First Baptist Church minister A. W. Lindsey will retire this month and Saturday, February 27, 1988 has been proclaimed Al Lindsey Day by Mannford Mayor Bud Smithson.
Rev. Lindsey attended Texas Wesley College and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. He was ordained as a minister in 1945.
His first fulltime mission church was Rex Roat, located out of Wilson, Okla. From there he pastored in Vama Alma Oilfield Church in Cox City, Okla. In 1948 he went on to pastor in Heldon, Okla.
He became the Superintendent of Mission of the Chickasaw Baptist Association, headquartered in Chickasha, Okla. He was sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention and Oklahoma General Baptist Convention to hold revivals, Sunday School and missionary work and ended up spending three years there.
From there he traveled to Minco, Okla., where he pastored for three years before moving on to Tipton, Okla., where he spent the next eight years.
In 1964 he went to Tulsa and pastored at the Phoenix Avenue Church and then on to Pond Creek, where he pastored for five years.
On February 8, 1969, Rev. Lindsey came to Mannford. The town was only five years old at its new site at this time.
That first Sunday at the First Baptist Church, there were 54 in Sunday School.
He retired from the First Baptist Church in August of 1979. In that 13 years, 390 people were baptized, an average of 30.07 people per year.
A total of 979 people, an average of 73 a year, transfered to the church during this 13 year period.
The firxt six years, 228 people, 38 per year, were baptized and 546 transfered to the church.
The most in Sunday School was 318, in 1979. The average for Sunday School was 247.
Following his retirement in 1979, he went to work for the Cimarron Telephone Company in Mannford, in the Public Relations Department.
In 1984, the Tornado blew the church away and he was recalled to the ministry.
Currently there are about 200 in Sunday School, and 260 in Church Worship Services. In the last 2 1/2 years, 200 more have transfered into the church.
Rev. Lindsey has been moderator of the Chickasaw Baptist Association; moderator at the Perry Association; and chariman of the Foundation of the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Enid, where he helped to raise $5 million to build a new hospital. He was also chairman of the Board of the Hospital. He was on the building committee of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention and also a member of the executive board of the General Baptist Convention and member of the Home Mission Board of the Baptist Convention.
Rev. and Mrs. (Margie) have been married for 53 years and have two children: James Clifford Lindsey and Billie Marie Hunter. They have four grandchildren: Gina, Felicia, Jamie, and Holly Ann.
There will be a retirement Party for Rev. Lindsey at the First Baptist Church from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, February 27, Refreshments will be served.
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