Family, friends and church members gathered June 2 at Bunker Hill Baptist Church in Illinois to honor J. Darrell Molen’s 70 years in ministry.
“I met Darrell back in 1986 shortly after I began my first pastorate,” said Cliff Woodman, Illinois Baptist State Association Zone 6 consultant and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Carlinville. Molen has been a constant source of help in Macoupin Baptist Association church life, he said. “Darrell is a source of encouragement and experience to all of our pastors. As far as faithful longevity, he has set the bar high.”
Molen noted, “Seventy years was quite an honor for me — God has been so good.”
Dwight Eisenhower was president when a 20-year-old Molen first stepped into the pulpit at Cross Baptist Church near Pinckneyville in 1954. Since then, he has pastored three other Illinois churches and a fourth in Tennessee. He also served four more churches as interim pastor.
Shaping young lives
Always in bi-vocational ministry, he also spent a lifetime shaping young lives in public schools. With education degrees from Union and Illinois State universities, he started his career as a teacher before becoming a principal, retiring after 37 years of service to Southwestern Community Unit School District #9 in Piasa. His wife, Betty, died in 2015.
Over the course of his seven decades of ministry, Molen was always connected to associational life, serving on numerous committees with both his local Baptist association and the IBSA. In 2010, he was recognized by IBSA with the Bi-vocational Pastor of the Year award.
The soft-spoken pastor may have slowed a bit in his ninetieth year, but he continues his faithful service to the church as pastor of the Bunker Hill Baptist Church, where he has been since 2007.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Illinois Baptist staff and originally published by the Illinois Baptist.
