David B. Buie has done something very few have or ever will achieve.
He has pastored local churches for 50 years. Most Baptist ministers over time move around. Some never come close to five decades as a pastor and some churches make changes in who will lead their congregation.
The current pastor of Little Horse Creek Baptist Church will be honored with a walk-through reception Aug. 29 between 3 and 5 p.m. at the church. Everyone is invited.
Buie started pastoring at an early age. He was preaching from a pulpit when he was 14 years old in the Savannah area and he even pastored a church for 40 consecutive Sundays as a young teen.
He accepted the Powers Baptist Church in Effingham County as a pastor in August 1960. He was ordained to the Gospel ministry by Immanuel Baptist Church in Savannah the next month.
He pastored churches during his 50 years only in the Middle Baptist Association.
“That is unusual,” said Buie of his tenure in the pulpit.
Then he came to Screven County where he was the pastor of two and a half churches from 1961-1966. Those churches were Wades Baptist Church in Cooperville and Union Baptist Church near Newington. While a pastor in the Savannah area, Buie said would make routine trips to Sylvania.
“It seemed like we were in style one day a week,” said Buie, who would spend time at the residences of Clyde and Dixon Hollingsworth.
Between separate stints, Buie was a pastor at Friendship Baptist Church for a total of 29 years.
He accepted the pastorate of the Friendship Baptist Church in 1966 and remained there until 1968 when he let for seminary.
Buie attended Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City in 1968. He then returned to be the pastor of Friendship from 1969 to 1995.
In 1996, the minister accepted the pastorate of the Little Horse Creek Baptist Church, where he pastors today.
He has officiated more than 400 funerals, with 275 of those conducted in Screven County.
“I had some where I had three a day,” Buie said.
Buie said Little Horse Creek Baptist Church has seen remarkable growth over the last 13 years. During that time, membership has grown by more than 100.
“That is incredible for a small church,” he said.
At Little Horse Creek Baptist Church, Buie has performed almost 60 baptisms.
“I love serving in church work,” he said.
Little Horse Creek Baptist Church, which will be 180 years old in 2012, is the fifth oldest church in the Middle Baptist Association and is within the 60 oldest churches in Georgia.
“And it isn’t in any major traffic flow,” he said.
Along with being a pastor, Buie was an educator of 37 years before his retirement in 2002.
While he also was an administrator, assistant principal, curriculum director and in adult education, Buie said teaching was his love.
“I thoroughly enjoy being a preacher. I felt very on that this was what I was called to do,” he said. “Very soon I will turn 70 years old and I have done this virtually all my life. Pastoring is what’s in my heart.”
He said he enjoyed working with the neighborhood youth corps program that put children to work.
Buie, who married Edith Yvonne Youmans Buie on Sept. 9, 1961, also has farmed, but pastoring is the profession he enjoys the most.
Screven County, he said, has changed since he came in 1961. Back then the town would shut down on Wednesdays as people would go to evening worship services. That has changed over time, but Buie said he has noticed the return of the trend.
“I have seen things,” Buie said. “Entire families are returning to church. I like that very much. It used to be just a family member. Parents take very seriously having their families in church.”
“One person once told me that Sylvania is a little taste of Eden and I wholeheartedly agree,” said Buie, who has three children and seven grandchildren.
“I will continue to pastor. I have been blessed with fairly good health,” he said. “Jesus is No. 1 always and nothing else and integrity must be there.”
Buie is a member of the Remember Brier Creek historical committee with Jason Beard, Margaret Evans, Al Freeland, Norm Hill, Alex Lee and Caroline Pope.
On the Historic Preservation Advisory Council, Freeland represents the county, while Buie represents the city of Sylvania.
“I really enjoy doing that,” Buie said.