For 30 years, pastor Chris Pritchett has walked with Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Bowman, Georgia, through seasons of joy, grief, uncertainty and loss.
On Sunday (Aug. 23), he asked the church to walk with him.
Pritchett told the congregation that he had received an initial diagnosis of ALS after months of worsening problems with his left hand. The diagnosis still must be confirmed by a second neurologist, and Pritchett said he is waiting for an appointment with the ALS clinic in Augusta.
The news was not what he and his family had hoped to hear. But in a video message to the church, Pritchett said it had not changed the God he has preached for more than four decades as a believer.
“We still serve a God who’s totally in charge,” he told the congregation. “None of this has taken Him by surprise. And I preach that we can trust God no matter what. He’s in charge of everything, no matter what. And now I’m actually walking in that arena right now.”
Pritchett said he wanted the church to know because Pleasant Grove is family.
Being honest
“I would never hide anything from you,” he said. “And I would never be anything but honest to you.”
ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. For Pritchett, the first visible signs came through loss of use in his left hand. He had surgery in 2025 and later underwent additional testing as the condition worsened. The most recent testing led doctors to suspect ALS.
Pritchett told the church there are still questions he cannot answer. He does not yet know what treatments may be available, how quickly symptoms may progress, or what changes will be required for his family, his home, and his ministry.
Not alone
What he does know, he said, is that he does not want to walk through it alone.
“We’re going to walk this together,” he said. “The reason I’m saying that is because I really need you to walk through this with me.”
He told the church that the immediate prayer he needed most was not first for healing, though he said he would welcome healing if God chose to give it.
“The prayer I need is not for healing,” he said. “I’m not saying I don’t want to heal, but the prayer that I need right now is, God, help me take each step, because I don’t know anything else.”
Hardest part
Pritchett and his wife, Denise, told The Christian Index that one of the hardest parts was telling their children.
“There were lots of tears and honestly just heartbreak,” Denise said. “As a parent, you want to comfort your kids, but honestly there is nothing any of us could do to comfort each other in that moment.”
She said her mind quickly went to the practical questions that come with such a diagnosis: widening doors, building a ramp, remodeling a bathroom, possible leadership changes, and even when her husband’s last sermon might be.
“These thoughts swirled, and honestly it was difficult to calm the noise of all the ‘what ifs,’” she said.
Chris said he had his own questions.
“How long do I have? What would have to change? What would my condition be? How would our fellowship receive the news? Would God see fit to heal me?” he said.
The answer to one of those questions came quickly.
Surrounded in prayer
After the announcement, Pleasant Grove surrounded the family with prayer, tears, encouragement, and visible love. Chris said the response from the church has been “overwhelmingly encouraging” and has given him hope that God is going to do something special “even in the middle of the mess.”
“Having a strong family and their reassurance to me that they will be there no matter how bad it gets means more than anything,” he said. “We want God to perform a miraculous healing and believe that He can, but we are intentionally trusting Him in this process even if He chooses not to heal me.”
Denise said two Sunday School lessons from Daniel, one on the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace and one on Daniel in the lions’ den, strengthened her in the days surrounding the diagnosis.
Both passages, she said, showed faith in God, even if He did not answer the way His people hoped.
“There is never a time that He is not in charge, and anything that has come to us has come through His hands first,” she said. “This will not be easy, but when you live with the end result in mind, it gives you hope for the next breath.”
After the video announcement, Pritchett spoke again to the congregation. He told the church his life, and their response, would be a witness to others.
Being watched
“There’ll be a lot of people that’ll be watching you and watching me as we walk through this,” he said. “Whether you say anything or not, your life’s going to be a witness to the goodness of God.”
Student pastor Josh Gilbert then stood before the church and called the congregation to respond as a family. Gilbert said no one had given up on anything and that the church would pray for a miracle as long as there was room for one. But he also pointed the congregation to Mark 2, where friends carried a paralyzed man to Jesus and lowered him through the roof.
Gilbert said Pritchett had carried the mat for many others for a long time.
“If there’s one way that we honor him and his family, in the 30 years that he’s given to this place and to the Lord, it is to grab ahold of the mat,” Gilbert said.
He then asked the church to gather around Pritchett, Denise, and their family. Those who could not reach the family were asked to hold someone who could. Others stretched out their hands and prayed.
