Pastor celebrates 20 years of opening doors

Never mind Sunday services.

It is a Saturday at the Second Baptist Church in West Las Vegas, and the front doors are swinging.

A group of young women is heading in to organize a sorority charity event; a stream of clergy is ambling out from a Baptist Ministers Alliance meeting.

In the cozy rooms down the hall from the sanctuary, a health fair is being planned, a teen pregnancy prevention program is being designed, evangelism classes are being taught.

"The church is too valuable a piece of real estate to be used only on Sundays," said the Rev. Willie Davis, senior pastor.

For 20 years, Davis has led this congregation with that philosophy, turning a 300-member Sunday church into a 4,500-member neighborhood anchor. Today, Second Baptist offers employment services, counseling and radio and TV sermon broadcasts that reach more than 125,000 people.

This weekend, Davis and church members celebrate his 20th pastoral anniversary with a special program, a banquet and a musical.

"This anniversary is the crown of my Las Vegas ministry," Davis, 61, said. "It is a moment in the history of my life and this church that I am so proud of."

During his tenure, the church has been host to literacy courses and Equal Opportunity Board meetings, voter-registration rallies and workers' rights debates. He oversaw the construction of a new 1,600-seat sanctuary, initiated a jail ministry and created an academic tutorial program for high school students.

"He uplifts the community," said the Rev. Jesse Scott, a longtime Second Baptist associate pastor. "The black church has to tell people what's going on and what to do, and he's in the midst of everything.

"It's awfully tough to be a leader of any people and especially a pastor at a church," Scott said. "People come to him with all kinds of problems -- some have drug problems, some have employment problems, some have prison problems, discrimination problems, all kinds of problems -- and he treats them all like family. He's at the center of the community."

Inside Davis's red-carpeted office, a painting of Martin Luther King Jr. hangs front and center. A statue of Jesus Christ stands atop a bookshelf. On other walls, photos of Davis' family are interspersed with framed accolades from seminaries and seminars. He sits in a leather chair behind a desk stacked high with theological and political books.

"Politics is a part of this life," he said. "You have to be involved in all of the community, not just the spiritual part. But the underlying answer to all of the problems in society is in the church. How do we face the 21st century? How does our faith stand up to the challenges of today? In all cases, the one thing they can be sure of is faith. We should not change that."

Davis, who is married and the father of three, came to Las Vegas from Ogden, Utah, where he was pastor of New Zion Baptist Church. He was raised in Birmingham, Ala., in a strict Baptist tradition.

"When I was a kid, we went to church whether we wanted to or not," he said. "It's wild with kids now. But I'm trying to assist people in getting back to the basics. We should keep biblical principles in our children's faces all of the time. When I was a little boy -- shoot, we were drilled on all that stuff -- all the stories, all the verses, the lessons."

But today, a large part of his ministry is helping adults handle day-to-day challenges -- a task he counts as one of the most rewarding.

"I've seen people change. I've seen them come around to a better way of thinking -- change their ways for the better. And they really do it themselves, but they just need me to be a listening ear," he said.

"I did not realize that I affected so many people," Davis said. "But as tired as I get, I love coming up here to preach and teach. I've got another 10 years in me at least. Or let me say this: I'm going to do it until I feel comfortable that the Lord says 'Davis, stop and take a rest.' "

Weekend events in honor of Davis will start with a gospel choir concert at Second Baptist, 500 W. Madison, at 7 p.m. Friday. At 7 p.m. Saturday, there will be a banquet at the Golden Nugget hotel-casino. The anniversary celebration concludes with a special program at 3 p.m. Sunday at the church.

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