Lighthouse Baptist Church pastors form complimentary ministry team

It would be hard to find a more complimentary pastoral pair than the one at Lighthouse Baptist Church — complimentary in their words toward one another and in their service to their congregation and community.

Herschel Sizemore is associate pastor at Lighthouse. Tim Sizemore, his son, is senior pastor.

Tim Sizemore said his father has a pastor’s heart that knows no bounds.

Herschel Sizemore said his son is an outstanding teacher, preacher and administrator.

Tim Sizemore said his father preaches very well, but Hershel Sizemore said there are fewer things he likes better than when he gets a call from someone in need and can rush out of the office to offer help.

Herschel Sizemore said his son is always willing to help others, but Tim Sizemore said his own passion is studying, writing and preparing to accurately share God’s word.

And, Hershel Sizemore adds his son can create a plan, see it through and handle the paperwork like nobody’s business.

It was Herschel Sizemore who began Lighthouse Baptist Church in 1999. He had previously led other Southern Baptist congregations in southwestern Georgia and in southeastern Alabama, where he hails from.

Tim Sizemore began serving alongside his father as a bi-vocational associate pastor in 2006.

In early 2014, he became co-pastor with his father, and in late 2014 the two flipped roles: Tim Sizemore became senior pastor and Herschel Sizemore became associate. It was due in part to Herschel Sizemore’s life-long, heart-related health issues — though when meeting him it’s difficult to imagine he’s not in perfect health.

To take the full-time senior pastor role, Tim Sizemore left his job at Fellowship Christian Academy, where he was a coach and director of operations and maintenance.

As anyone might guess, today Herschel Sizemore, 68, handles the bulk of hands-on pastoral ministry while Tim Sizemore, 44, handles administration and does most of the teaching and preaching.

Together they have a sizeable vision for Lighthouse, its congregation and the church’s role in southern Macon-Bibb County and all of Middle Georgia.

When Herschel Sizemore began Lighthouse Baptist, he said it was for the purpose of reaching people for Christ.

“I had a vision of reaching the sub-south area with the Gospel,” he said. “After meeting for several years in the Porter Ellis Community Center and the Church of the Nazarene on Hartley Bridge Road, we got the property we have now near (Interstate 75) on Sardis Church Road. But the vision hasn’t progressed as fast as I’d hoped it would. God gave us 16 acres and I don’t believe he’d have done that if we were to just be a church of 200. We could do that on five acres. I believe he wants to reach a lot more people, a lot of unchurched people, a lot of good people who live here but are just unchurched. I have great hopes because now we have great leadership at the top. There’s no telling how much we can accomplish under Tim’s leadership. ”

Tim Sizemore said in his younger days he wouldn’t have even considered following in his father’s footsteps. He said it was his father’s pastor’s heart and love for people that actually pushed him away from Christianity and ministry — but also what helped draw him back.

“I knew I was called to ministry from my early teens but I ran far from it,” he said. “I watched my dad be mistreated a number of times by people in churches and I didn’t want any part of being a pastor. That’s what turned me off. I saw hypocrisy and tried everything I could not to be a preacher. I was the prodigal son, the stereotype of the bad preacher’s kid. I stayed in trouble. Someone would call me a preacher’s kid and my response would be, ‘Well I can out drink and out fight you any time.’ I was an angry kid out to prove I wasn’t a goody-two-shoes.”

Tim Sizemore said those early years were in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia. He said in his teens he was a bad prodigal but in his 20s he became “a good prodigal.” He said he quit a lot of his evil ways and returned to church, but didn’t really return to God.

He said he was just “less rebellious.”

Married and seeking work, Tim Sizemore he became a sheriff’s deputy in 1993 in Sumter County while his father pastored in Americus. Coaching the county sheriff’s son in little league led to the opportunity.

“If you were to tell anyone I went to school with that I’d end up a cop or a preacher, there’s no way they’d believe you,” he said.

But Tim Sizemore said his own personal encounter with God and the realization of how genuine his father’s love was — plus the love he experienced from people in the Lighthouse congregation — turned his life and career around.

