The Kiwanis Club of Winnfield welcomed home a familiar voice and longtime community leader at its weekly meeting. Dr. Alan Jackson, wrapping up a six-month tenure as the interim senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Winnfield, served as the keynote speaker, delivering an address centered on the vital role of generational legacy and lifelong mentorship.
Dr. Jackson, whose ministry roots in Winn Parish trace back to the 1980s when he first served as the youth minister for First Baptist Church, utilized his personal journey to challenge civic and community leaders on how they are preparing the next generation.
“Metaphorically, I hold one hand out to those who went before me, and one hand out to those coming behind me,” Jackson told the club, framing true leadership as an ongoing relay race.
Drawing from biblical history, Jackson pointed to the succession of Moses and Joshua in the Old Testament. While praising Joshua’s capabilities as a field commander who successfully led his people into the Promised Land, Jackson highlighted what he termed a historical tragedy: Joshua failed to train or name a formal successor. The resulting leadership vacuum, Jackson noted, plunged the region into generations of instability.
Jackson brought the lesson home by asking the audience a central, searching question: *“Who is your Joshua?”* He urged the civic-minded audience to look beyond immediate daily tasks and actively invest in, mentor, and prepare younger people to assume leadership mantles in local business, government, and faith sectors.
The presentation seamlessly blended deep philosophical challenges with lighthearted, local history. Jackson traced his own trajectory through the lens of figures who invested in him. He noted the profound impact of Fort Worth bus ministry pastor Joe Hewitt in the 1970s, as well as Georgia youth pastor Dennis Rogers. Jackson also paid tribute to legendary local leaders who shaped his early pastoral development in Winnfield, including Butch Barton, Houston Etheridge, and former FBC Senior Pastor, Dr. Calvin Phelps.
In one of the most well-received moments of the afternoon, Jackson delighted the crowd by recounting the story of his initial recruitment to Winn Parish decades ago. He recalled how his wife, Judy, answered their kitchen wall phone to the booming, unmistakable, thunderous voice of Bro. Calvin Phelps. Handing the receiver to her husband, she deadpanned, “It’s for you. It’s God.” Jackson remarked with a smile, “So yes, in a very literal way, ‘God’ called me to First Baptist Winnfield.”
Jackson’s decorated career has included 22 years as a member of the full-time faculty at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, alongside a decade spent serving as the sixth senior pastor of the prominent Dunwoody Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
His appearance at the Kiwanis Club comes at a time of major transition for both Jackson and the community. Having served for the past six months to smooth a transitional period at First Baptist Church, Jackson is set to hand the pulpit over to incoming full-time senior pastor Brian McAllister in two weeks, before stepping back into his second formal retirement. In a full-circle moment illustrative of Jackson’s message, McAllister originally began his own ministerial career years ago as a summer youth intern for the Winnfield congregation.
The meeting concluded with expressions of gratitude from Kiwanis leadership, noting that Jackson’s emphasis on developing the leaders of tomorrow perfectly mirrors the global civic mission of the Kiwanis organization.