Jennifer Renee Davis will have been the Director of Preschool and Children’s Ministries at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church in Decatur for three years on September 1, but I only had close contact with her this summer because of a child who said, “I gave myself to Jesus,” during Vacation Bible School. This little girl is staying in my home at the present time, so I’m observing first-hand the follow-up work Miss Davis does, as she makes visit after visit here to talk and pray with the child and the parent. It’s noteworthy and commendable. She says this is her biggest blessing.
Jennifer was born September 15, 1984, in Blue Ridge, Georgia, to Ricky and Joni Davis. Her father worked at Kismit, a rubber plant, and her mother now works in management in a restaurant. She is the oldest of three, with a sister Casey Davis, and a brother Charlie Davis.
After attending Fannin County School System from kindergarten through the twelfth grades, Jennifer graduated in 2003. She went on to a Baptist college, Truett-McConnell College in Georgia, where in 2008 she earned her B. A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Education and Christian Ministry.
Jennifer’s parents were not churchgoers, but her maternal grandmother “made sure we were there every time the doors were open.” They attended a Methodist church until Jennifer was in the first grade, when her grandmother decided to find a church with more children. Jennifer’s unsaved grandfather was a mechanic who owned a shop in Morganton. A group from the Morganton Baptist Church had gone to his shop to invite his assistant to go to church, so he suggested that his wife begin attending that church. Eventually, he “got plugged in, and at the age of 67, he accepted Christ” when Jennifer was in the second grade. Her grandmother said, I’d always prayed for a Christian husband; I never prayed for a Baptist deacon!”
Jennifer says, “Up until that point, I was always the good kid. Always knew the right answers, but had never seen somebody really changed by the gospel.” Seeing the change in her grandfather drew Jennifer to pray her own prayer, giving her life to Christ in her own bedroom one night when she was nine. She says, “So many times you hear in a salvation story, ‘My life was bad then it got better.’ My life was the opposite—my life was good, then it got worse.” Before she could be baptized that June, her father went on a campout with some friends on Memorial Day weekend, where he died in a drowning accident. “But,” she continued, “through it, I think I got a pretty quick education about God taking care of you, no matter what.”
Extended family stepped in to help in several ways, and Levi’s, the company her mother worked for at the time, offered her time off and free counseling for the children, which she remembers helped a lot. Also, the family continued to attend church.
Throughout high school, Jennifer worked at Roses department store and CVS pharmacy. Also during that time, she went on her first international mission trip. She and another girl from their church went to the Dominican Republic with a missions organization for two weeks, where they did dramas and talked with the people in the towns there. She says, “At the very end of the trip, there was a challenge that basically said, ‘We as Christians are obligated to either pray, give, or go.’ I had just thought, ‘I’ll just pray and give,’ but a few days later, I felt like God was saying, ‘No, you need to be willing to go.’”
She said, “Honestly, I feel like that was my call to the ministry.” Because she had not seen many women in ministry, she thought that probably meant she was going to be a missionary. However, having done a lot of babysitting and teaching children in church, she initially majored in education in college, where she says she grew spiritually through her involvement in BSU and made friends to whom she still goes for encouragement and accountability today.
While in college, Jennifer did mission work in Poland four or five times and thought that would be her post after college. However, she was challenged the summer before her senior year to do something inside the United States. She went with her church to Reno, Nevada, on a mission trip. While there, a friend asked, “Could you live here?” to which her answer was, “Absolutely not!” But she realized, “God has a sense of humor!”
For three years after college, Jennifer lived in Reno in an intern program with the North American Missions Board, serving as a Children’s Ministry Specialist. She worked with the Sierra Baptist Association, which was made up of forty churches in a four-hundred-mile radius. She said,” “I was scared, thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ I felt kinda funny, because all I’d ever done at that point was volunteer children’s ministry and working at a day care for a little while.” At one of the churches she visited in that capacity, a man asked her, “What qualifies you to do this job?” She answered, “Ten years’ experience in the local church.” She said she got a lot of valuable experience during those three years in a place very different from the Bible Belt.
In 2011 Jennifer began studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, graduating in 2015 with a Master’s of Arts in Christian Education with a specialization in Children’s Ministry. She and I discussed the fact that, “Statistics say that by the time a child is twelve, their world view is set. So discipling children is critical.”
Her first church assignment after seminary was in Waynesboro, Mississippi, which was a difficult time for her. In August, Jennifer resigned, sent her resume to a friend, and the very next day received a call from Rev. Mark Vincent, who invited her to begin the interview process for the position here. The church voted to accept Miss Davis, and she says, “I feel blessed to be here! Having moved around as much as I have, it’s very encouraging to be somewhere with as many long-tenured staff members as at Clarke-Venable.”
At Clarke-Venable, Miss Davis has directed the implementation of three successful Vacation Bible Schools, with about six children having been saved this year, and about 180 averaging in attendance. Kids’ Camp is also under her supervision, as well as Sunday School for those aged from birth through the fifth grade. She teaches elementary grades on Sunday nights, except the summer, and these classes will begin back August 12th. She says, “They keep me hopping, but I love it!"
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
