Beech Tree News Network

As well known for our music as Aberdeen Baptist Church may be, those well acquainted with our church also credit us for maintaining the integrity of our LORD’s Great Commission by calling and supporting pastors who preach His Word in spirit and truth. Aberdeen’s current pastor further proves our congregation’s commitment to such preaching.  And it is our desire to honor his twenty years shepherding our flock with a Sunday Worship Service and Reception in honor of Bro. Roger Taylor and Miriam. Though he accepted our call in June of 1996, we chose to recognize their twenty years service during Pastor Appreciation Month.  On October 23 from 11:00 AM until dismissal, various speakers and musicians will lead in the service with Dr. Taylor himself offering a brief closing message. Immediately following dismissal, we will enjoy a light lunch, which will be replenished continuously until 2:30 PM to serve guests from other churches and community throughout the afternoon.
    In 1971, seventeen-year-old Muhlenberg County native Roger Taylor accepted God’s call to fulltime Christian service.  As Second Timothy 2:15 records the Apostle Paul’s charge to a young pastor he mentored, Roger set out to “study to shew [himself] approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Roger followed high school graduation with enrollment in Tennessee Temple University, Chattanooga. While pursuing a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Bible, he met the love of his life, Miriam Mitton, a Baptist minister’s and science teacher’s daughter from Georgia majoring in education.  After finishing their undergraduate work, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Taylor were united in marriage on July 17, 1976.  The Spirit led them farther south than either had ever been—“to  suffer for the cause” as they jokingly recount—in the Caribbean.  Both served as missionaries in St. Thomas of the American Virgin Islands, where they were also professors at Bluewater Bible College, equipping West Indians for the gospel ministry. The natives were so enamored with little Carol that the Taylors were never lacking in child care! From there, the Taylor family moved to Texas so that Bro. Taylor could earn his Master’s of Arts in Biblical Studies at Criswell College. It was directly after this milestone, in l983, that the family welcomed Baby Tiffany.
    The next chapter in their Christian work took the couple northward, where Bro. Taylor pastored Northern Indiana’s Roselawn and Southwest Michigan’s Niles Avenue Baptist Churches in his role in Southern Baptist Pioneer Missionary work (Interestingly, a descendent of Aberdeen’s founding minister Wiley Burden was the first church member Bro. Taylor baptized!). Meanwhile, Miriam completed her Master’s work in Education at Valparaiso University.
    The next major move the Taylors made was in l986, when Bro. Taylor brought his family to our beloved Commonwealth. He pastored first at Centertown Baptist Church in Ohio County and later, Caneyville Baptist Church in Grayson County; Miriam taught at Centertown and then, Horsebranch Elementary; and the family followed Carol’s performances with Grayson County Marching Band. At Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Taylor also earned his second and third Master’s Degrees—Christian Education and Divinity. It so happened that around the same time, Aberdeen’s pastor of many years announced his retirement. Bro. William Cook had just overseen the building of the current sanctuary, which he had fondly named “The Aberdome”; he advised that the growth sure to accompany the addition would require the leadership of the pastor whom God alone could direct the membership to call. After various preachers delivered trial sermons, the church prayerfully called Bro. Roger Taylor in June of 1996.  Taylor accepted, and the couple moved to Butler County.  The next twenty years have been highly productive ones for Aberdeen and the Taylors. 
    Bro. Taylor began by leading the church toward retirement of the $200,000 Sanctuary debt. Constantly sharing his newfound knowledge with other pastors and laypeople and heeding his call to pastor, he ministered widely in the Gasper River Association of Baptists as well as sister churches, hospitals, homes, and the community. In addition to this high level of ministerial commitment, the family supported Carol in her Butler County High School Marching Band shows and concerts and Tiffany as she was a BCMS cheerleader, played in piano recitals, and worked at Camp Joy.  In the meantime, Miriam achieved Rank One status in education at Western Kentucky University while teaching math (and occasionally world history) at Butler County Middle School. We must not omit their supporting the girls in their college years and entertaining their young families as they came along. Grandchildren Damon, Myles, and Addyson delight in activities with their grandparents. Always a close extended family on both the Mitton and Taylor sides, Bro. Taylor and Miriam have played key roles in many family functions, too, especially as their siblings’ children have grown up and their parents and grandparents have aged (All but Bro. Taylor’s mother are now at home with the LORD.).
    Enduring Tiffany’s years of suffering and departure from her young family dealt a heavy blow to the couple, but also gave them a much deeper understanding of their importance in ministering to those within their reach who are likewise burdened.  The pastor whose deacon Jim Cartwright a few years before had spurred him to accompany him to 9/11’s Ground Zero for an experience that would forever change their lives would now bring all that crisis training to bear in his own family’s life. While under duress, he struggled to hold on to the high calling, refusing to neglect the growth of the church. Together, they allowed the LORD to use this ordeal to make them better equipped and more determined than ever before to serve the LORD.  Crisis intervention even became Bro. Taylor’s trademark. He serves in certified positions with the American Red Cross, LifeSkills, and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (in disasters in Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, and New York City). Through it all, Bro. Taylor came to see even more clearly that Bible literacy is the key to ministry, especially in the need to revitalize churches. As the church reflected over her 100 years, Bro. Taylor helped move the vision forward with his role in the 10,000-square-foot addition, which is our current gym/ministry center and as well as renovated educational accommodations.

      Convinced that effective Sunday School, revivals, and Vacation Bible School, though traditional ministries, can still enliven any church today, Taylor continues to light a spark in Aberdeen’s congregation by encouraging these and Wednesday night programs as well as summer camp and Bible studies. Within the last several years, Taylor’s enthusiastic leadership in our Vacation Bible School efforts helped to bring about the inclusion of the Boys and Girls Club of Butler County and the enrollment of more than 280 each summer! He maximized his VBS experience and Aberdeen’s rich VBS and Sunday School heritage in his doctoral thesis written while attaining his Doctor of Ministry from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. Many churches benefit from referencing his literature and attending his workshops, which focus on VBS outreach and follow-up strategies.    
    Dr. Roger Taylor and Miriam have certainly set the bar for the future high!  Our October 23rd celebration will not only honor our twenty years together thus far (as well congratulating the couple on their 40 years of marital bliss and Miriam, on her retirement after 34 years of teaching), but will incentivize us all to move forward into whatever future God holds for us at Aberdeen Baptist Church.  Please join us at Aberdeen on October 23, 2016 at any time from 10:00 AM Sunday School to 2:30 PM. As always, we covet and thank you for your prayers.