HUNTINGTON -- Sunday night's service at Jefferson Avenue Church of God was canceled to make time for a big birthday party at South Point High School.
The Rev. Paul Ray Farley turned 80 on Sunday. He has pastored Jefferson Avenue -- the only church he ever pastored -- for 38 years, and the congregation wanted to show its love for him.
The Delbarton, W.Va., native started out in the grocery business -- first at Island Creek Stores, then at Piggly-Wiggly markets. When he moved to Huntington in 1961, he worked for food distributor Marvin Threlkeld and eventually joined Associated Grocers. He was placed in charge of opening stores throughout the Mountain State.
But Farley felt a deeper call.
When Garnet Short called him and asked him to preach at a small storefront church on Jefferson Avenue, he felt a spiritual tug on his soul.
"The Lord laid the West End of Huntington on my heart," he says. "I just went down there."
The Farleys -- which include the pastor's wife, Sallie, and their children, Paul H., Stewart and Mildred -- had been attending the Twenty-third Street Church of God in East Huntington. Farley had preached a few weekend revivals, but never had held a pastorate. When he preached that first storefront sermon in October 1970, exactly 12 people were in attendance. Five of them were the Farleys.
"From there, the church grew," Farley says with a mixture of humility and understatement.
An educational building went up in 1972; a sanctuary followed the next year. In 1975, Farley resigned from Associated Grocers to preach full time. Then, in 1992, the congregation built a much larger facility, including a sanctuary that seats more than 600 people. Today, Sunday morning attendance averages 350.
"We had 1,200 in there a few years ago when we hosted a play titled 'Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames' for four days," Farley says. "More than 350 people accepted Jesus Christ as Savior."
The church employs, in addition to its pastor, a full-time associate pastor (Farley's son-in-law, Greg Tomlinson), music director, youth director, children's pastor, secretary and janitor. Worship services take place at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays, and a Family Training Hour begins at 7 p.m. Wednesdays. The congregation also offers a drug rehabilitation program and contributes to a food pantry at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church.
How has so much developed from so little?
Farley credits God's will.
"The Lord sent me there, and I've just stayed," he says. "He did the rest. He's been so good to me -- better to me than to anyone else."
Andrea Damron, the church's secretary, describes Farley as a very kind man and faithful servant of the Lord.
"He has made a great impact upon my life, and the lives of my family and my church family," she says.
Damron also notes that Farley's sons also are West Virginia pastors -- "Hack" in Nitro and Stewart in Lewisburg.
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