Meet the Staff
Pastor Mary Montei Clark
If you were in church on Mother’s Day 2013, when she was a guest pastor, and on Father’s Day 2013, when she began her interim service at Providence, you received a good introduction to who Mary Montei Clark is.
On Mother’s Day she told the incomparable story of being switched at birth and how her mother recovered her, recognizing her with absolute assurance after just a few hours of motherhood. On Father’s Day she talked about her family—her two sisters and her 30 brothers, including the three Larrys. And the way we’re all part of God’s family, children of a loving Abba, Papa. And you’ll regularly hear more such stories because she believes that she can best preach the gospel through personal stories.
It’s an amazing story. Born on a Michigan farm, growing up in an Eastern Kentucky mission, going off to college with the absolute certainty that she was done with church work. Meeting her husband Stuart in what seemed at the moment like a chance encounter. Helping him run a local nightspot. Moving to a new community and building an even more popular college hang-out, the Crazy Horse Saloon. And knowing one day, absolutely, that it was time to move on.
Creating a new business cleaning and rustproofing cars and then one day—totally unexpectedly—while working in opposite corners of their garage, both hearing the voice of God announcing that Stuart was to go to seminary. But there was a problem. The nearby Reformed Church in America (RCA) seminary wasn’t sure how it felt about a guy who’d earned his keep running a tavern.
But on his third try, with the backing of friends and associates all around the community, he was admitted—on the condition that he could pass seminary-level Greek in an eight-week summer program.
Ordained by the Reformed Church, Stuart was sent to Mobile in 1983 to create a new congregation. They started Anchor Church, on Cottage Hill Road across from Cottage Hill High School, and developed unbreakable ties to the community. But the church itself just couldn’t make it to 100 members, an absolute requirement in the RCA, she explains.
So they moved on to Long Island, where Stuart led a congregation in Manhassett and Mary went to work for the denomination, leading the women’s program from a valued but not quite full participant in church governance to a full partner in the denomination.
Daughters Sarah and Jen were both Murphy High School graduates, and as they reached adulthood, they chose to come back to Mobile, followed by their brother Stuart Charles. So when Stuart retired, Mobile was calling again.
Stuart was quickly brought into the Presbytery of South Alabama, and Executive Presbyter Samford Turner—intrigued by Mary’s skills and church leadership experience—asked whether she’d ever considered the commissioned lay pastor program.
The suggestion immediately called to mind studies she’d done on behalf of women in the RCA—studies of the Presbyterians’ wonderful lay pastor program. Immediately, she enrolled in a distance learning program through Dubuque Seminary while her husband took temporary leadership of Bay Minette Presbyterian.
At Samford's urging, both attended interim training classes at Montreat because the Presbytery has such a need for interim pastors.
“I really feel like this pastorate is a gift from God,” she says, then quickly clarifies. Not that she sees herself as a gift from God to Providence, but that she sees the opportunity to serve Providence as a gift from God to her. And she’s very comfortable with the idea of a small church. “Small churches have the advantage of connections,” she said. Small congregations need to be careful to include newcomers and to remain open to change, but if they can manage that, they can help members and visitors alike find a sense of home for which so many people yearn.
Administrative Assistant Amy Fletcher Messer
If you step into the office at Providence these days and have a feeling of "deja vu”—a deep-seated sense that you've known that new administrative assistant for years and years—you're right. You may remember her as a preschooler in the old trailer days. Maybe as an elementary school student in a Logos class or lifting her voice in song with the Logos choir alongside Bethany Andrews, Sarah Clever, Emily Forsyth, Jessi Gadomski, and Brittny Roberts. Maybe as a student at Davidson High School. Or perhaps as she headed off to college at South.
Amy Fletcher Messer first came to Providence with her parents, Tom and Laura Fletcher, as a four-year-old, as best she can remember, and she was active in the church through all her elementary and high-school years. At South she studied psychology, not really sure what sort of career she planned but knowing that people are always interesting and that she couldn't go wrong in learning more about them.
Summers during high school and all through college, she worked part-time at the Independent Living Center. At first, she answered phones at the day program for special needs adults. By the time she graduated, she was working as an aide, helping in classes and working her way up to a post as an independent living specialist.
"I loved it," she said, but eight years was enough.
She moved on to Dixon Elementary School in Irvington, where she was a technology para-professional, running the computer lab, keeping the computers in working order, and teaching computer basics to the children.
Along the way, her long-time friendship with Jeremy Messer progressed to something even more important than friendship, and four years ago, the two were married.
Through it all, Amy has spent time each year on mission trips to Guatemala. "I love doing missions in Guatemala," Amy says. "I've been to Guatemala eight times with a variety of churches. I even convinced Dad to come along last year. Jeremy and I sponsor a little girl, Adela, at Casa Para Niños children's home in San Bartolome. This is the first summer in a long time that I haven't gotten to visit her. The Guatemala-shaped hole in my heart is feeling very empty!"
When son Aiden was born on Valentine's Day 2013, a full-time job at an elementary school wasn't right any longer, so she spent several months at home with their infant son before joining the Providence staff in late May 2013, bringing Aiden to work with her. February 20, 2015, brought another change to the Messer household when daughter Ansley was born. Now Ansley accompanies Amy to work while Aiden enjoys quality time with his Messer and Wilson grandmothers.
