Grandview Baptist welcomes new pastor

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·3 min read

Jan. 3—Jay McAlister said he already heard good things about Grandview Baptist Church before becoming church pastor earlier this month.

" I had a friend who was Grandview youth pastor, and he always spoke glowingly about Grandview, he said. "I had known about this church through him."

McAlister comes to Muskogee after seven years at Pickles Gap Baptist Church near Conway, Arkansas.

"I saw Grandview as a great opportunity," he said. "We felt we had completed our task we felt God assigned us to in Arkansas. We were just praying and open for the right opportunity."

Turns out, the rave reviews were correct. McAlister said he was attracted by the people of Grandview Baptist.

"As we met them, they all seemed very kind, and that's an important first step for us," he said. "They have a vision for growth, I know."

McAlister started at his new position shortly before Christmas.

He has several visions for the church.

"A lot of churches are having a lot of difficulty coping with COVID," he said. "First of all, it's to get us back to a state where the church feels they are normal, or where they were before."

He said he also wants to focus on children.

"I want children to know they are important," he said. "We believe it's important to teach children, train them to set an example."

McAlister grew up in Moore and attended Trinity Baptist in high school.

"A Muskogee evangelist, Bill Sturm, preached a revival there," he said. "It was right around that time I committed my life to Christ and felt a call to the ministry shortly after that."

One Bible verse, Romans 10:13, had a particular impact, he recalled. It says, "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

"When I was young, I had doubts. I didn't understand that Christians still struggle," he said, adding that the verse "cemented everything for me because I thought to myself, 'I've done everything I know that needs to happen for a person to be a Christian,' so that's stayed with me."

McAlister began his first pastorate in 1985, while a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist College. It was a little church named Hickory Grove Baptist Church, and he served there through college. He said he spent about half his ministry in Oklahoma, half in Arkansas and about four years in Kansas.

The pastor complements his ministry with comic art. McAlister said he grew up wanting to do something in art, and studied art at the University of Central Oklahoma. He draws comics for a newspaper in Chelsea, a town where he was pastor for a while.

"It's kind of a mix between the 'Far Side' and 'Calvin and Hobbes,' I guess," he said.

A collection of tiny Hot Wheels cars takes up an office bookcase. McAlister said he and members of a previous church began collecting them together.

"We would trade and give gifts," he said. "One of the guys there was a big 'Dukes of Hazzard' fan, and I would look far and wide to find a General Lee. I got it for him for his birthday."

MEET Jay McAlister.

POSITION: Pastor of Grandview Baptist Church.

AGE: 59.

HOMETOWN: Moore.

EDUCATION: Moore High School, 1981; University of Central Oklahoma; Ouachita Baptist University; Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

FAMILY: Wife Katrina; two sons, Corey and Elijah.

HOBBIES: Collect Hot Wheels, golf.