Athens' Prince Avenue Baptist celebrates Shettel's 25 years as youth pastor

Youth pastors tend to have short tenures in the churches they serve, but not Barry Shettel, who just concluded his 25th year as the student minister at Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens. Born in 1942, Shettel is still going strong in his 60s and Prince Avenue pastor Bill Ricketts says that he is more effective than ever.

To commemorate the momentous occasion the church is making it possible for Shettel to fulfill a dream that he has had since high school. Shettel is going to ride a bicycle across the continent. Concerning the bicycle trek across America, the forever young student minister explains, "I read about it in the book, Wandering Wheels, and it has been on my 'ten wildest dreams' list ever since."

Young at heart - Twenty-five years after being called to Prince Avenue Baptist Church as youth minister, Barry Shettel says the focus of his stay at the church has been relationships. Standing with him is Amanda Savage, a junior at Prince Avenue Christian School and member of the youth group.

In the late spring of 2006 Shettel plans to begin his journey from Coos Bay, Ore. and cycle east until he gets to the Atlantic Ocean, probably around Atlantic City, N. J. or Ocean City, Md. Several people, including some of the students in Shettel's youth ministry, have indicated a desire to join him in pedaling part of the way across the country.

Continuing to build

While many Shettel's age are beginning to think of retirement, he is continuing to think about how he can build meaningful relationship with the students in the Athens area. He admits, "I have to live outside my comfort zone because of my age. I have students in our ministry who are children of parents who have come through our youth ministry. Going to visit middle school students on campus often prompts statements such as, "Is this your grandfather?"

Shettel continues, "I have mellowed so much over the years and I have learned to love students no matter where they are in life. I believe every person is someone for whom Jesus died and that includes teenagers! Some of the 'impossibles' who have come into our student ministry have become some of my best friends and most committed students."

Having read Oscar Thompson's book Concentric Circles of Concern, Shettel observed, "Thompson said that 'relationships' is the most important word in the English language. I believe it is the most important word in my life. It is true that kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Shettel grew up in Shrewsbury, Pa. Although his family did not attend church, he was baptized (sprinkled) as a baby in the Methodist church in Shrewsbury. His mother also taught him and his brothers the prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

The Prince Avenue student minister recalled, "I would try to stay awake, thinking if I could stay awake during the night I wouldn't die and therefore wouldn't have to face God. Between my junior and senior year in high school ... I trusted Jesus to save me and lead me for the rest of my life. For the first time since learning mom's bedtime prayer, that night I prayed, 'If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take' and went right off to sleep."

After high school graduation Shettel entered the work force and two years later enlisted in the United States Air Force. In October 1964 the young airman was injured in an athletic competition and sent to the medical center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio.

Air Force Captain Bill Young repeatedly invited the young airman to church during the time he was in the medical center. Shettel commented, "I said I'd love to go until I found out that the invitation was to a Baptist church. I made up one excuse after another and when I finally ran out of excuses he still had more invitations."

Home away from home

When he finally went to First Baptist in Fairborn he was happy to discover that Margaret, a candy striper whom he had met in the orthopedic clinic at the hospital, was the organist. Shettel reported, "At First Baptist I found a home away from home. I was baptized by Pastor Roy Fish in 1965 and God really began to work in my life."

In addition to being blessed and nurtured by the ministry of the church the airman from Pennsylvania was blessed by a growing relationship with Margaret. Barry and Margaret were engaged on Nov. 4, 1968 and married the next April 8.

In 1969 while attending the University of Cincinnati Barry and Margaret Shettel transferred their membership to First Baptist Church in Fairfield, Ohio. Shettel recalls, "While we were there Pastor Aubert Rose, Jr. asked my wife and me if we would consider working with the youth at the church. I told him, 'No, I had no training and was probably too old to relate to students.' I was 27 at the time."

However, the Shettels prayed about the opportunity to minister to the youth of the church and agreed to serve. The Shettels' ministerial pilgrimage has taken them to Lynchburg, Va. where Barry completed his undergraduate degree at Liberty University and served as the college pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church under the ministry of Senior Pastor Jerry Falwell.

In September 1977 the Liberty graduate was called to serve as youth pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Clearwater, Fla., where he intended to plant his life for the remainder of his ministry.

Shettel said, "I had determined that when my family and I left Lynchburg we would go to a city and invest our lives in a church and a community for a lifetime. We went to Clearwater to stay. I wanted none of the church-to-church stuff I'd seen so many of my friends do."

Still ministering

"That changed in February 1980 when Pastor Bill Ricketts of Prince Avenue Baptist Church called." Now, twenty-five years after that call Shettel is still ministering to young people at the Athens church.

Shettel has observed that youth ministry has changed over the past thirty years. He has concluded, "For a long time we heard that most people who come to Jesus do so by age eighteen. Now, we are told that if a student doesn't come to know Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior by age thirteen, the chances are that he or she never will. That changes the way I look at student ministry. We need to reach students for Christ as soon as possible."