For someone who has been in town for only five years, Rick McClure is in a position to have an influence on the future of Malvern.
A member of the Hot Spring County Economic Development Corp. and the executive committee of the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce, McClure is the head of a growing organization in Malvern and has a resume filled with experience in business, including construction and site development.
He also has a way with people. After all, McClure is the pastor of Lifepoint Church in Malvern, the church he represents as a chamber member.
McClure said his church’s goal is to be an active force in the community and that there is a lot of business expertise to be found among the ministers in Malvern.
“We have people like Henry Mitchell at Victory Praise and Worship Church, who has a background in business, and I know another minister who was an investment banker for 35 years,” McClure said. “There was a time when pastors might not have gotten a lot of respect from the business community, who thought ministers only had some Bible-college background. I have business and theological degrees, as do others.”
McClure has an extensive business background. The Texas native began his career as an electrician and later bought the company where he worked. After selling the business, McClure went to work for a growing call center in the 1980s.
“My background has nothing to do with call centers, but God knew what he was doing,” McClure said. “It was a paging company that had about 600 customer-service representatives. I got into management and site selection. All I had done through life, such as construction work and operations, all came together.”
Meanwhile, McClure said, he became involved with the ministry as a teen but only served in part-time positions as he worked.
“I have a bi-vocation, which is a term pastors use for those who serve but still have to work a full-time job to feed their families,” he said. “At one point I was a full-time minister for seven years, then went to the call center and was part time again.”
McClure said the call-center company was bought and sold several times over a few years, and it ended up in a company with its headquarters in Mississippi.
“My bosses said they were moving my office to Jackson, Mississippi,” he said. “My wife and I talked about it, and I took the company’s early-out program.”
Having worked in for the call-center operation in Dallas, McClure first was pastor at a church in Arlington, Texas, then moved to Brownwood in west Texas, north of Lubbock.
Ten years after becoming a full-time pastor, McClure said, he and his wife were looking for a change, especially with their children grown and out of the house. Within six months, he was talking with people from Malvern about joining Lifepoint.
He said he was impressed by the people he met in Malvern, and with the countryside.
“It was beautiful here,” McClure said. “There had not been any trees where we lived in west Texas, and the two of us evaluated things and concluded that this was what we were looking for. We had no thoughts on the size of the church.”
Lifepoint in Malvern, the church that invited him to be its new pastor in 2009, is what he calls an interdenominational church.
“It is a totally different approach. Not being part of a particular denomination gives us great liberties,” McClure said. “We are networked with Gateway Church in Oklahoma and local churches.”
The church offers a special service held whenever there is a fifth Sunday night, as there was in August.
‘The idea is to network between the pastors in the area, and we will all gather together,” McClure said. “Joining us are two Missionary Baptist churches and an Assembly of God Church.”
McClure said about 150 people are at Lifepoint most Sunday mornings, and the church has seen steady growth in what is basically a rural area. The church is in the midst of an expansion project, adding 5,500 square feet for a new children’s ministry area and expanding the church’s auditorium.
“We will have room for about 300 on Sunday when we’re finished,” McClure said. “We not only have members from Malvern, but also from Hot Springs, Benton, Sheridan and some from Arkadelphia.”
McClure said he was involved with chamber of commerce activities and economic development in Brownwood, and he hooked up again with the business community in Malvern at a Rotary Club meeting.
“I was at the meeting, and I mentioned that I had done some economic-development work, and Nikki Launius (executive director of the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce) invited me to a meeting of the EDC and the chamber,” he said. “Now I am on the economic development corporation and treasurer of the chamber of commerce.”
Being active in the promotion of the city and its efforts to attract and retain businesses is just a logical step for a minister, McClure said.
“It is an outreach of ministry that many times is overlooked,” he said, “but we are all involved in the community. We have at least 15 teachers in our church, and others work for the good of the community. It is amazing to see the people in positions of influence who take their own time to give to the community.”
He said his church is involved in traditional church outreach projects such as mission work.
“We are also involved in programs like Relay for Life, Brother Henry Mitchell’s backpack program and Harvest of Hope, that works with the Arkansas Rice Depot, which is traditionally a project of the Methodist church,” McClure said. “We jump on board wherever we think we can help.”
As for the growth of the community, McClure said, he sees progress ahead.
“Development is slowly inching forward,” he said. “The community is beginning to look forward and see what the community needs in order to grow. Small-town America must stop looking in the rearview mirror and see the good things they can offer when it comes to quality of life — those things will be the cornerstone of a new direction.”
McClure said what while Hot Spring County competes with other communities such as Pine Bluff, Benton, Hot Springs and Clark County, Malvern does have some unique things to offer.
“I have I-30 and U.S. 270 for transportation of goods, along with educational facilities for training the workforce — all the things we need for long-term stable growth.”
Launius said churches are a vital part of the community with a stake in its growth and economic well-being.
“They are part of what we mean when we talk about the quality of life in a community,” she said.
Ministers involved in economic development are effective leaders in other communities, said Shelley Lowe, executive vice president of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance and Area Chamber of Commerce.
“The churches make the chamber stronger, and we help make their impact in the community stronger,” she said. “They are part of the community and its economic development. We have the same goal, bringing people to our doors.”
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.