Meet the Pastor
About Our Pastor: Keith Badowski
My main calling as a pastor is to help people to grow in their relationship with Christ through teaching God’s Word with practical and clear application to their lives. When I prepare to preach, scripture and prayer guides the creation of the message. Often, I weave in storytelling and vivid illustrations. The litmus test for all my sermons is whether they agree completely with the Bible passage for that day. As a lifelong creative writer and avid reader, my aim in every message is to be focused, clear, easy to follow, and concise. Sometimes my enthusiasm for the topic stretches the concise aspect, but I try! I have faith that God speaks through me and rely fully on the guidance of the Holy Spirit within me.
In July of 2021, Christi and I began ministering at Watoola Methodist Church. Prior to this assignment, I served for 17 years at Epworth Methodist in Phenix City, AL as the Assistant to the Pastor. While at Epworth, I discovered my passion and spiritual gifts for teaching faith through leading the Disciple Bible Study series, Stephen Ministry, and various studies of individual books of the Bible. For years people would occasionally ask me if I planned to go to seminary, and my answer was always, “No plans unless the Lord tells me otherwise.” In April of 2019 when I had a passing thought about applying to Asbury Theological Seminary, I sensed the Spirit cheering me on to “Go, go, go!” During Summer Session 2019, I began work on the M.Div. at Asbury and expect to finish in Spring 2029.
For recreation, I read mystery novels aloud to Christi. We enjoy taking trips to other countries. Our dog Lucy, who is a bit of a drama queen, entertains us every day. As I have since I was a child, I read Spider-Man comic books. I’m a fan of the obscure British progressive rock band Marillion. I love hanging out with my “Poetry Tribe,” a group of five poets who meet twice annually for a long weekend together. And my favorite activity bar none is sitting in a quiet spot with a cup of hot coffee and a good book.