MINISTRY MATCH
Husband, wife follow divine calling; their journey leads them to OKC church
Husband and wife ministers' journey leads them to Oklahoma City church
Ministers Elvyn and Bessie Hamilton met when he was a student at a college in her native Alabama.
The two married in 1995 and spent almost 20 years in Kentucky pursuing ministry careers and raising their family before returning to Alabama in 2018, intent on staying for good.
Instead, they find themselves in Oklahoma as the new pastors of a prominent church in northeast
Oklahoma City.
What a difference a year makes. The Hamiltons, both 48, are the new leaders of Quayle United Methodist Church, 1001 N Everest.
They are co-pastors of the house of worship, while Bessie also serves as the Wesley Foundation campus minister at Langston University.
The couple said they never thought of Oklahoma as a potential landing spot for ministry, but now they see it as a wonderful fit for their family and vocation.
“We weren't necessarily looking. We didn't know anybody here,” the Rev. Elvyn Hamilton said. “It was like divine intervention led us here.”
Divine guidance
The pair said they know a lot about providence. Before they were appointed to serve Quayle, which is celebrating its 129th anniversary this month, the husband and wife answered the Lord's call to ministry at different times.
Elvyn Hamilton, a Mississippi native, grew up attending both Baptist and United Methodist churches with his family. He said in his youth,
adults often told him he was going to grow up to be a minister. He said he felt the divine call to ministry when he was 18 years old and a freshman in college.
The Rev. Bessie Hamilton said she grew up as a Baptist “PK” or “preacher's kid.” She said she felt called to preach, but women were not allowed to become preachers in the traditional Baptist faith community she came from so she went to college to become an elementary school teacher instead. Eventually, she felt led to pursue the calling that her husband already had yielded to, and they became a two-minister household in 2008.
“I was not trying to do that because I had considered myself an introvert. But I love people,” she said.
The couple said they experienced divine intervention when Makaria, the oldest of their two daughters (the couple's second daughter, Manda, is a junior at Harding Charter Preparatory School) was born 15 weeks premature and weighing one pound. The infant also was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid builds up in the ventricles deep within the brain. The excess fluid increases the size of the ventricles and puts pressure on the brain.
Bessie Hamilton said doctors told them that Makaria's quality of life would be limited, but she has defied that medical diagnosis and is now an 18-yearold freshman at Oklahoma City University.
“She's our miracle baby — from one pound to college,” Bessie Hamilton said, smiling. “They said she would never walk and here she is in college.”
Then in 2012, the couple's faith was tested once more: Bessie Hamilton was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The couple relied on strength from the Lord to sustain them as she underwent treatment. Doctors said she was cancer free in 2013, and the ministers said the trial made them appreciate God's grace.
“In all the challenges you face, God's grace will help you come through,” Elvyn Hamilton said. His wife agreed.
“Even with those experiences, you learn to value life — because you know in an instant, things could be different,” she said.
`A clear calling'
Elvyn Hamilton said he and his wife have learned to be risk takers, a trait they needed when they agreed to plant a United Methodist church in Montgomery, Alabama. They decided to leave Frankfort, Kentucky, where Elvyn served as a church pastor and African American coordinator for the United Methodist Church in Kentucky, to start a community church at the invitation of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of t he United Methodist Church.
Their church, called The Source: A New Community of Faith, opened its doors in 2014, with services held in different places like a church gymnasium. The pair have a passion for outreach activities that meet the needs of the community and they were immersed in such activities as an after-school program, a television ministry and a campus ministry at Auburn University when leaders with the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church asked if they would consider the pastoral post at Quayle.
The pair visited Oklahoma City several times before realizing that God had a place in the metro in need of their ministry gifts.
“I thought the city was wonderful. We liked it and the people who brought us in, the staff and parish committee were welcoming. We were overwhelmed,” Elvyn said
Ultimately, the Rev. Jimmy Nunn, bishop of the Oklahoma Conference of t he United Methodist Church, appointed the pair to lead Quayle.
“Elvyn and Bessie Hamilton are gifted, effective pastors with a clear calling, compelling stories and hearts for God and people,” he said.
“The Oklahoma Conference is fortunate to have them serving with us, and they are already making a positive impact on both the church and the community.”
The couple had high praise for conference leaders like Nunn, their district superintendent Rockford Johnson and members of the Quayle congregation.
“We probably have never experienced the kind of graciousness of the bishop and the conference here,” Bessie Hamilton said.
New ways to serve
Bessie Hamilton said she served as campus minister at Kentucky State University at one time so she feels enthusiastic for her post at Langston's Wesley Foundation campus ministry. Plus, she is a huge supporter of historically black colleges and universities like Langston, in part because she attended an HBCU.
Bessie Hamilton earned a bachelor's degree from Stillman College, an HBCU in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She earned a master's degree in elementary education from the University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama, and a master's of theological studies from Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She currently is working on her doctorate of education in interdisciplinary leadership. Elvyn Hamilton earned his bachelor's degree at the University of West Alabama, and he earned his theological degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
When not at Langston, Bessie Hamilton will be working with her husband to prepare for Quayle's 129th anniversary, with activities set to begin on Sept. 22 with a musical.
Elvyn Hamilton said they are gearing up for the opening of a Skyline Urban Ministries outreach at Quayle, which will i nclude a t hrift store. The Skyline outreach's grand opening will coincide with a community festival planned on Sept. 28 to celebrate the church anniversary.
The Hamiltons said the church will host a special dinner and ministry fair after anniversary worship services on Sept. 29 at the church.