He has referred to himself as “The King of all Clods from Hartselle, Ala.” However, those who know him regard him as a gracious Christian gentleman and the “Dean of all Southern Baptist Evangelists.”

He is an unassuming, unpretentious man who walks with God. He is thoughtful and considerate of others – a great encourager. He has a passion for the things that matter to God – His only begotten Son, the infallible Word of God, the preaching of the gospel, the health of the church, and the souls of men.

He preaches with pathos and power. In fact, there is a special anointing about him. His sermons are profoundly simple and simply profound.

I am speaking, of course, of Junior Hill, who celebrated his seventieth birthday this summer. As a pastor I always loved having Junior Hill come to preach in my churches for a revival or Harvest Day. He was a remarkable blessing to the church and we always had a good harvest of souls.

With the demise of great and godly revivalists and evangelists like J. Harold Smith, Jesse Hendley, Stephen Olford, and Vance Havner, it is good to still have a man with a heart for God like Junior Hill on the scene.

Jerry Vines has stated, “I love Junior Hill because he helps me love Jesus more.”

We now have the autobiography of Junior Hill, entitled They Call Him Junior. I am compelled to tell you that it is a splendid, down-to-earth book that gives the reader an inside-the-heart look at the life and ministry of the author. In the volume you will find self-depreciating anecdotes, side-splitting humor, and illustrations of life’s disappointments and joys as well as evidences of God’s blessings and grace.

In the foreword of the book, Bailey Smith writes, “I’ve learned some things about this man of God. He would rather help than hurt somebody. He would prefer being ignored than bragged about. He would rather receive less offering than say something about money. He would rather be faithful to the Word of God than be sensational.”

Junior exquisitely paints a verbal picture of the place of his birth, a frame “tenant house” in Snow Hill Hollow near Hartselle, Ala. His aunts thought he had been stillborn and pronounced him DOA (dead on arrival), but God had other plans for “June Bug” as his mother called him.

Junior’s autobiography is filled with quips and self-effacing sketches of his life that causes one to chuckle in chapter after chapter. For example, he talks about the P.E. teacher in school who instructed the class to do some tumbling exercises whereby the tumbler would dive over two people lined up side by side on their hands and knees, do a somersault, and “try to come up on the other side still alive and without any broken bones.”

Hill continues, “Can’t you see a fat clumsy boy vainly trying to do that? Or worse yet, can’t you just imagine the thin, skinny kids down on their knees fearing for their very lives and desperately hoping the fat tumbler doesn’t fall on top of them?”

Hill recalls, “I think that’s why the gym floor was redone shortly after I enrolled in that class!”

The evangelist’s autobiography recounts the moral influence of his parents and the spiritual influence of Zula Montgomery and First Baptist Church of Hartselle. His football days were days of joy, his full athletic scholarship to Livingston State College an unexpected surprise, but his spiritual journey is articulated with extreme clarity and unusual transparency.

Hill tells about his salvation as an 18-year-old, the doubts that plagued him twelve years later, the wonderful assurance he received from the Lord, and the Sunday morning his pastor announced to the congregation that he had been called to preach.

He writes, “Overweight, bashful and shy, the product of an unchurched background, and with pitifully little Bible knowledge, I had absolutely nothing to qualify or commend me. If a poll had been taken among our church members that Sunday morning I would probably have been named the run-a-way winner in the ‘most UNLIKELY to succeed’ category.”

Junior tells about God bringing Carole Splawn into his life “with one gentle swoop of His mighty grace” and their marriage of almost fifty years.

There is not room in this brief editorial to even give a hint of what Junior writes about regarding his role as a pastor, his years on the road as an evangelist, and the defining moments of his life and ministry. You just need to get the book (from www.juniorhillministries.com), read it, and rejoice in God’s gift to Southern Baptists – Junior Hill.