Sammy Allen’s legacy is one of faith and fellowship
Sammy Allen, the founding pastor of Concord Baptist Church, passed away on Aug. 2 at the age of 82. His legacy is one of faith, fellowship and dedication, both to the church and the community.
“Everywhere he went, whether it was a grocery store or barber shop or on the sidewalk, he had gospel tracks in his pocket and was telling everybody about Jesus. He was witnessing to everybody. It didn’t matter what your social status was or what type of upbringing you had. He loved everybody and wanted everybody to know the Lord,” said Associate Pastor Randy Sutherland. “He was the greatest Christian that I probably will ever know, literally hundreds of others would probably say the same thing.”
Sutherland described Allen
as an “extremely approachable” man who never forgot his Resaca roots and who never passed up the opportunity to share his faith with others.
Born on Oct. 4, 1937, Allen grew up working on a family farm in Resaca. He was saved by the grace of God in the summer of 1955 and immediately began talking with others about their own relationship with the Lord. Soon after, Allen was invited to speak as a lay preacher in Sunday School classes, cottage prayer meetings and church services across the region.
Allen announced his calling to preach in 1961 and became pastor of both Maple Grove Baptist Church and New Prospect Baptist Church. He served as pastor at both churches for several months until, in October of that same year, he helped organize what was then Concord Baptist Mission into Concord Baptist Church. By 1964, Allen left his day job in the carpet mill to pastor and evangelize.
Also during the late 1960s, Allen was inspired to create the Faith Baptist Camp. The first camp meeting was held in June 1970. The camp has been held three times a year ever since, offering services and meals three times a day.
Sutherland said that Allen remained actively involved with the camp all the way up until the end and said he was an amazing pastor for Concord, where he served for 59 years.
“The amount of time he was with the church is a great testimony to the influence he had. You can’t stay anywhere for more than 50 years without God’s blessing. I don’t think anybody realizes the impact he’s had on folk’s lives,” Sutherland said. “No one will ever replace him. Someone said to me the other day, ‘The Lord only made one of him and will never make another one,’ and I feel that is true. He was the kind of man who made a difference to everyone.”
Sutherland knows this firsthand. The associate pastor, now in line to become pastor of the church, credits Allen with instilling in him messages of faith as a young boy that later brought him back to the faith as an adult.
We attended Concord Church when I was a child. My grandmother was actually a member out there. So were my parents. We ended up leaving for a while and I was gone until I was a little older. Everything came back around when I was 30 years old,” Sutherland said. “I trusted the Lord and I trusted Christ at that point and I remembered that place when I was a boy where there was a man who trusted the Lord so well. I remembered him from when I was a child.”
He returned to visit Concord to hear Allen preach once again and said Allen remembered him instantly. He encouraged Sutherland to testify that first Sunday morning. Sutherland agreed, and he became a member of the church on Oct. 26, 1997.
”Mr. Allen was a great man of God. He was greatly used and I am not the only person whose life was changed because of him,” Sutherland said. “I have been with the church ever since that day, and I am now 63.”
Allen is survived by his wife Jimmie Lou Allen, two sons and a daughter.