Mena First Baptist Church Welcomes New Pastor

BY MELANIE BUCK –

A new pastor has been welcomed to lead the First Baptist Church of Mena. Russell Threet, born and raised in the natural state, has been working in ministry for approximately seven years, five of those as lead pastor at a Baptist church in Virginia.

Threet brings with him Sarah, his wife, and their three young boys, 5-year old William Paul, 4-year old Jack, and Luke, who is 18 months.

Threet essentially followed the footsteps of his grandfather who pastored all over Arkansas for 65 years. Originally from the Jonesboro area, Threet said he graduated from Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia after living life away from God for a while in his early twenties. “I came to know Christ at the age of eleven but through my early twenties and through the first year I was married, I didn’t live for God and He used some extreme circumstances to draw me back and remind me that there was a call on my life, a purpose he had for me.”

In what Threet considers a call from God, he saw an ad where FBC needed a pastor and he inquired. “I get the Arkansas Baptist news and saw the church had a posting in the news and I reached out to the committee. I felt led to make a phone call. Over a series of several more phone calls and a lot of time, I got the job.”

He said although he had heard of Mena before, he had never been to this part of the state. After making the decision to uproot his family, Threet preached his first sermon in Mena on September 20, 2015 and he is excited about what God has in store for he and his family in Mena. “I’m a preacher and I love to preach and pastor. I believe God was leading me here. I just felt led as a pastor and I had a pastor’s heart to want to come here and be part of the church and to glorify the name of Jesus with these people.”

Threet said that II Timothy 4:2-4 says: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

The thing that is closest to Threet’s heart as a church and as a pastor is that they do things in a way that reflect the truth of the scripture. “At all costs, we hold close to the Bible. The biggest thing that I want to see is that if First Baptist Church of Mena is known for anything, I want them to be known for glorifying Jesus. Not because of the music, or the preacher, or because of the children’s program. I would hope ultimately that people will say ‘First Baptist Church of Mena is a church that loves Jesus and raises up the name of Jesus every time that they meet.”

First Baptist Church of Mena is located on the corner of 9^th and Port Arthur Streets in Mena and they meet on Sundays and Wednesdays. For more information, call 479-394-2541.

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

See author's posts