Amy says she enjoys the church work because she interacts with people all day and fills the time with repetitive tasks that she finds very satisfying. "I love to accomplish a lot of small tasks all day long," she says, and she also enjoys the creativity of designing slides and bulletins.
Amy and Jeremy, who is the band director at Davidson High School, attend North Mobile Baptist, where he plays in the orchestra, she sings in the choir, and both enjoy the nurture and support of a young marrieds small group.
Director of Music Ministries Laura Wilson
First there was Jan Neverdahl, then Evelyn Watkins, then David and Chris and Justin . . . and each time one of them left the position of choir director at Providence, Laura Wilson stepped up as interim.
“Then one Sunday, the word ‘interim’ disappeared from my title in the bulletin,” Laura says. “I never sought the job; it just found me.”
Laura admits to feeling “inadequate” for the job since her formal music training is at the piano, rather than as choir director. Back in the early 1990s, when Laura first came to Providence, she was basically just stopping by. She would come to help out Jan or accompany a special number, and then race across town to worship with her family at Westminster Presbyterian.
By the mid 1990s, she and her late husband Tom and their daughter Amy, now church administrative assistant, had moved to Providence. Laura has continued to be part of the church after Tom’s death and her subsequent marriage to Ken Wilson.
And while the music selection at Providence isn’t what many expect at a Presbyterian Church, she notes, it has evolved with the church. While the music started with hymnbooks and standard hymns, very early on founding pastor Rev. Brant Baker changed that.
“Brant brought a guitar and the rest is history.”
In fact, Laura says, she works hard to select music from all the varied traditions that matter to the varied members of Providence.
Laura first took piano lessons in third grade—starting when her older sister quit in a huff. Unlike her sister, Laura loved it and even started college at South as a music major before opting for the more stable career path of a teacher. After graduation, she spent 19 years in the classroom, four more as a reading counselor and an additional six more as a reading intervention teacher. Even while she taught elementary school, music was fundamental to her life.
“My love of music was instilled by my dad,” she says, and she often accompanied him.
But the love of the music and the message of the music have continued to move her. Today, she works with Pastor Mary to make sure the message and the music augment one another.
”It’s such an integral part of worship.”
Children's Church Worker Amy Westerberg
Each Sunday morning as the sermon begins, Amy Westerberg gets up and leaves. And like the Pied Piper, she leads a string of the smallest of Providence worshippers out of the sanctuary. For the next 20 minutes or so, she leads Children's Church, the Providence Sunday school program for preschoolers and early elementary children.
Amy says she can’t remember a time when she didn’t go to Providence—where her mom, Leslie Rey, has been clerk of session, choir alto, and frequent flautist before moving across the Bay. Her grandparents, Graham and Jo Hayes, have been at Providence practically since it was founded. So it’s a natural fit for Amy. Moreover, since she’s a teacher in her business life, it’s a natural fit again. At work, she teaches older children—middle and high schoolers. But the younger ones are a special treat, she says.
Her goal with the children? “I just want to expose them to church and to Jesus and to loving each other. To learn how to interact in the world as a good person and a good Christian.”
And examples of that sort of person are plentiful at Providence, she believes. “Providence is just good people, very friendly and kind. Honestly, they are the type of people who would give the shirt off their back and very wholesome.”
Praise Band
Steve Crenshaw, Bass Guitar
Steve Crenshaw has been a part of Providence almost since the beginning. Early members Dale
and Cecilia Estes invited Steve and his wife, Sharon, to church.
“With two teenage daughters, we were looking for a church,” he says.
Founding pastor Brant Baker was at Providence at that time and, notes Steve, Brant himself was
quite a musician. Steve mentioned that he played bass; Brant asked him to join the music team,
and the rest is history. Steve has played at most every service since then. He was also part of the group Reaffirmation with Brant and other Providence musicians.
Steve started playing in high school because his friend, a drummer, wanted to start a band. So he got a regular guitar, removed the top two strings and played bass parts.
“Then my dad took me to a music store and told me to get anything I wanted, adding that you’re only as good as the tools you have.”
Steve chose wisely and played long after the high school group had gone by the wayside. He played through his Navy years and then with a band, even for a while, paying the rent with his music.
But the strain of touring was too much. He settled into his job managing facilities at Springhill Hospital and kept on playing at church. Now he’s working part-time at Spring Hill Health Services, playing in the party band Tony B and the Opperators, and being a regular in the Providence praise band.
“I like the praise music and playing with Jimmy and Laura,” he says. “I like the message that it brings. A lot of people respond to music even more than the spoken word. Music can reach people who otherwise couldn’t be reached.”
Jimmy Roebuck, Drums
Jimmy Roebuck taught himself to play drums. And he taught himself well. From his late teens till just about 20 years ago, he toured with bands, taking a break to work in a music store, but always performing.
When the touring was too much, he began working closer to home and landed a part-time gig playing at The Way church across the Bay. About the same time, his wife Aggie and daughter Myra began attending Providence.
“I found out they needed a drummer here, and I came, so I could go to church with my daughter and my wife.”
Now he plays in the praise band each week, working alongside Steve Crenshaw and Laura Wilson.
Though his day job has transitioned from drums to music store to pest control, his love for drums has never changed.
“You can make a love of music on drums, if it’s done right,” he says.
He loves nearly every musical genre but has a special place in his heart for praise music.
“I love the worship songs and their positive message,” he says.
Treasurer Bob Ellis
Multimedia—
Adria Mosley, Camera
Jude Mosley, Computer
