By Billy Patterson
Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield will be saying goodbye to a staff member this Sunday after having served the local congregation for 38 years.
Brother Shelby came to Calvary Baptist Church in 1984 to serve as Youth and Music Minister, along with wife Janet, son Kirk and daughter Amy. Calvary would eventually hire a full-time youth minister and his position changed to Music and Education Minister, spanning a combine 42 years of serving the Lord. A 1971 graduate from Morton, Texas, Shelby attended Jacksonville Baptist College and graduated on May 11, 1979. The very next day on May 12th, Shelby married his sweetheart Janet Carol Vail and said “We had all the family present for our graduation and decided we’d just get hitched the next day to keep everyone from having to travel twice.” His first position as Youth and Music Minister led him and his family to Central Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas. He would then be called to Shady Grove Baptist Church in Laurel, MS serving as their Music and Youth Minister. When the Race family made it back to Texas and settled in Fairfield for a new challenge, he asked the Lord to please not move them again until Kirk and Amy finished high school. He has been with Calvary for 38 years.
Brother Shelby’s wife, Janet was the Girls Missionary Association GMA teacher for many years and assisted Shelby with the youth ministry. She also served in the nursing department from day one and served as the church librarian. She served on numerous committees and led many special activities and events throughout her time at Calvary. She was involved with the Fairfield ISD since they arrived in Fairfield, having served as a teachers aid and eventually got her teaching certificate after being encouraged to do so by Janice Cole. Janet passed away suddenly on August 18th.
During Brother Shelby’s 42 years in the ministry, he has served with nine different BMA pastors. When he began at Calvary, the local church did not have an ‘Order of Service.’ He developed one for Calvary and has continued to prepare it every week since. He also started Calvary’s Children’s Choir in 1985 and it also has continued throughout his time at the local church. Children in the choir always looked forward to riding the ‘church bus’ as he would pick them up at their schools on Monday afternoon and take them to choir practice. During his youth ministry at Calvary, he was responsible for the teaching of 7th-12 grade children. He also carried kids to ‘SOAR’ and other camps throughout the years with his farthest being to Kansas City, Mo.
Through the years at Calvary, Brother Shelby carried kiddos to other youth functions and camps both statewide and national events. Those who were not playing football or in the band, he would take to out-of-town games in the church van. A normal occurrence at Calvary during his youth minister position would be to have a youth breakfast every Thursday morning for 7th-12th grades. Parents would either bring the children to the church, or he would pick them up and then take them to school after the breakfast. He also taught Galilean for several years, taught the 6th grade class of Vacation Bible School ‘to make sure they had a good foundational understanding about God’s word before they went to the youth department’, Shelby stated.
For numerous years he drove the Golden Circle members anywhere they wanted to go, including two trips to Branson, Mo. He carried Calvary kids to Six Flags twice a year as youth minister and helped cut and lay the tile floor in Calvary’s Life Center when it was being built. ‘I nailed the steps down on the staircases in the sanctuary. If they squeak when you step on them, it’s probably my fault,” he stated.
Within the community and during his time at Calvary, Brother Shelby coached Little League Baseball, Little League Softball and Little Dribblers.
He has served on three Baptist Missionary Association trustee boards: Baptist Progress for six years total, state missions board for 6 years and Jacksonville College for three years. On the national level, he served for 15 years as a Disciple Guide.
As music minister, Brother Shelby was responsible each service for getting the music selections ready for the pianists, organist, keyboardists and the projection screens after having selected the different songs for each service. Technology moved from paper music to music on i-pads during his tenure at Calvary and those presented different challenges from time to time. He would select the music for the annual children and adult Christmas and Easter musical programs, then make copies of CD disks for each member of the choirs to take home and practice with. Adult practices would begin in August or September and continue every Sunday afternoon until the musical was presented. The Easter musical practices would begin in January and continue each Sunday afternoon.
While his title may have been associated with music, youth and education, it certainly involved many other responsibilities at Calvary. During the time when the church was without a pastor, Brother Shelby took care of all of the pastor duties except the preaching. On Sundays and Wednesdays, Brother Shelby made sure the buildings were unlocked and ready for services and the air conditioning system was on and functioning correctly. At the end of those days, he would make sure all of the facilities were locked and secure. He has carried the elderly to doctor appointments who were not able to drive, assisted families with funerals and memorials with their order of service, songs, videos, photo presentations, selection of songs and has sung countless of times during services for families. He has managed the sound system for Vacation Bible School for many years, prepares study materials for Sunday night Bible classes, fills up the baptistry when needed and makes sure it’s drained afterwards, and mows and trims all of the church grounds weekly.
Shelby Race, Calvary Baptist Church’s Music and Education Minister, will lead the singing during the morning worship service for the last time Sunday, October 30th, beginning at 10:45 am. Brother Shelby will be honored during a special ceremony and luncheon after the morning services in Calvary’s life center. Brother Shelby, daughter Amy Rutledge and son Kirk Race will present a special mini-concert during the morning worship service which begins at 10:45 am. The family of Calvary Baptist Church invites you to share the sanctuary with them on this very special occasion. For more information, contact the church office at 903.389.2613
