Local pastor reflects

Local News

March 10, 2010

Keven Gilbert

AMERICUS — Eddie W. Green, a local pastor, has seen and accomplished many things in his lifetime. Green, 73, was born and raised in Americus and has spent the past 44 years preaching and sharing his faith with others in many churches around the area.

Green’s first career was in military service. He was an infantryman in the U.S. Army and served in Korea for three years. He was stationed in different areas around the U.S., including Missouri, Washington and Texas. Of his military service, Green remarks that he “enjoyed it, but not enough to go to Vietnam.”

Green set out on the path to become a pastor after waking up one night during a thunderstorm. He set out for a walk in the downpour and that is when he said, “God spoke to me.” Green told his preacher, J.T. Taylor, of his experience and was soon ordained as a minister. Green spent the next several years helping with Taylor’s ministry at Inspirational Church by Faith in Americus.

For years, Green gave his assistance to churches in Plains in Americus until setting out to establish his own ministry. Green and his wife, Mary, renovated the Abundant Life Holiness Church in Leslie.

“It was a great feeling — getting that church up and going and having many new members that started coming,” recalls Green.

He has been at Abundant Life Holiness Church for the past 16 years, although he has slowed down in recent years since undergoing open heart surgery in 1999. In addition to military service and evangelism, Green has also had the job of father to six children. His wife Mary insists that a good sense of humor has kept him going.

Green says that undergoing surgery was “a tough time and things were very rough for a while, but I told myself I wasn’t going down,” he says.

In his recovery from his heart problems, Green says that he has become even more devout and has used the experience in his sermons.

Green says that his “favorite part of being a pastor is having the opportunity to watch young people give their life to Christ.”