Bio for William Sutton, Pastor Bethel Baptist Church"
I was raised only fifteen miles from where I pastored for almost 18 years. In the country, it's somewhat more difficult to get into trouble than in the city. When the school district consolidated, the protection of the country was gone. I went into the city with a chip on my shoulder… trouble was easy to find. So by the time the gospel was brought to my house, I was married, had one child and a bad reputation.
When my wife visited an Independent Baptist Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, and came home and told me what she'd heard, I had all the excuses I needed to never go to "that" church. After all, the only ones that go to church anyway are ‘Little Old Ladies and Hen Pecked Husbands". I was set, "no one could get me to go now". But, when I would not come to it, the church came to me. In my home, I heard the gospel, trusted the Lord Jesus Christ that night, and two weeks later the Lord called me to preach the gospel. I attended Bible school, and started a church in Gillette, Wyoming; Johnson, Kansas; and then in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For eight years, I served as an Independent Baptist Missionary to Austria. While we were there learning the German language, we were able to start the Faith Baptist Church in Augsburg, Germany. We reached mostly American Military Service Personal, and the work was able to call a full time Pastor upon our leaving. All of these were used of the Lord to somewhat prepare me to Pastor in Fort Collins, Colorado.
We were sent to Fort Collins, Colorado and began the Temple Baptist Church in April, 1991. Our sending church was the First Baptist Church of Deale, Maryland. The work was almost eleven years old when the Calvary Baptist Church became without a pastor. Through about four months of question and answer times, much prayer and the leadership of God, we merged the Temple Baptist Church and the Calvary Baptist Church together to found the Calvary Baptist Temple on Easter Sunday afternoon in 2002.
After being at Calvary Baptist Temple for more than seventeen years, my wife and I were "reassigned" in our efforts for the Lord Jesus. We were sent by them as a "Missions Pastor" to get the gospel any where we were able. We were invited to help struggling and hurting churches. The Lord used us to stablish, strengthen and settle these works, helping either to encourage leadership or help the works locate leadership in order that the works may continue in and for the Lord until He returns. We also helped Churches with Missions Conferences, Revivals, Bible Conferences, Pulpit Supply or just a different face preaching the same "Old Message". Surely after thirty seven years in the pastorate and missions work, we had something to offer the people of God and lost souls. One lady remarked, "It looks like the Lord is just going to squeeze every drop of service He can out of you." That is exactly our prayer.
We traveled in a motor home, thereby lessening the expenses placed upon those churches we were in. It also gave us the same bed every night.
On January 3, 2010, the people of Bethel Baptist Church of LaPlata, MD called Miss Judy and I to be their pastor. We had been here since July 15, 2009, doing the work of the Pastor, and they asked us to stay. There are so very many things we desire to do and see done. We are excited over the opportunity the Lord has set before us, an open door through which if we go together, He will be honoured and glorified.
My wife, "Miss Judy", and I have four living children, all showing evidence of having trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour. Praise God!! Now we are praying for the salvation of all our ten grand "kids". "Grandchildren are the Lord’s reward for not having killed your own kids." God has already won several of them to Himself, and we are trusting Him for the remainder. God has been so very good to us.
We have the Living Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ – to serve; and a divinely preserved Book – the King James Version – to preach. We have a special people to work with, and we have no misgivings about the job our Saviour expects of us…..get the gospel to "every creature"!! Our heart is missions, be it here or around the world. The Lord has given us some wonderful tools to get this job done and we are excited about what He is doing in this place.
We love the Lord Jesus and, therefore, we love people – saved and lost; and desire for them to be won to Christ, and then to be molded into the child of God He desires them to be.
We’d like to invite you to come see us, check us out, and ask the Lord if His plan for your life includes Bethel Baptist Church of LaPlata, MD.
If you think we might be able to be of any assistance to you, please call us at (301) 743-2363.
Pastor Wm (Billy) Sutton
Col 2:6