People speak well of my pastor. The people who speak well of him are not only the ones in his own congregation, but people in the Madison County, Florida, community, and I daresay an even greater area. Wherever he travels, Retis Flowers leaves an impression on people he meets.
Born a poor white country boy (with a nod to the Steve Martin movie, “The Jerk,” yes, he stayed that color, through hard work, he did not stay poor), Retis Flowers would go on to become a jack of many trades and he is the master of quite a few. Reared on a farm, his first job after he graduated from high school took him to Parris Island, South Carolina, where he became a member of the United States Marine Corps. The hitch in the Marines led him to a tour of Vietnam. During his overseas trip, he also visited other destinations such as Japan, Hong Kong, and China.
Pastor Flowers said no matter where he traveled, even if he could not speak the language, he always found someone who he could communicate with.
After he left the Marines Corps, the young pastor-to-be, who had no idea at the time what God was grooming him for, went back home to Suwannee County, Florida. Among the jobs he found was one as an electrician helping wire the new Gold Kist chicken processing plant which was being built near the river in Ellaville. He tells a story of a young man he was working with, who asked if he was a Christian, and he replied, “Yes. Why do you ask?” “Well, when I do something wrong,” the young man responded. “The others will cuss me out but you don’t.”
Soon to be Pastor Retis Flowers was putting the ethics he had a Christian to use in the workplace. Profanity was one of the reasons he had left the Marines in spite of being proud to wear the uniform that recognized him as one of America’s finest fighting forces.
“As a Christian, I knew it wasn’t right to use that language,” he said, “so I had to make the decision to leave the Corps.”
Later, Pastor Flowers would retire from the United States military, finishing his service in the Florida Army National Guard.
Retis Flowers met and married his younger bride, the former Janice Dykes in Dowling Park. He already had a daughter, Reta, from his first marriage and he and Janice added two more daughters, Edna and Regina. Reta is married to Ken Rankhorn. Edna is married to Amon Doyle. Regina is married to Brad Forrest.
Retis’ and Janice’s three grandchildren are Lindsey English, Amanda Doyle, and A.J. (Amon Joseph) Doyle.
In 1970, Pastor Flowers felt a calling to go speak to the District Overseer for the area for the Church of God to help Sister Lela Anderson keep open the doors of Midway Church of God in Lee, Florida. The overseer surprised him by telling him he was the new pastor there. Untrained, he stepped out on faith and took the pastorate Ordained by the Church of God, Retis Flowers has served as pastor in the Church of God for almost 48 years, most of the time he has served has been at Midway Church of God, with a brief respite in the 1970s when he served as pastor in St. Augustine, where he also worked as personnel director at a shipyard. He was in St. Augustine until he was called back to Lee by the congregation after their pastor had left.
During the years he has served as pastor at Midway Church of God, Flowers has been a chicken farmer and later became a school teacher. He served as a bi-vocational pastor, having one job as a pastor and the other in another field until he retired as a school teacher.
As the pastor of the church, he has always been there when church members are ill, or if they need anything. He has served the community as the treasurer for the Madison County Ministerial Association for a number of years. He served his fellow teachers and workers in the Madison County School District as a member of the insurance committee for the Madison County Education Association.
When people in the church and community speak about Pastor Retis Flowers, they speak with admiration. If I had to choose a person for the Madison County Citizen of the Year, it would be my pastor and my friend, Retis Flowers.
Brother Elvoye Thomas, currently the oldest living member of Midway Church of God, had been the one who had called Pastor Flowers back to the church in the 1970s. He was recently asked if Pastor Flowers were to leave if he would go get him.
“No,” Thomas replied, “I wouldn’t let him leave in the first place.”
Jacob's Ladder 