouldn’t  have been possible had he not received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior as an 18-year-old at Southside Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau.

“I met the Lord and He changed my life,” Spradling says of his dramatic conversion, which he describes as “the transformation of my life.”

It was a transformation that blossomed into full-time Christian service the following year when he “sensed” God’s call to the ministry while mowing grass.

The 1974 graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary left First Baptist Church of Charleston, Mo., to accept the call from Maywood, which he describes as a “great church” with a “wonderful heritage” and “really good people.”

When Spradling arrived in the mid-’80s, Maywood was dealing with the transition of the community.

“This was a time when people were leaving, particularly further east, further away,” he says. “And the church was trying to react to the new situation where it found itself.”

At that time, Spradling was convinced the population exodus could be countered by turning Maywood into a regional center, where people would drive long distances to worship there.

As it turned out, being a regional center wasn’t God’s plan for the struggling church that once was a spiritual beacon in the community.

For several years, Spradling “beat his head on the wall” and inflicted this regional-center concept on the church, he says, before realizing Maywood was to be a neighborhood church.

“I had to back off and get a different perspective,” he says. Today, the church is actively involved in the community and is making a difference in western Independence.

Spradling describes himself as an “OK preacher” who is passionate about being around people and being involved in their lives. He’s also passionate about Maywood’s involvement in the community.

“For too long, the church has measured its success by what takes place between the four walls. And we have not measured success by what our community looks like,” he says.

Today, he says, Maywood measures success by what the neighborhood looks like; not by what is happening between the four walls.

As for his legacy, Spradling hopes it will be “cooperation among churches” and his involvement with the National Day of Prayer and Global Day of Prayer movement in the metropolitan area. Since 1995, he has led that movement.

Spradling also will be remembered as the pastor whose life has been spiritually changed by the power of prayer. During his early ministry, Spradling says there was a group of loving people at the church who regularly met together and prayed that God would give them a “better pastor than they had.”

Their prayers were answered when their pastor became actively involved in an inner-city prayer movement and prayed weekly with neighborhood pastors from many denominations.

“I prayed with some African-American pastors,” he says, recalling he had never been in an environment where men were so passionately seeking God. “And God used that (environment) to rub off on me and made me a better pastor.”

Spradling says he’s the same guy, but a new pastor. One who wants to see western Independence rejuvenated.

He prays that  a “new crop” of middle-class people will move into the area so that those residents who don’t have a well-supported family will have a well-functioning neighbor who will be a good neighbor to their family.

“I would like to have a part in (the transformation),” he says,  adding: “If I can live long enough to see some of that, I’ll be a very happy guy.”

Spradling should also be a very happy guy on Sunday, June 14, when Maywood celebrates his 25th anniversary as its shepherd.

Special invitations have been sent to people Spradling has worked with on the citywide prayer movement, as well as associates on city and community levels and others.

There will be numerous testimonials, but no sermon.

Pastor Bob, though, won’t remain mum. He plans to say something.

“But it won’t be much,” he says.

One thing he might share is  how “very proud” he is of his congregation, noting “some stuck by me through thick and thin at the church and stayed rather than taking a hike to the next best Baptist church they could find.”

He’s forever grateful.

May God richly bless your ministry, Pastor Bob, as you continue to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to the spiritually lost in your neighborhood and to meet their physical needs as well.