Or, his life and numerous careers.

After his stint as a sheriff’s deputy, economic needs and family requirements led to work as a railroad conductor, a restaurant manager, a contractor, then back to law enforcement with the Byron Police Department and assistant chief there, then to his work at Central Fellowship Christian Academy and finally into ministry.

“I suppose the real difference took shape when I heard evangelist Bailey Smith preach a message from Jonah about second chances,” Tim Sizemore said. “I had started thinking I had pushed God’s call too far away, but that night I knelt, confessed my sins and told the Lord if he’d have me, I’d do my best to serve him however he liked.”

Not long after, Tim Sizemore was licensed to preach at Lighthouse and later ordained to ministry.

“Recognizing and receiving God’s grace changed me,” he said. “And I began realizing that even though I gave my dad every reason there was to cuss me as a teenager, he never did. He loved me. I realized people I believed did him wrong were people he chose to love anyway. Instead of hypocrisy, I started seeing the beauty of my dad’s love for people — and me — no matter what. That’s what stood out. He reflected that aspect of Jesus’ character and that’s how we try to live at Lighthouse.”

Herschel Sizemore said he wasn’t doing anything special. He said he was just living like Christians are supposed to live, especially pastors.

“That’s my heart — that’s all I can say,” he said. “God gave me a pastor’s heart. Do I like being nice to people who disrespect me? Who hurt me? No, I’m human. It’s not always comfortable or easy. But I’m called to display God’s love and realize while we were sinners God continued to love us and call us to himself. Christians and pastors are supposed to feel that way about people, even the one ones who give them a hard time.”

And about his son?

“He was a teenager in every sense of the word — maybe worse than most,” Herschel Sizemore said. “But I learned early in my ministry that I had to love at home. I had to live my love for God there and be an example to my children and everyone around me. As far as Tim goes, God has done incredible work in his life. I’m afraid I have to say it: He had gotten a callous heart toward God and people, but God broke his heart in a good way and showed him you have to love even the unlovely. Tim’s such a great pastor now.”

As complimentary and as good a fit as Herschel and Tim Sizemore are, they agree there’s one day a year they can never get along: the day Alabama plays Auburn in football. Aside from that, their vision for Lighthouse is harmonious.

“Our basic job is to introduce people to Jesus,” they agreed.

“One of the greatest examples to me is in the book of John when a group of Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to Jesus,” Tim Sizemore said. “They threw her at his feet and wanted him to condemn her according to the law. He wouldn’t. He asked one among them who had no sin to cast the first stone. It’s sad, but I’ve experienced church that looked more like that group of Pharisees than like Jesus. They were ‘right,’ but they didn’t have the right heart. It’s a perfect example of how we’re to be compassionate. Jesus didn’t condone the woman’s sin. He acknowledged it was sin and told her not to keep doing it. But he was merciful. We want people to see that.”

Tim Sizemore said Lighthouse has a wide range of ministries, discipleship opportunities and fellowship opportunities for members. He said there a number of outreaches to Middle Georgia, including working with Out of Darkness, a ministry for women being trafficked and otherwise caught up in what the Sizemore’s said is the thriving central Georgia sex-industry. Numerous Lighthouse members regularly do street and club outreaches, and Tim Sizemore is on the ministry’s advisory board.

Among other ministries, Lighthouse also has growing national ministries, such as regular deliveries of goods to poverty stricken Appalachian regions, and growing foreign missions endeavors.

Tim Sizemore said Lighthouse embraces both modern and traditional worship. He said dress is casual and the atmosphere friendly. In fact, he said it’s “friendly-tested.”

“We had a very homeless looking stranger visit us on purpose one Sunday, unbeknownst to the congregation, just to see how it would go,” he said. “We were relieved — and very blessed — to have him report back that people went out of their way to greet him and some took it upon themselves to sit with him and help him feel welcome, feel at home. That’s how we want to be. That’s our example in Jesus.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 6:55 AM with the headline "Lighthouse Baptist Church pastors form complimentary ministry team."