by Ray Brinson
I have had the privilege of pastoring Victory Baptist Church in Nixa, MO, 17 years. Nixa is a bedroom community south of Springfield on Highway 13. As pastor, I came to know very well one of the men responsible for the church’s existence — James Faulkenberry.
James had been in pastoral ministry from 1958 through 1993. During those years he served Bible Baptist Church in Neodesha, KS, Fellowship Baptist Church in Liberal, KS, Central Baptist Church in Lindale, TX, and Calvary Baptist Church in Parsons, KS. Settling in the Springfield area, he went to work for C. Meeks Lumber, but when his daughter Betty asked, “Daddy, what are we going to do for church?” he responded, “I guess we can start one.”
And that was the beginning of Victory Baptist in Nixa. A group of about 15 began to meet in the basement of Happy Days Daycare in Nixa, and on Wednesday nights the group would go to James Faulkenberry’s home. James Faulkenberry and Clell Wieneke took turns preaching, and about six months later Jim Cooper became pastor of the church.
South Campbell Avenue Baptist Church agreed to be the mother church for Victory, and it was organized in April of 1994. Four years later, in September 1998, I was called as pastor.
It was important to James, indeed to the whole church, that the pastor be a shepherd-leader, but they also wanted a Bible preacher. He recalled for me that one congregation he had led asked him to leave, not because of besetting sin or anything like that. They felt he preached out of the Bible too much!
Not long after I became pastor, the church purchased ten acres of land, and then we built our first building in May 2001. The second building was a Family Life Center bringing the total square footage to nearly 30,000 square feet, and our property and facilities are appraised at $1.2 million dollars. Victory Baptist Church supports more than 35 mission projects and we average 125 in Sunday worship services.
One year ago this past April, we honored James Faulkenberry and his pioneering vision by dedicating our auditorium naming it the “Faulkenberry Chapel.” We did not know that almost a year later to the day, James would go home to heaven. All the years of my ministry at Victory, we always referred to James and Bernice Faulkenberry as “Papa” and “Mema.” We owe them much, and James Faulkenberry will never be erased out of my memory, for “… he being dead yet speaketh.”
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James (Papa) Holly Faulkenberry, age 93, of Nixa, MO passed away Saturday, April 25, 2015. Born June 6, 1921, in Bowie, TX, he served his country in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. January 18, 1946, he and Bernice Jones were united in marriage. Mr. Faulkenberry had served as a Baptist minister for 35 years from 1958 until 1993. James was a member of Victory Baptist Church in Nixa.
Survivors include his wife, Bernice, four children, six grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.