By Miles Layton

As I travel through Northeast North Carolina, I pass many places of worship – longtime churches that have served generations of Christian faithful. Maybe inspired by the Holy Spirit, I thought it might be good to interview a country pastor.

Pastors of country churches serve on the front lines of God’s plan – they have a big job ministering to their congregation that’s 24/7 filled with preaching and teaching the Gospel, visiting the sick, presiding over a funeral, counseling, marrying folks, organizing church events that may include a homecoming, all topped off by a Sunday service. Faith is important to our communities and region — for many souls, worship and prayer are central to our existence.

However, since there were not many preachers around the Monday after Christmas, I worried that this assignment might be a bit hard.  

God answers prayers. As I passed Warwick Baptist Church on NC 32, at the border of Chowan County and Gates County, I saw a car in the church’s parking lot and decided to stop. 

Not only did I find the kind of pastor I was looking to interview, but I also grew a little deeper in my faith while talking to Reverend Jeffery Russell.  

HOBBSVILLE— On a quiet stretch of rural northeastern North Carolina, where fields roll gently toward tree lines and the pace of life still follows the seasons, Warwick Baptist Church has stood since 1861. For more than a century and a half, it has been a place where faith is preached plainly, prayers are spoken earnestly, and generations have marked the milestones of life.

Today, that long story is being carried forward by Pastor Jeffery Russell, a man who speaks of God’s calling not as an abstract idea, but as a persistent, personal summons that reshaped his entire life. Russell came to Warwick Baptist Church first as an interim pastor in September 2023 and became the full-time pastor on June 1, 2024.

Before arriving at Warwick Baptist Church, Russell spent 12 years at Ross Baptist Church in Windsor, following eight years at Salem Baptist Church in Weeksville near Elizabeth City. His ministry, however, stretches far beyond northeastern North Carolina, spanning more than four decades and multiple states — and even another country.

“I’ve been serving churches for 43 years,” Russell said. “Since 1983.”

A Call That Wouldn’t Let Go

Russell’s journey to the pulpit was not something he originally planned. In fact, he once had no desire to be a pastor at all.

“I graduated from Old Dominion University in 1982. My degree was in criminology and political science. I had no desire at that time to be a pastor.”

His original ambition was law school, but an unexpected conversation changed everything. A law school professor — an atheist, Russell noted — pulled him aside.

“He said, ‘You’re a good student. You really seem to have things together, but are you sure you’d be happy being a lawyer?’” Russell recalled. “He said, ‘I just don’t think you will.’”

The professor went further, “He said, ‘You’re too nice a guy to do that.’”

Russell considered joining the Coast Guard to regroup and find direction. But something deeper was stirring.

“That’s when I sensed the Lord talking to me and calling me,” Russell said. “He said, ‘Jeff, you’re rejecting my calling on your life.’”

The call was not new. Russell remembered first sensing it years earlier, as a teenager on a mission trip. Fear had held him back then.

“I told the Lord I was too scared to get up in front of people and talk,” he said. “And He said, ‘You’d be willing to do that as a lawyer, but not for me.’”

That conviction changed the course of his life. He began preaching while still in college — with mixed results, at least by his own assessment.

“The first time I preached, I think God made the first mistake in theological history,” Russell said, laughing.

Preparing to Serve

After marrying his wife, Robin, Russell followed what he believed was God’s next step and enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Southern Baptists, he explained, have six seminaries across the country, including Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

While formal seminary education is recommended among Southern Baptists, Russell emphasized that it is not required.

“There’s no hard and fast rule that a church must hire a pastor who has seminary education,” he said. “Many do not, especially smaller churches.”

For Russell, education became a lifelong pursuit tied directly to ministry. In 2011, he earned a doctorate from Liberty University.

“Not so that I could be called doctor,” he said, “but so that I could learn how to minister to a new generation of people.”

At 65, Russell sees adaptation not as compromise, but as stewardship.

“Things change every day, every year,” he said. “As our population changes and ideas change, we have to adapt so that we can preach the gospel in a better way, in a way that will reach people.”

A Ministry Without Borders

Russell’s ministry has taken him far from the familiar rhythms of rural North Carolina. After seminary, he felt called to church planting and moved to western Pennsylvania.

