VICTORVILLE, Ca. – We do not hear much about the retirement of pastors, maybe it is because the information is not widely shared, but Senior Pastor Bob Counts is retiring after 55 years.
Nearly a lifetime for some, Pastor Bob Counts of Bible Baptist Church in the City of Victorville has served as a pastor for that long. Now passing the reigns to his son, Joel Counts, whom the church called to be the next pastor, Counts has served in churches in Clarksville, Arkansas; Springdale, Arkansas; Rowland Heights, California, and for the past 23 years, at Bible Baptist in Victorville. When asked what made him go into the ministry, Pastor Bob said “I felt the call of
God to the ministry as a teenager, I began preaching at 19 years of age and God’s call to pastor was just an automatic knowledge of the leading of the Holy Spirit”.
The Counts family have several in their family who have been called to preach, including Pastor Counts grandfather, three brothers (out of nine children), two of his sons, his sister married a pastor, and his nephew is a pastor. “On average only 10-percent of pastors who enter the ministry retire as a pastor,” according to Joel Counts, son of Bob and Co-Pastor at BBC. “Our church is unique in that with Pastor Bob’s retirement we will have four retired ministers among our 1,200 church members.” Pastor Bob said that the reason he’s chosen to retire now is that he “sensed that now is the Lord’s timing for himself, Pastor Joel Counts, and the future of our Bible Baptist church family.”
Don’t forget to set your clocks back, and come to the retirement service for Pastor Bob on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. The church is located at 12626 First Avenue in Victorville, between Nisqualli Road and Silica Drive. For more information about Bible Baptist Church and its various ministries and service times visit online at https://www.bbcv.org/, or call (760) 241-7876.
