Paul Leftwich lay trapped under a car at 16, the bumper six inches from his neck.
Emergency responders lifted the vehicle off him before it could break his neck. Now 94, he still gets emotional recounting that day.
“I was lost and would be in hell had it not been for the grace of God and a second chance of life,” Leftwich said.
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Growing up on a sharecropper’s farm in Sugar Camp Holler near Greenbrier, Tenn., during the 1930s, Leftwich ran with the “wrong crowd.” He served two years in prison for stealing railroad lanterns off boxcars on North First Street in Nashville as a teenager. “I was always a follower, not a leader,” he said.
But then at 19, Leftwich reluctantly attended a church service after an older neighbor, Ms. Hurt “wore the life out” of him to attend. A sermon on hell changed everything.
“God built a fire in me when I was 19,” he said. “That fire’s never gone out.”
From 7th grade dropout to ordained minister
Leftwich left school after seventh grade but later earned his high school diploma from Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy between 1951 and 1954. He went on to earn a doctorate in Bible study from the International Bible Institute in Orlando, Fla. — his proudest achievement.
He was ordained in 1954, and his first assignment was to pastor an “old church” called Possum Trot Baptist Church, a congregation of about 25 off Nolensville Road. He earned $22 a week.
Leftwich calls himself an “old school” preacher.
“Old school preaching means the Word of God is inspired from Genesis to Revelation, and you preach all of it,” he explained. “Some things preachers won’t touch today — hell, heaven, how you dress. I mentioned that men shouldn’t have long hair. Women shouldn’t have short hair. Old school preaching is you preach it all.”
That approach once cost him a church. While serving in Eddyville, Kentucky, he “preached a little too strong on some messages.” The deacon chairman confronted him, and Leftwich resigned. That same Sunday morning, his first wife Helen died of a heart attack after 43 years of marriage.
“I got a little depressed,” he recalled. “But one day I said, ‘Lord, I can’t lean on antidepressants. I got to lean on you.’”
He prayed through the crisis and emerged stronger.
Reaching the world from Lebanon
Today, Leftwich is married to Betty, his wife of 33 years, and they attend Hillcrest Baptist Church in Lebanon.
In 2020, Leftwich was inspired by a couple who took a mission trip to Honduras where they established a church. After seeing the impact in Honduras, he started posting his old sermons on Facebook every Sunday, seeing it as a tool to reach people internationally. The response stunned him.
“I felt like I needed to reach out more,” he said. “People started using my sermons in India, Honduras, and the Philippines. I praise God that with social media, I can reach so many more people with the Word of God. I’m seeing people change.”
A follower named Carol recently messaged him: “I thank God for you being on Facebook and putting the Word of God on there. I’m sick and can’t go to church. You’re my church.”
That message brought Leftwich to tears.
In his closet sit nine shoebox-sized boxes filled with handwritten sermons from 50 years of ministry. He recently revised a sermon he preached at Calvary Baptist Church in Shelbyville on June 12, 1983, based on Deuteronomy 32:30–33.
“You don’t beat them over the head,” he said. “I pray for people and love them.”
Mission:Dignity provides critical support
Paul and Betty Leftwich receive support from Mission:Dignity, a GuideStone ministry that provides financial assistance for retirement-aged Southern Baptist ministers, workers and their widows.
Living on a fixed income is challenging for the couple, but the Mission:Dignity funds help them afford food and medications.
Through tears, Leftwich said, “They’re keeping an old, nearly 95-year-old Southern Baptist preacher afloat. They don’t know how much their love gift means. I’m a very appreciative person and know some of them sacrifice to do that.”
The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board helps make these love gifts possible, with the Tennessee Baptist Foundation investing TBMB funds to generate a 13th check for recipients outside of the monthly stipend GuideStone provides. Individuals can also give to Mission:Dignity endowment funds. Sam Warner, president-treasurer of the TBF, visited the Leftwiches when he delivered the TBMB’s 13th check along with a special gift bag.
“He has led people to Christ through this ministry and is reaching countless others that only heaven will reveal to us,” Warner said. “He is super sharp for a 94-year-old. He is a very unique and impressive man of God.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Zoë Watkins and originally published by the Baptist and Reflector.
