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“It is going to be great for me,” Jim Bell said. “I think it testifies to love and encouragement of this congregation.”
Glen Bell is the executive pastor of the 4,000 member Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Ind.
“I am excited to come back and be able to visit the church I grew up in,” said Glen Bell in a phone interview with Indianapolis. “The church was wonderful and nurturing place with wonderful people.”
Originally from Charlotte, the Bell brothers and their parents, Susie and the late W.D. Bell moved to Roanoke Rapids when Jim Bell was 11 and Glen Bell was 8. Their parents owned and operated the Fairfax Motel and Restaurant.
As members of United Methodist Youth Fellowship at the church, both would help to lead the worship on Youth Sunday. Later as college students, they provided worship on United Methodist Student Day. Both Bells took confirmation class when they were in the sixth grade and joined the church.
Jim Bell said the late Pastor Allen Lee baptized him.
“I have a vivid memory of that,” Jim Bell said. “He used a lot of water and I remember it running down my head.”
Jim Bell has served as pastor of churches in the North Carolina Conference in Enfield and Eden United Methodist Churches in Benson and Hampstead and as an associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Rocky Mount.
“It is a significant church,” he said of Rosemary United. “I have memories of a loving, supporting and encouraging congregation.” Jim Bell can remembers having a youth Sunday when he was a senior in high school. He gave the message and can remember how everyone was so encouraging.
Jim attended Manning Elementary School and graduated from Roanoke Rapids Junior Senior High School in 1975. He received an associate’s degree from Louisburg College in Louisburg and a bachelor’s in bible from Christian Ministries from Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Va. He graduated from Duke Divinity School.
When he became a certified candidate, the church members gave him a Bible dictionary. For his graduation from Duke Divinity, the church gave him a black pulpit robe.
“They’ve supported me the whole time,” he said. “It was very encouraging and affirming for me.”
But throughout it all, he never envisioned himself being pastor at the church he grew up.
“It was really surprising,” Jim Bell said when he received the phone call last year. “I never dreamed that I’d be the pastor of the church.”
This North Carolina Conference (from Burlington to the coast) encompasses 56 counties and 800 churches. Jim Bell could have ended up at any church. “The possibility of being appointed here was very small,” he said. “I felt it was a honor and privileged to be able to come here and give back to the congregation that had such a profound and positive influence on my spiritual development.”
Jim Bell preached his first sermon on June 29 and said it was emotional.
“It was a powerful thing to preach to some of the people who were my teachers in high school,” he said. “This appointment for me is unlike any I’ve ever been at because I grew up here.”
He said he can remember standing on the pulpit looking into the congregation and being flooded with various emotions.
“The sanctuary is a holy place for me,” Jim Bell said. “This is a place where I professed my faith.”
“It has been so great to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances. And to meet a number of new people,” he said.
Jim Bell and his wife, Melody, have two children. Their son, Andy is in his second year at Yale University Divinity School. Their daughter, Sarah is a junior at Greensboro College.
Jim Bell said his son is looking at campus ministry or teaching. “He is still seeking out what God would have him do,” he said. “He is having a great experience.”
Glen Bell said his brother has always been a great example.
“He is a wonderful pastor, brother and son,” Glen Bell said. “I was not surprised at all when he experienced a calling to the ministry.”
Glen Bell said he can remember being a young boy and sitting in the pews at Rosemary UMC even after 30 years.
“It will be very different to come back after all these years as a pastor,” he said.
Glen Bell also grew up in Rosemary UMC. He attended Manning Elementary School, Chaloner Middle School and graduated from Roanoke Rapids High School in 1978. He received a bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master in divinity from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond and a doctorate of ministry from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Rosemary UMC was part of a church softball league until the late eighties. Jim Bell said former team members and coaches are planning to meet at Ledgarwood Park after a covered dish luncheon at the church. “We’re going to see if we can still run around,” he said.
Jim Bell said he has been asked several times about the fact both brothers are pastors. He pulled out a 1978 church directory with pictures of the different families in the church and turned to page with his family pictured.
“Both of our parents were strong committed Christians who lived their faith,” he said. “They provided an atmosphere that enabled ups to response to God’s call.
Their mother lives in a nursing center in Durham and due to her health will not be able to attend Sunday.
“I’m sure she would love to be here Sunday,” Jim Bell said.
Glen Bell was working in a soup kitchen and emergency shelter in Richmond when he felt called to the ministry.
Jim Bell said his calling was a “boom but a gradual experience.” During his sophomore and junior year, he was trying to figure out a major and thought about business administration since his father majored in it at college.
“I prayed and prayed that summer and talked to other Christians,” he said.
At the end of the summer, he chose Bible Christian ministry. “I felt God was leading me to Bible Christian ministry,” he said.
So he explored different paths such as a camp counselor at Camp Hanover and as a senior working with the Wesley Foundation at James Madison University.
“Out of those experiences, it was the work in the church that resonated with me,” he said. This is when he applied to Duke Divinity School. At the school, he did his field education experience with pastors from different churches.
“In those experiences, I felt confirmed that God was calling me,” he said. “It was a boom one night. It was a step by step process.”
Glen Bell and his wife, Anne, have four children. Laurel Bell is a 2009 graduate of the University of Kentucky. Meredith Bell is a freshman at Ball State University while son Matthew is a freshman at Indiana University. Rachel Bell is a junior at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis.
He previously served as pastor of Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church near Laurinburg and Faith Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. Glen Bell said he is looking forward to Sunday. “It is very exciting for me,” he said. “I am delighted at the opportunity to reconnect with my home congregation.”
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