Divine path
leads to Georgetown
Georgetown Baptist Church appoints new pastor
By Lori Kersey
Georgetown News-Graphic
After 10 years of being away, Alan Redditt said he is not coming back to the same Georgetown he left.
“This is not the same little town that it was when I was a little kid here,” Redditt, the newly appointed pastor of Georgetown Baptist Church, said. “There is a heritage and there’s an identity that will always be present in Georgetown, Scott County, but it is unbelievable how much other aspects have changed in the decade or so I’ve been away.”
Redditt, who was born in Columbus but spent most of his youth in Georgetown, joins the church after its near year-long search for a pastor.
“Really, Georgetown is my hometown,” the Scott County High School and Georgetown College graduate said. “(I) always I have had a sense of homecoming when I drive here into central Kentucky. I roll my window down somewhere around (Elizabethtown) and start breathing in the cut Bluegrass. I just love that smell.
“I feel as though the people in this community have raised me and poured their lives into mine and gave me a tremendous base to draw from and sent me out about 10 years ago,” he said.
During his youth, Redditt was a member of Faith Baptist Church. The two churches have always had a unique relationship, he said. Georgetown Baptist Church would host Redditt’s youth group for discipleship activities, he said.
Redditt also has other ties to the church, Georgetown College and the community.
Georgetown Baptist Church’s former pastor, Ken Holden, has been a mentor to Redditt, he said.
“Ken mentored me in some important ways,” he said. “We always looked for each other in conferences and all over the country when I would bump into Ken and his family he would always pause and just treat me with a great deal of respect. (He) nurtured my calling.”
Redditt’s parents recently retired from the college. His wife, Megan, is a fellow Georgetown graduate, though he met her during his time in South Carolina after he had graduated.
It was at Georgetown College when Redditt first felt called by God into ministry.
He was attending a devotional service for his fraternity when someone asked him to step forward to take prayer requests. During most prayer times, people would jokingly ask for prayer for tests or homework or because they were sick of their roommates. But this night was different, he said.
“That night it seemed that everyone had a story about ‘my mom has just been diagnosed’ or ‘my roommate has gone home and is not returning,’ — significant concerns and they were truly asking for prayer,” Redditt said. “I felt this overwhelming burden to respond to each one.”
At the time, Redditt had in mind to become a teacher.
“I went and sat down and told some people I realized that I had been called into ministry,” he said. “That desire to reach out and connect with those folks and support them and help them find spiritual meaning through a dark place — that was clearly to me a calling from God into gospel ministry.”
Before coming to Georgetown Baptist Church, Redditt served four congregations. He served as an intern for a church in Frankfort as well as congregations in Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana during his education. Redditt also served as a hospital chaplain while in Louisiana.
“By serving all those different congregations, I feel as though I’ve been exposed to a lot of characteristics that sort of define the Georgetown community and the Georgetown Baptist congregation,” he said.
In 2010, Georgetown Baptist Church will celebrate 200 years as a congregation. Though Redditt has hopes and a vision for the church, much of the traditions of the church will remain the same, he said.
“I certainly have my hopes and my sort of educated guess about where we can go, there are certain hallmarks of the heritage of this congregation going back 200 years that I know will be a part of our future,” he said.
The church wants to be a good neighbor, Redditt said.
“The U.S. Census Bureau says we’re the 94th fastest growing county in the country and Georgetown Baptist wants to be a good neighbor to the folks who are coming here from all over and joining in what’s happening in Georgetown, Kentucky.”
Redditt looks at his new position in the church as an adventure.
“It does not feel like returning from being away,” he said. “It feels like an adventure and an opportunity to start something and minister to people who know who they are and want to see who they’re becoming in Christ.”
Andrea Giusti,
Editor
Georgetown News-Graphic
502.863.1111 ext. 14
www.news-graphic.com
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