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By Rick McCrabb
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — Lamar Ferrell’s life, it seemed, was laid out.
He was going to graduate from Miami University with a degree in zoology, enter medical school and one day answer to Dr. Lamar Ferrell.
Instead, something, or someone, changed the course of his life.
When he was taking religious courses at Mid-America Baptist College of Theology in Memphis, Ferrell and his father, the Rev. Lewis Lamar “Buck” Ferrell, who served on the staff at Grace Baptist Church in Middletown, met for a father-son discussion in Nashville. There they talked about his future, his father’s wishes. He asked his son to return home, to one day take over the church he founded and nurtured.
Ferrell, 43, said he was “trained from the beginning” to become a pastor. He said his parents never “pushed religion down his throat,” but instead “did it right.”
Eventually, Ferrell said, he “surrendered my life.” He told God: “You can have my life until it’s over.”
He graduated from Middletown Christian High School in 1986, Miami University in 1992, then began earning his master’s at Mid-America in Memphis, where, despite Elvis’ roots, Ferrell said he was trained to “serve the King.”
In 1990, Berachah Baptist Church was birthed in the family’s basement in their Springboro home. From there, it moved to the city’s public library, then a building in historic downtown Springboro. From there, it moved to the Middletown YMCA until First Christian Church moved out of its First Avenue location into the new building on Rosedale, opening a new site for Berachah in 1995.
It appeared Ferrell would study under his father.
But his father died on Nov. 18, 1997, just 40 days after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Before his death, Ferrell said his father presented him with “the greatest gift” when he unwrapped these words: “You are not me. God built you different for a reason.”
He said his father “didn’t squash me,” didn’t try to mold him in his image.
“He just said, ‘You walk it, don’t talk it.’”
Ferrell has been the pastor for nearly 14 years, and now some male members confide that after his initial sermons, they were “waiting” for him to fail.
Now that church, under Ferrell’s leadership, has become one of the most vibrant in the Middletown community. Its “hands and feet” ministry has touched hundreds of needy in the city. The church’s congregation, with assistance from other churches and with financial support from the city, performs what it calls “Extreme Makeovers” of homes in need of a face lift. Every Father’s Day, the church throws a “Party in the Park” at Sunset Park, a free event for the community.
Berachah, Ferrell said, means “a place of blessing,” and the church’s mission matches its definition.
“You can’t just be a church on Sunday morning or Wednesday night,” he said. “It’s not about the building or the bricks or mortar. We are the church. Like the saying goes, ‘The sin of the desert is to know where the water is and not tell.’”
That philosophy is a reflection of Ferrell, said those close to him.
His wife, Maryanne said he possesses “the love and passion to reach out to others.”
Besides serving as pastor, Ferrell also is chaplain of the Middletown fire and police departments and on-call for counseling at Atrium Medical Center. He counsels the firefighters and policemen during their emotional battles, and sometimes is the first face a grieving parent sees.
He’s the man behind the knock at the door, the one responsible for working life’s puzzle, even if a few pieces are missing.
When Ferrell makes notification of death — “a piece of the worst part” of his job — he never tells the loved one that he feels their pain, sheds their tears. Because, he said: “You are not that person.”
Instead, he tells them: “We love you and we are here. You are not walking it alone.”
Middletown police Chief David VanArdsdale said Ferrell routinely stops in the department to meet with the officers. He also rides with them in their cruisers as a way to forge their friendships, VanArdsdale said.
“He’s very supportive of the police department and our guys really appreciate him,” he said.
As a way to pay him back, the officers recently held a gun raffle, and instead of donating the proceeds to its union, as was planned, they presented the money to Ferrell’s family to assist with its growing medical bills because of their daughter’s lengthy hospital stay.
“If you hadn’t called,” VanArdsdale said, “nobody would know about it.”
Nancy Keller is Berachah’s office secretary and a member of the church. She described the office work environment as “fun” and “we have a blast around here.”
But, she said, Ferrell has high expectations, and most of those center around getting things “done right.”
She called him “the best boss I ever had.”
The entire church staff, she said, is part of a team, “the same team.”
The quarterback of the team clearly is Ferrell, she said. Since Ferrell works closely with the police and fire departments and other city leaders — instead of sitting in his church office — he understands the needs of the residents.
“God gave him a heart for city leaders,” Keller said. “As he has done that, God has given us more and more opportunities to ministry to people.”
Ferrell compared Christians to fruit trees that produce fruit not for their benefit, but for others’ nourishment.
“If it was about me, I’d always be looking in,” he said. “But since it’s about you, I’m always looking out. The me is always fulfilled. It’s not about me. It’s God’s job.”
When asked what his congregation would say about him, he first mentioned his sense of humor, his practical jokes and the fact that he’s not “a stick in the mud.”
Then he turned serious: “I think they’d say I speak the truth. I led them faithfully and I listened to the Lord.”
He called his congregation “the greatest people” because they allow him to lead them to “take the next step in faith.”
There is a certain pressure in his profession. Preachers, because of their positions, are held to a different “set of rules, accountability,” he said. He knows that if the Rev. Lamar Ferrell breaks the law it’s headline news.
He called serving the Lord “a great responsibility.” He wants to “finish this life strong” and he promises he “won’t mess up that responsibility.”
The responsibility extends from the church to his family. When Ferrell moved back to the Middletown area as a young man, he met his future wife, Maryanne. They were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. It wasn’t love at first sight. It was faster than that.
“That was it,” he said of their first date, which occurred on a Saturday night in July 1996.
Lamar and Maryanne dated for 80 days before he proposed. They were married six months later on April 26, 1997.
“That,” Ferrell said, “is what God orchestrated.”
He calls his wife, a native of London, Ky., the “Queen of London” and “truly a gift from God.”
Their lives together haven’t been a complete fairy tale. They had one miscarriage, and Luke, their oldest, was born premature and weighed four pounds. Maryanne’s mother passed away, and was buried on Feb. 8, 2002. Six days later — on Valentine’s Day — tests revealed their daughter, Elley, would be born with spina bifida, a congenital defect in which there is a malformation of a posterior vertebra arch.
“One blow after another,” he said of the setbacks. “But the Lord carried us. He was very faithful.”
He said God allows these “painful things” to occur and to use them as teaching tools.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “we are more and more looking like Him.”
His wife said there are “no boring moments” around the Ferrell home.
“It’s challenging, but rewarding,” she said. “It’s just great to walk along side him and share in the victories as well as the challenges.”
One of the challenges is having a husband who’s a pastor, chaplain and on-call at Atrium Medical Center. Religion, she said, never takes a day off.
“Ministry is our life,” she said. “When he was called, the family was called.”
Ferrell and his family don’t plan on leaving Middletown anytime soon. He has found a home that feels as comfortable as his favorite jeans.
“This is where my heart beats,” he said. “Is this place the most prestigious? No. Is this place the most beautiful? No. But it’s the place God called me to come.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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