Charles Stevens (pastor) - Early Professional Life

Early Professional Life

After his graduation from Wake Forest, he entered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Charles, during his time here, served as pastor of Switzer Baptist Church, in Forks of Elkhorn, Kentucky. In 1917, in the midst of his seminary work, and his pastorate, the United States entered into the Great War. World War I raged across the European Continent and in the United States, Charles Stevens decided to suspend his graduate work and join the Army. Although he wanted to serve as a pilot in the Army, he was posted stateside as a chaplain for nearly two years. After he was discharged, Charles continued at Southern Theological and earned a Th.M. and then began work on his doctorate.

Charles began his first pastorate in 1923 at Cliff Side Baptist Church in Cliff Side, North Carolina. During his tenure there he led the church in the building of a new building. Then on December 1, 1925, Charles accepted the call to be pastor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at Salem Baptist Church. He stayed about three years at Salem Baptist. He was very busy during this time. He reorganized the Sunday School and also drew up plans and had work begun on a parsonage. It was during this time as well that became acquainted with Grace Weaver, who had been a student at Southern Theological. They courted and were married on August 19, 1926. Their first child, Grace, was born in September 1927.

Charles left Salem when he accepted the call to the First Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama. This ministry marked a major turning point in the life of Charles Stevens. Throughout his ministry, actually starting when he was in college, he was a theistic evolutionist, as well as a postmillennialist. However, a Bible teacher there in Alabama began influencing Charles Stevens. Charles searched the Bible and found “dispensational distinctives and the premillennial return of Christ." With this turn in his way of interpreting the Scriptures came great consequences. His doctoral dissertation on “the influence of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ on the period 1517 to 1648,” which was told from a postmillennial viewpoint, was abandoned. His doctoral work at Southern was never completed. About five years were spent in Alabama. He then was called, once again, to Salem Baptist Church.