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Alderman celebrates 25 years at Bible Baptist
Bible Baptist - Alderman
Dr. Max Alderman - photo by Luke Martin/staff

Dr Alderman pastor

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When Max Alderman was a young child, he had an interest in becoming a preacher. His dad decided to build him a miniature pulpit for him to preach from and his brother was the music director every Sunday morning in their home.
    "He'd lead the music and I'd do the preaching," Alderman said. "And every week our dog, Spot, would get saved."
    Alderman has moved on from preaching to his canine companion to a larger, and hopefully more responsive, audience as the pastor of Bible Baptist Church where he has served for 25 years.
    Making the milestone even more meaningful to Alderman is that Bible Baptist is the church he grew up in. In fact, there's a picture that sits in the hallway of the church of the ground breaking for the previous location when Alderman was only four years old.
    While he was playing a preacher as a child, it wasn't until the ninth grade when he made a commitment to God to dedicate his life to Him at a youth camp. After high school, he went to Bible College and served as pastor at two different churches while in school. Shortly before he graduated, he was contacted by Bible Baptist about the possibility of returning to his home church to be its pastor.
    And while he said he wouldn't change a thing about his experiences, he admitted there was some adjusting that had to be done on the part of several people when he returned home.
    "I had to live down a few things, but it wasn't real difficult," he said. "There were some people I knew in high school who didn't see me as 'Max the pastor' but saw me as 'Max the classmate'," he said.
    Another unusual situation for Alderman was the fact that by preaching at his home church, he became the pastor to his parents. He said it could have been strange, but his parents were so well respected in the church that it made the entire transition easy for him.
    He also had the difficult task of preaching the funeral of both his parents, an experience he called an "honor."
    During his time at Bible Baptist, the church has undergone changes, most notably is their current building located on Highway 24 across from Mill Creek Park.
    The church purchased the 15 acres before the park was constructed, but waited until they felt God's calling to move to that location. It wasn't until three years ago the church left it's original home on Highway 80 to its current spot.
    "It was a very exciting and very challenging time," he said.
    In addition to his ministry at Bible Baptist, Alderman has worked to expand his ministry by writing several books, including ones on the book of John and the book of Revelation.
    Alderman said writing books helps keep him focused on biblical passages and to resist the temptation to stray from it in his sermons. In fact, a large part of his books are sermons he's preached.
    And even though he's been at the church for 25 years, he said he's never seriously considered leaving. In fact, he said he's more passionate about his work now than he was when he first started.
    "There's still a lot to do and a lot to accomplish,' he said.
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