Winning the Wolverines with love

In the past three years, Union Grove Baptist Church in McDonough has experienced exponential growth. Much of that growth can be attributed to pastor Buddy Norton, standing. Norton serves as chaplain to numerous athletes at Union Grove High School, and has seen many of them come to faith in Christ.

Robert “Buddy” Norton is 63 years old, but hangs out with teenagers and finds that it pays big dividends. Norton is pastor of Union Grove Church in McDonough and chaplain of a myriad of athletic teams at Union Grove High School. He has invested his life in the students and coaches in this Henry County educational institution that will be classified as a 5A school in terms of its athletic program starting this year.

Norton started a church in Jonesboro years ago, nurtured it for 19 years and watched it grow into a strong and viable fellowship, then for three years was engaged in an itinerate ministry of conducting evangelistic crusades in different countries.

In April of 1999 Norton and his wife moved to the Bahamas to accept the invitation of a group of people to come and serve as a missionary pastor for six months. It was during that time that he began to pray and ask God to show him His long range plans by September 19th.

Upon completing his assignment in the Bahamas, the Nortons moved to Friendsville, Tenn. to help the pastor of First Baptist Church in evangelism. One day the pastor said, “The Lord spoke to me and told me to tell you to go back to Georgia and start a church.” The day was September 17th.

A new start with a merge

Shortly after the Nortons came to McDonough, they stayed with their daughter’s family and started meeting with a small group. The Bible study began to grow, so Norton’s group united with East Lake Baptist Church and began to use their facilities. East Lake had experienced a declining attendance and only had about a dozen people when they agreed to link up with Norton’s core group and start a new church in the East Lake facilities.

Norton’s game plan was to meet with the two groups, share his vision, and try to get everyone on the same page. During those four weeks the church was completely remodeled and enough money was given in the first offering to completely pay for the refurbishing of the building. The new body of believers was named Union Grove Baptist Church.

In the past three years the church has experienced exponential growth. The average attendance is more than 300 with a high attendance of 461 in a building seating 300. Since 2001, the church has built an educational building, doubled the size of the worship center and added a second parking lot. Another building program is anticipated in the immediate future.

The new chaplain

Much of the growth can be attributed to the relationship Norton has developed with Union Grove High School, located about two miles from the church. The UGBC pastor has made incredible inroads into the school by demonstrating a desire to invest his life into theirs. Shortly after arriving in McDonough, Norton asked the school’s athletic director if he could come on board as chaplain for the football team.

Norton says, “Quite often the coaches will slip and call me ‘coach,’ not because I try to coach, but because I am ‘family’ to them.”

A local restaurateur asked Norton one day, “If I provide a nice breakfast for the football team each Thursday morning at 7:30 at no cost to them, will you come and preach to them?” The team chaplain jumped at the opportunity, which resulted in 50 athletes coming to faith in Christ last year.

Mike McDonald, head football coach of the UGHS Wolverines, appreciatively says, “If a player or coach needs someone to talk to, they know that Brother Buddy will be there for them. He is an immeasurable part of our staff.”

This past year Norton became chaplain for the basketball teams, including the 9th grade, junior varsity and varsity programs. Prior to each game the beloved “spiritual coach” conducted a chapel service in the dressing room. He even traveled with the team for many of the “away” games, but when circumstances prevented that, the basketball players met for prayer themselves.

New opportunities

As other teams, like the girl’s soccer team, found out about Norton’s love for student athletes they called on him to minister to them. On the morning of the state soccer playoffs, the girls on the UGHS team saw Norton in the bleachers and cried out in unison, “Brother Buddy, come out here and pray with us.”

The McDonough pastor is having an influence in the school and more of the school’s athletic teams are calling for his services. Norton really doesn’t mind. In fact, he emphasized, “I spend close to 19-20 hours a week at the school. If I don’t do this, I have no other way to effectively demonstrate that I really do care about them. Because of the large amounts of time I am there, the kids are willing to listen to me.”

Norton is not only reaching the students, he is reaching their families. He also has seven coaches attending his church. He declares, “Our church is blessed to see God at work in an arena, a public school, where God is ‘not supposed to be.’”

UGHS principal Rodney Bowler explained, “Brother Buddy has been a light that has shown brightly at Union Grove High School. He has demonstrated his commitment by providing the support and stability that our young people need in order to be successful in life.

“Being available is the critical component to his positive outreach. I am thankful for his involvement and appreciate his willingness to be there for our kids!”