“Church, let me tell you something,” Gilbert said. “We ain’t got nothing else to do this morning but to be here for our pastor like he’s been here for us.”
Denise later said that moment captured what Pleasant Grove has been to their family.
Through blessing and fire
“Early on in our ministry, this church fellowship believed in us when we didn’t even believe in ourselves, and we have walked through blessing and fire together,” she said. “On the Sunday we shared the news, we had already been somewhat paralyzed by the uncertainty that comes with news like this, but these precious people stood in the gap for us and held us up.”
When the church helped carry the burden, she said, the load became lighter.
“This fellowship is a gift,” Denise said. “There is not another place like it, and just like those who let their friend down through the roof to Jesus, those are the people of Pleasant Grove. Doers with deep faith.”
The church’s response, Chris said, showed how deeply members are invested in him and his family personally. For three days, he said, he returned texts, calls, and emails from people telling him how he had affected their lives or how they were praying.
“For someone whose love language is words of affirmation, that was so refreshing and strengthened me,” he said.
Denise also addressed the church that morning. She said the congregation had, in a real sense, lowered their family through the roof to Jesus.
“There may never be a physical healing over this for us,” she said. “But the Word says, even if. We’re going to trust Him, and we’re going to praise Him.”
She told the church she does not know how people walk through circumstances like this without Jesus. Since learning the likely diagnosis, she said, the family’s prayer has been that if this trial draws one person to know Christ, then it will be worth it.
“If you’re here today and you don’t know Him, our prayer, since we found this out, has been that if this draws one person to come to know Jesus, then it’s worth it,” she said.
In the days after the service, Denise wrote on social media that the day had been “hard and beautiful all at the same time.” She said no one is prepared to hear that the person who has held your hand, your children’s hands, and the hands of so many at the altar most likely has ALS.
“We are not scared,” she wrote. “We are not afraid. But we are heartbroken and disappointed at the loss of the life we thought we might have together in the twilight years of our life.”
Still, she wrote, the family had hope because Chris settled his final destination when he trusted Christ on July 31, 1984.
That hope is what both Chris and Denise said they want others to see most clearly.
“First and foremost, Jesus,” Denise said. “Secondly, there are no guarantees for this life, so you better make sure that you have eternity settled and that Jesus is your Savior.”
She said Jesus is not only Savior, but Lord, and surrendering to Him each day is the only way to have peace of mind and heart. Chris said he wants people to know that God is unchanging.
“He is God on the mountain and God in the valley, and He does not change based on our circumstances or what we think,” he said. “And if God loves us enough to send His Son to save us, then He is enough to walk with us through this journey.”
After 30 years at Pleasant Grove, Chris said the relationship between pastor and church has shaped how they are facing the diagnosis together.
Someone told the family after the service that they had never been in a room and watched that many grown men cry, Chris said. In the days since, men in the church have more freely expressed their love for him, his family, and one another.
“What they have learned as a fellowship over the last 30 years is now being put into practice in a very public way,” he said. “The transparency I have had as a pastor during my time here has offered genuine, authentic emotions and service as the normal response from our fellowship.
They are who they are, and that has been such a blessing over the last few weeks. They have truly been ‘The Place of Hope’ for us.”
Denise said their relationships with the people of Pleasant Grove are central to how they are walking through the days ahead. “Chris has always been ‘what you see is what you get,’ and our church family mirrors that,” she said. “What he feels, they feel, and vice versa.”
Specific prayer
The couple is asking people for specific prayer.
Denise asked for prayer for information and resources to help Chris in the time ahead, for the difficult personal and church decisions that will need to be made, and for their son and daughter to be grateful for the time remaining rather than resentful that it is not longer. She also asked prayer for their grandchildren, “that they would know the faithful legacy of a man of God that they call ‘Papa.’”
Chris asked prayer for ministry changes and future decisions, that they would come in God’s time and according to His will.
“After 42 years of being a believer, I am still reminded that He is faithful no matter what,” he told the church, “and that He can be fully trusted, even with the worst news possible.”
Chris said he wants his life to teach his children, grandchildren, and church family how to rely on God in good days and bad ones.
“If God would choose to heal me, then yes, please,” he said. “But even more so that I would be faithful to the end.”