“I went to the Pittsburgh area and planted a Southern Baptist church in Butler County,” he said. “There weren’t many of our churches there.”

Later, from 1997 to 2002, Russell served as pastor of an English-language church in Germany, ministering primarily to U.S. military families.

“We served U.S. service personnel and their families. We also had some native Germans attending our church.”

That international ministry dovetailed with another calling: chaplaincy. Russell is a volunteer chaplain with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, assisting the Coast Guard’s limited number of full-time chaplains. Note the Coast Guard coffee mug on his desk in the main feature photo.  

“They’ll ask me to help with ceremonies or ride along on cutters coming back from deployment,” he said. “I really get a kick out of that. I love doing that.”

The Heart of a Pastor

Asked what he loves most about being a pastor, Russell didn’t hesitate.

“The best part is proclaiming the Word of God and being a servant,” he said. “Ministering to people. I have a passion for loving people and helping them realize God’s calling on their life.”

That calling, he said, is rooted in daily discipline.

“Every day I have a personal quiet time with the Lord,” Russell said. “This morning I was up around 5:00 or 5:30 in prayer, reading my Bible, growing as a disciple.”

Those moments are not always emotionally dramatic, he admitted.

“Sometimes God speaks to me in my heart during those times. Other times, not so much,” he said. “It depends on how closely I’m walking with Him.”

Russell believes pastors must model the faith they preach.

“If I expect the people I serve to grow in their relationship with the Lord, I need to grow in my relationship with God,” he said. “Personal character and integrity and trust are crucial to ministry.”

Ministry, Russell said, is not without its difficulties.

“You’ve got to love people and look past their hangups and idiosyncrasies and learn not to take things personally,” he said. “There have been times it’s been very challenging trying to encourage a congregation when they don’t want to change.”

Navigating personalities, he added, is much like any workplace — except with eternal stakes.

Wise words — “If you want to be in a good working relationship with someone, you have to learn how to care for them and bring the best out in them, even when it’s harsh on you,” he said.

Faith in a Rural Setting

Warwick Baptist Church averages about 55 to 60 people in weekly attendance, though numbers swell during major seasons of the church year.

“We had about 90 the Sunday before Christmas,” Russell said. “That was really good.”

Christmas, he said, is a deeply meaningful season — not just a holiday, but a proclamation of faith.

“For a whole month prior to Christmas, we’re celebrating,” Russell said. “We emphasize Advent, proclaiming the coming of Christ.”

The church marks the season with Advent candles, a Christmas Eve service, a choir cantata, children’s programs, and even a Moravian Love Feast.

“We’re not Moravian,” Russell said, “but I love the tradition of it.”

The rhythms of church life, he noted, are especially important in rural congregations that face unique challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges is young people growing up, going off to college, getting good jobs in big cities, and not coming back,” he said. “Meanwhile, the congregation gets older and older.”

The answer, Russell believes, is intentional discipleship.

“If we just sit back and not do anything, the church will die,” he said. “We’ve got to make disciples.”

To that end, Warwick Baptist has started a young adult Sunday school class, expanded children’s ministries, and planned outreach events like a wild game dinner to connect with the local community.

An Old Church, A Living Faith

Founded in 1861, Warwick Baptist Church began as a church plant from Ballards Bridge Baptist Church, strategically placed within horse-and-buggy distance for rural families.

“In Northeast North Carolina, you’ll usually see a Southern Baptist church within five miles of each other,” Russell said.

Despite its age, Russell sees the church not as a relic, but as a living body with a future.

“I try to disciple my people to be closer followers of Christ,” he said. “Better followers of Jesus Christ.”

Russell lives in Edenton with his wife, Robin, commuting daily to Warwick. Retirement is on the horizon someday, he acknowledged, but for now, his focus remains clear.

“I serve at the pleasure of the congregation,” he said. “We work together. We’re partners.”

In a world that often feels hurried and fragmented, Russell’s ministry is rooted in an older, steadier truth — that faith is formed day by day, person by person, through prayer, service, and love.

And in the quiet countryside of Warwick, that calling continues to echo.