Saturday, May 31, 1997

Departing pastor praised for ministry inside and outside church walls

By ED TODD / Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, Texas - Through God's grace, the Rev. Hadley Edwards long ago found his niche. And he is thoroughly reveling in it: the ministry inside and outside the church walls.

Wherever he is, he is at the pulpit and at the ready to help folk at great heights of life and into the pits of despair.

"Sometimes I'll be preaching, and I'm just preaching my heart out, and I'll say, "My, God! I love to preach.' "

And so he does with the enthusiasm of a lost soul now saved or a thousand choruses praising the Almighty.

From the pulpit, Edwards welcomes shouting and praises to God and tearful, joyful, prayerful "Amen" responses.

"The God I serve is not a quiet God. I know He moves in quiet streams. But the God I serve, I see Him respond through thunder and lightning. And He puts on His dramatic sky show. He gets your attention."

And so does Edwards get his listeners' attention.

"Everybody a'wantin' to go to Heaven," Edwards freely proclaims at funerals from the pulpit. "Nobody a'wantin' to die."

And he incisively says that "you can't have it both ways."

You either live or die to live again in Glory, Edwards teaches believers of his Christian faith wherein the bedrock is the risen and perfect Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world.

"A lot of folk jump on the bandwagon to be members of the church and to follow Christ," said Edwards, who after 15 years will be leaving Hollowell United Methodist Church in Midland and Mackey Chapel United Methodist Church in Odessa. "But they don't live up to the commitment. It is a commitment. It is a way of life.

"It's not just doing it this week and doing it my way. It's doing it God's way," Edwards said. "It's 24/seven: 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Edwards will be preaching his last sermon at Hollowell United Methodist Church beginning 11 a.m. June 8.

Then he is packing up and moving on to New Orleans to become senior pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Lake Pontchartrain Park, La. From there, he will continue his studies toward a doctorate of ministry at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

What Edwards terms "The Go-Away Hadley 'This is Your Life' Celebration" is set for 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday at Holiday Inn Country Villa in Midland.

Joan Love-Davis, liaison between the pastor and congregation as head of Hollowell's Pastor-Parish Relations Committee, said that Edwards has "not only made a difference in my life but in the entire community. He not only speaks from the pulpit, but he speaks to the community in his everyday living."

He offers comforting words for troubled people within and outside his congregation, Ms. Love-Davis said. And if Edwards can't solve a problem, "he knows someone who can."

Myrtle Hall, who developed a deep friendship with Edwards 10 years ago when Southeast Community Senior Center was organized at Hollowell, said that "knowing and loving" Edwards represents "the happiest years of my life."

In times of "death of family, sickness, and good times," Edwards was "always there to comfort, pray, and share," Mrs. Hall said. The community and individuals have been blessed by his ministry, she said.

"It is time for (him) to move on to higher heights and deeper deeps ... in the name of Jesus. My friend, fight on, fight on! If you put up a good fight down here, when you get up in Heaven, you know you won't have to fight anymore."

Edwards, who hails from Missouri and who settled in Midland at age 23, views himself as a modern-day Moses. His ministry goes beyond the church. It takes him into a world where Pharaoh's army is holding God's people captive in many forms, including social sins.

"Exodus is our story," he said of the African-American people. "Today, we come up against a lot of Red Seas. Believe it or not, brother, all of Pharaoh's army did not drown in the Red Sea. We contend with some of Pharaoh's army everyday.

"I consider myself a modern-day Moses, leading God's people through the wilderness. Pharaoh has taken on a different personality. Pharaoh now is crack-cocaine addiction. Pharaoh now is gang violence. Today's Pharaoh is homelessness, battered women, old people being abused and neglected. God also commands us to love them ... all of those who are down and out."

Edwards is on a mission of "bringing my people before the Red Sea. Because of the leadership of Moses, I know how to get us across that Red Sea. It is through trust and faith in God - the belief that He will see us through in every circumstance. I believe that."

And among the apostles, Edwards is particularly drawn to St. Mark. Their personalities are similar, Edwards says. "He wants it done now."

"When I go to New Orleans, I am going to be in New Orleans. I am not on my way to somewhere else. I wasn't on my way to somewhere else when I came to Midland. I lived in Midland like I was going to live here the rest of my life - doing things."

And he has done much outside his pulpit in southeast Midland.

"I've got to make the sermon come to life between Sundays."

Among his various roles within the community in living his sermons, Edwards has worked with the United Way of Midland; helped found and develop the Southeast Community Senior Center in June 1987; volunteered in the Midland Need-to-Read program; encouraged the Rainbow Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in his church's Fellowship Hall; and worked in the Summer Children's Outreach Program of Experiences (SCOPE), which he said is similar to Vacation Bible School.

Edwards also led the peaceful "Unity Rally" during a dissonant Ku Klux Klan rally in carrying out his ministry of "pulling people together and working together with people.

"That's who I am. That's what I am about. That's what I think the church has to be about.

"There's too much good about Midland ... to get caught up in that kind of dilemma," represented by the KKK, Edwards said. "We have some good race relations in Midland and some good working-together in Midland, regardless of what some people think."

He participated in Leadership Midland in "getting to know the movers and the shakers and the back scenes of Midland (where) there's a whole lot going on ... that everybody needs to be attuned to" from social services to opportunities in jobs and education.

"You don't only teach (youth) how to survive spiritually, how to live spiritually, but you have got to teach them how to survive in the world."

From his childhood in Missouri, Edwards said that "I have always felt that drawing, that call (to the ministry)."

Edwards reflects on a story, related by his grandmother, about his birth.

"When my mother was in labor with me," his grandmother was "praying that God would bless her with a big preacher."

About that time, "the doctor came out and said, 'Well, you've got a big football player.' "

Replied the grandmother: "No, we've got a big preacher."

Edwards muses, "Not that I am Grandma-called, but Grandma helped God in that call."

Years later, when he was in the ministry, Edwards said his mother told a newspaper reporter that "I'm looking for my son to be bishop someday."

"I want God to lead in that area," he said. "It is a very political office. If there is anything I say I am not, I am not a politician, a church politician.

"I am motivated and moved by God," Edwards said. "When you enter realms like that (bishop's circles and church politics), you are motivated and moved by people who put you there."

However, "if God says so, I'll do it. Where He leads, I am going to follow."

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Distributed by The Associated Press