By Lindsey Williams
Writing Specialist
In the late 1970s, David Howell attended Delta State University, where he spent his summers on mission. What was then known as the Brotherhood Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) sent students to work with the Northern Plains Convention, which included North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. For two summers, David served as a youth leader in western Montana. There, he felt God tugging on his heart to reach the lost out West. He took his next step by enrolling at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1979.
Meanwhile, after earning a business degree from Palm Atlantic Beach College in Florida, Shirley worked for a year before feeling led to pursue a seminary degree. The Floridian packed her bags and followed the Lord’s direction to Southwestern Seminary, unaware that she was about to meet the husband she had prayed for during her youth group days. Shirley recalled how her youth leaders encouraged the girls to start praying for their future husbands.
“So I prayed specifically for a Christian, who had to be a little overweight to understand me and had to hate drinking and gambling with a passion, because I had seen too much of that go wrong in families.”
As a high schooler, David had gambled and drank — until he encountered the love of Christ during a Lay Witness Revival that came out of the Jesus Movement. He gave his life to Christ and never turned back.
In Shirley’s first semester at seminary, she met David.
“We, of course, fell in love,” David recounted.
“The Lord happened to put David and I together,” said Shirley, “and within a month or two, we knew without a doubt that we were supposed to be together.”
The couple married the next year and will celebrate 45 years of marriage May 24.
With their first daughter born as they completed seminary, David continued to dream about missions out West — especially given the region’s challenges for Southern Baptists. The Howells first moved to Rome, Mississippi, a small community in the Delta where David had grown up, and pastored their first church. They later moved to Magnolia, Mississippi, where they served for four and a half years and welcomed their second daughter, until it was finally time to head west.
Ministry in Utah
Although they initially planned to serve in Montana, the Lord led the Howells to the Las Vegas Convention in 1989. During a mission trip to Glendale, Nevada, a pastor search committee from St. George, Utah — a city 70 miles away — heard about David and invited him to preach that June. By July, the Howells had relocated to St. George to pastor First Southern Baptist Church, one of only five Protestant churches in the area at the time.
Trained by the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the Howells were familiar with the Mormon faith, but St. George, about 95% Mormon at the time, was a cultural shift from Mississippi. Their daughters, then in first and second grade, faced a challenging adjustment.
“Jesus had three wives,” some local children claimed, also asking why the Howells only had two children instead of the expected eight.
“Mormonism has changed a lot since then,” David said. “In the ’80s, the religion was much the same as it was in the ’50s until about the mid-’90s. The kids talked about their religion to our girls very normally, but that made our girls a lot stronger in their own faith.”
“We’re very fortunate that at a young age, our girls knew enough about the Bible to either tell their friends the truth or come to us with those statements and ask us the truth,” Shirley added. “When we eventually went back to Mississippi, the girls recognized that their church friends acted no different than their Mormon friends. That’s when they knew they would have to live for Jesus and be different — even in the Bible Belt.”
“We were trained to know everything in the world about Mormonism, but we found out it was best to know what a Christian looks like. If you know what a dollar bill looks like, you can point out the counterfeit, so we would tell people what a Christian is.”
“By that, we know the four signs of a false Biblical group are that they always add, subtract, multiply, and divide,” David explained. “They add to the Word of God, they subtract from Jesus and say He’s not enough, they multiply what you have to do in order to be saved, and they divide by claiming they are the only ones with the truth, and each of those apply to Mormonism. They have changed a lot in the last 25 years, but they still believe Joseph Smith is a prophet and their only way to heaven.”
The Howells served in St. George for seven and a half years, ministering to Mormons and non-Mormons alike. For two and a half of those years, they pastored two churches in different time zones, traveling back and forth every Sunday. They also served in college ministry at what is now Utah Tech University.
“We had a really neat ministry, and most of the few Protestant churches got along very well and worked together,” David said. “Shirley has a real gift in ministering to ministry wives, especially in a place with much less Christian fellowship, and she has been helping wives here since we have been back in Mississippi.”
“The distance in the Color Country Baptist Association was so great that we always looked forward to fellowshipping with other pastors and wives,” said Shirley. “On a Friday night you would find us on the floor or in a pew of a host church, getting to know each other, playing games, and praying together.”
Ministry to All
Longing for Mississippi hospitality, Shirley often hosted neighborhood children, offering treats and a safe place to play. Two girls came often, but then stopped. Years later, Shirley learned the family could only afford one bowl of soup for all 10 members each day. The girls’ visits stopped when the parents feared the treats would cause jealousy — and someone might discover their poverty.
Despite heartbreaking moments, the Howells recalled seeing God work.
“In Sunday school, a 13-year-old girl heard me give the lesson of God’s creation and that God created people,” Shirley said. “She had never heard that truth before. To see the light go on in her head was amazing.”
“You’re that pastor,” a young man once told David while he was pumping gas. “You meant a lot to me growing up in my neighborhood. Your church van would come and get me. Thank you.”
“We saw lives changed,” Shirley said. “When we pastored in Idaho, the church ministered to a woman with many afflictions in her past. She moved away, but we saw her a few months later and her life had turned around. Turns out, she came to Christ and was baptized at First Southern in Utah.”
“The song ‘Live for Jesus’ by Evie, which was sung at our wedding, is a perfect example of what got us through hard times,” Shirley said. “We were told to be like ducks and let the water fall off our backs. We also took every Friday off to rest. No church business unless it was an emergency.”
“The greatest blessing was an older couple taking a year off to help us. They stepped in wherever they could. We learned a lot from them and hope to carry their encouragement on. We pray more young people will surrender to the ministry.”
Ministry Changes
After Utah, the Howells returned to Mississippi and eventually moved to Alabama. In Birmingham, their daughter taught art at a Christian school operated by Central Park Baptist Church. David taught history and college prep courses, served as interim pastor, and Shirley assisted with classes and lunch.
In 2009, the couple was asked to plant a church in Utah, and though the recession made it difficult, they returned West to serve pastors and ministry wives, fill interim roles, and support Vacation Bible Schools. They later moved to Mountain Home, Idaho, serving there for 13 and a half years, especially active in summer camps.
Now retired due to David’s back issues, the Howells have returned to Mississippi. But their hearts remain in the West. They have returned to Idaho four times since retiring and are scheduled to go again this June.
“We have had a heart for the young people in Idaho from the start,” said Shirley. “We’re excited to see fruit really happening out West and lots of salvations followed up with baptisms.”
“COVID helped Christian churches out West,” David said. “They continued services through Facebook, and a lot of people began watching. Because of that, churches in Utah and Idaho have grown.”
Waiting on What’s Next
“The Lord has put us together for 45 years of ministry,” said Shirley. “But the toughest part has been David having to retire. We decided that if the Lord didn’t lead us into another full-time ministry, we’d go on mission trips and be part of the church from a different angle.”
The Howells are now active at West Carthage Baptist Church and continue to serve as they’re able.
“We have never climbed a ladder of leadership,” said Shirley. “We’ve just always said, ‘Okay, Lord, wherever you want us next.’ We’re excitedly waiting to see where He is going to use us next.”
“My former associate pastor out in Utah, Mel White, used to say this,” David added. “We wait and we wait and we wait on God, and then we run to catch up.”
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