After serving as pastor of First Baptist Church in Talladega for eight years (“almost to the day”) Rob Paul will be leaving for Muscle Shoals.

He will be pastoring the Woodward Avenue Baptist Church there.

His last Sunday in Talladega will be Sept. 20.

“Obviously my wife and children are coming with me, but I’ll still have ties to Talladega,” he said. “We’ll be leaving behind some really good friends, but my daughter is getting married here this summer, and I still have a house to sell here. So I’ll be staying in touch.”

A native of Enterprise, Paul said he did not take a direct route to the ministry.

“I actually already had a career,” he explained. “I was working at Troy University as director of admissions for the Dothan Campus, and I was an adjunct instructor there as well. But then one afternoon, while I was in prayer, I had a sense that this was what God wanted me to do, he wanted me to minister. So, I quit my job, sold my house and moved to New Orleans, where I attended seminary.”

Paul laughed and added, “Well, it didn’t happen quite that fast. I guess this all happened over a period of three or four months.”

Paul got his first opportunity to serve as pastor of a congregation at New Hope Baptist Church in Monticello, Miss., where he was for three years. He has been in Talladega since 2001.

The new position in Muscle Shoals came about largely by word of mouth, “which is often what happens in Baptist life,” he explained. “A friend asked me if he could recommend me to the committee there, and I said yes. Whenever someone approaches me like that, I like to say yes just to see if the Lord is going to open a door for me or close one.”

After Sept. 20, the congregation at First Baptist will begin a similar process.

“First they will elect a committee, and the committee will take some time for self-study, then start going through resumes and taking recommendations.”

The committee will ultimately be responsible for selecting a new pastor.