Pastor John remembers the day of his salvation as the greatest day of his life. On October 11, 1981, John Milton was a 14-year-old boy in attendance at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. An Evangelist came to his church in Oxford, Florida and preached a message from Mark 8:38. In this verse, Jesus was talking and he said that “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Prior to that day, John was more concerned about what his friends that sat on the back pew of the Church thought of him than he was about his eternal destination. At the end of that message, and after waiting through several stanzas of the invitation song, John finally walked down the aisle to the altar. The Evangelist went over the verses with him, showing John his sin and his separation from the Lord, and how that he could simply receive the gift of forgiveness and salvation by accepting Christ as his Savior. He prayed and did just that. He remembers standing up in front of the church with a grin so large that he could not shut his mouth. The weight of his sin, the prospect of Hell, and the emptiness inside was gone. It was, has been, and will be for all of eternity the greatest day of his life.

Pastor John was raised in central Florida, in a small town called Oxford, where he spent his Middle School and High School years. Prior to that, home was wherever his dad was stationed with the Navy. John remembers living in California, Spain, Texas, and Florida. Soon after his graduation from High School in 1985, he enlisted with the United States Air Force. He went on to be an Air Traffic Controller stationed in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was there that the second most important thing in his life happened. He met a beautiful young lady named Kim Aure while roller skating, and in March of 1990, she would become Kim Milton.

From Grand Forks he applied and was accepted into Officer Candidate School with the United States Coast Guard. He spent three years working in New Orleans as part of the Marine Safety Office, before being accepted into Flight School. He then spent five years in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, followed by five years in Kodiak, Alaska. While stationed in Elizabeth City and Kodiak, he primarily flew the HH-60 “Jayhawk” for Search and Rescue missions.

In 2005, John could no longer resist the pull of the Holy Spirit to enter the ministry full-time, so he retired from the service and went to work with a good friend as his Assistant Pastor in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. The Lord tremendously blessed their work there. During his fifth year there, the Lord started moving him towards a Senior Pastor position, somewhere. After speaking with his pastor about it, within a week a man called him about a Pastorate position in a small church in Kimball, Michigan. The Lord had moved this man to call him, without any knowledge of the conversation he just had the week prior with his pastor.  After nine fruitful years in MI., the Lord again was moving him to a new location.  

There were a number of distinct signs from the Lord of His calling to Alabama, and God’s Way Baptist Church that sealed the decision to accept the call and become the Pastor.  He cannot wait to see what the Lord will allow us to accomplish.