• By RJ Walters, Editor •
One committed United Methodist woman’s love for her young nephew more than 40 years ago made all the difference in his life and so many other lives that God has touched since then.
At the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference that little boy she took in from a home of alcoholism and drug addiction was honored for his 43 years of bringing people to Christ, as the Rev. Harold “Hal” Phillips of Halsey and South Mundy UMCs was awarded the Harry Denman Evangelism Award.
On the closing day of conference, the Foundation for Evangelism presented Philips with the 30th annual award that “celebrates and honors those who do outstanding works in evangelism.”
”Somebody sent me a ‘brief’ list of his accomplishments over the years,” a spokesman from the foundation said. “The ‘brief’ list from 1966-present is eight pages long typed, so I don’t think I’ll be able to do it.”
Philips spent 17 years as a Free Methodist Church pastor and since 1993 he has served the United Methodist Church. The spokesman said “every church Hal has pastored has seen a growth in membership and attendance.”
In between serving the two denominations he spent the late 1980s and early 90s as a traveling evangelist, visiting up to 50 camps and organizations per year.
Since 2006 he has served the Halsey and South Mundy congregations and from 2006-10 he has received 71 total professions of faith.
Considering his upbringing, Phillip’s tale is truly one of God’s grace and overcoming the odds.
His father died of an overdose of alcohol and drugs when he was 2 years old and on his 13th birthday he decided to leave his mother — also an addict — after suffering through years of living in “dire poverty” where he often begged for food and rarely had new or clean clothes to wear.
“I took my younger brother Eddie and I left my mother never to live with her again and I went to my grandmother’s where she kept my brother and I for five months,” he said. “And then an aunt, a Godly aunt — a member of the Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Flint — felt God call her to bring my brother and I to Michigan and raise us for the Lord.”
Prior to moving in with his aunt he had only been in a church twice — for his grandfather’s funeral and in a Baptist congregation where the preacher fervently spoke about hell— but that quickly changed.
In February of 1966 he knelt at an alter and committed his life to Jesus at Bethlehem UMC and two years later he devoted himself to the full-time ministry.
“It has been the most wonderful experience I could be privileged, to teach the gospel and share the Good News with others,” he said.
Phillips said his inspiring journey is not his own, as other family members have come to Christ as well.
His brother Eddie has been in ministry for 35 years, his sister married a minister in Arkansas and has been involved in ministry for 38 years and his grandmother gave her life to Christ several weeks before she passed away.
Phillips also helped lead his mother to faith when he was in college and he performed her funeral service with joy, believing she had gone to heaven.
“I stand before you blessed beyond words and grateful to God for his grace in my life,” he said.
