Bishop/barbecue master set to join Hall of Fame

Growing up, Bishop Donnie L. Lindsey Sr. wanted to be a doctor ... specifically, a dental surgeon.

"Didn't want to be no businessman," he says. "Didn't want to be no preacher, either."

He ended up both, making a name for himself as the owner of the venerated Lindsey's Barbecue in North Little Rock and as the now-retired bishop of the Second Jurisdiction of Arkansas for the Church of God in Christ.

For his work shaping the minds of young ministers and for his considerable civic work in the community, Lindsey has been chosen as a 2015 inductee into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. The 23rd annual induction gala takes place Saturday in the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

Also to be inducted:

• Luenell Batson, Tollette native and nationally known comedian and actress (Think Like a Man, Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, Taken 2).

• Cortez Kennedy, Osceola native and former Wilson resident; defensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks; Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.

• C. Michael Tidwell, former principal dancer with Ballet Arkansas; dance teacher/choreographer; founder of the Tidwell Project Dance Ensemble.

• Mildred Barnes Griggs, Marianna native, dean emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; lawyer; advocate for minority, low-income farmers in the Arkansas Delta region.

• The late Dr. Eddie Reed, Heth native; Yale-educated physician renowned in the fields of cancer pharmacology and minority health/health disparities; chief of the clinical pharmacology branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Finding out he'd been chosen for induction "was very humbling, very humbling," says Lindsey, 91. "I give no thought to myself. I always feel that the happiest people are people who make other people happy."

Lindsey was born in Bluff City, 30 miles from Hope. When he was 4, his large family -- led by his father, a sharecropper -- moved to the Crystal Hill area of North Little Rock, where Maumelle is now.

Lindsey, who claims to have been rebellious, dropped out of school. But on an uncle's advice he returned at age 17, starting in ninth grade and working his way through junior high and high school at Johnson's Barbecue in Little Rock. In 1943, he went to fight in World War II. After his return he attended Arkansas Baptist College, finishing in 1949. Meanwhile, in 1946, he'd married "the young lady I'm married to now" -- Irma Moore Lindsey, a schoolmate and a niece of the Johnsons. The couple have three children.

It was in 1956 that Lindsey -- who'd also taught school and had been a school principal in Allport -- went into business. "I took a bedroom and a porch and ... borrowed $500 from Twin City Bank and started Lindsey's Barbecue," he says. A few years later the patriarch of Johnson's Barbecue died, and that business closed. Many people who knew Lindsey from his work at Johnson's became his customers.

A HIGHER CALLING

Lindsey was called to be a minister in 1944, at age 20. In the 1950s and '60s, he pastored churches in England and Car­lisle and in 1975 became pastor of North Little Rock's Calvary Temple Church (now New Calvary Temple Church of God in Christ).

He also moved into church administration, serving as jurisdictional Sunday School superintendent and first administrative assistant to the jurisdictional bishop. In 1974 he was elevated to bishop of the Second Jurisdiction of Arkansas, part of the Church of God in Christ's Southwest Region. He served until his 2009 retirement.

"A great number of young men who are pastors [were] a part of my leadership," Lindsey says. "I've also been blessed to have about six or seven young men that have been elevated to the position of a bishop as a result of some of these people who lives that I touched."

Lindsey says his aim was holistic ministry. "My heart was in making good leaders better -- making leaders aware of the awesomeness of their responsibility and commitment to the Lord's work."

Now prelate emeritus for the Arkansas Second Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the church, Lindsey has also served as interim prelate of Arkansas' first, fourth and fifth fellowship jurisdictions. He also served the church in several national capacities. His civic involvement includes a number of past posts as well as his current posts on the board of directors of Centennial Bank, the North Little Rock Boys and Girls Club and the North Little Rock Residential Housing Facilities Board.

Such involvement, Lindsey says, was and is "a wonderful plus in pastoral leadership."

GUSTATORY ICON

Lindsey's Barbecue enjoys a popularity that goes back to the days of racial segregation, when blacks ate in the renovated porch area and whites ate at two tables in the back.

"I wanted a decent business," Lindsey says. He told the cooks to prepare the food just like they were going to eat it themselves. In later years, the business expanded to Lindsey's Hospitality House in North Little Rock. He's also chief executive officer of the charitable Lindsey's Enterprises.

Post-retirement, Lindsey's church work continues. Seeing many beginning ministers who were knowledgeable but needed a bit of wisdom, he felt the desire to start "an institute of wisdom where you could bring ... young leaders in and give them that exposure to balance their knowledge." He's developing The Worship Center Church of God in Christ, an institute and outreach mission of New Calvary Temple located in North Little Rock's McAlmont area.

"This institute will kind of make [young ministers] aware and conscious of the kind of people they're going to be leading 10 years from now," Lindsey says. "And that it's very necessary for them to make preparation now for that."

Ask Lindsey how he managed to juggle ministry and ownership of a demanding business, and he's a bit surprised himself. "Sometimes I pinch myself to see if I'm dead or alive. But it has been the Lord," he says. "The big thing is keeping him first."

So how do ministry and barbecue compare?

"Both of them are service," Lindsey says. "One is natural; the other spiritual. You can see what can happen if you put your best in either one of them.

"And both of them are highly competitive. People, when they put barbecue in their mouth, they can tell whether it's barbecue or boiled meat. And when you tell the story of Jesus, people can tell whether you are real or false."

Style on 10/11/2015