Paul Phillip Holderfield Jr.

The Rev. Paul Holderfield Jr., best known as Brother Paul or Brother Paul Jr., is in the business of feeding people.

As senior pastor of Friendly Chapel Church of the Nazarene and F.L.A.M.E. (Feeding and Loving All Men Equally) he dispenses spiritual food to his flock.

Then comes the literal food. Plenty of it.

Through the church's soup kitchen, he feeds the hungry souls who frequent the North Little Rock neighborhood just east of Verizon Arena where the chapel is located.

Then Holderfield feeds the community through the church's noted Fish and Fowl Dinner. The dinner -- simply known as the fish fry -- is held at the arena and has become a much-anticipated October event in central Arkansas. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the all-you-can-eat fish and chicken dinner, which usually includes local politicians and other notables among its volunteer servers.

Visible from Interstate 30, Friendly Chapel dominates the sparse area with its white-with-tan-brick sanctuary, whose roof is distinguished by a finlike rise in its rear, and, across the street is the Buddy Building, which houses a gym, soup kitchen, shelter, offices and meeting rooms.

"This place has been an oasis for hurting people for all these years," Holderfield says. "People that have problems don't have to try to hide them. We all recognize we all come from the same family, a lost family." Of the church's 550 to 600 members, many have been addicts, homeless or in jail.

Holderfield says his current job is not so different from his former job -- feeding people indirectly as a sales representative for Colonial Bread Co.

"As much as I loved the bread business, I knew I would be here," Holderfield says. "I'm still selling bread. I really am."

Seek and ye shall find

Being easily accessible is important to Holderfield, and knowing this, many seek him out. This was evident during a recent weekday at the church's offices, where a steady stream of people stopped by for various reasons. He's friendly, a fast talker, a man full of anecdotes, even a poem or two.

"I probably spend 70 percent of my time with people who'll never go to church here," Holderfield says. "I probably spend 70 percent of my time with people who'd never put a dime in a collection plate here. But the wonderful thing is, that not only is my church OK with it, they want me to do it."

Around the corner and down a hallway from Holderfield's office is the soup kitchen, which feeds 140 to 150 people a day and up to 400 people in the summertime. The soup kitchen is open Monday through Friday, November through March, with sack lunches served weekdays during the months of June, July and August.

The kitchen is overlooked by a sign that reads, in large letters: "This soup kitchen is not supported by city, state or gov't. It is supported by God and his people." Then, in smaller letters, "Everybody is somebody in this soup kitchen. Thanks for letting us serve you."

One of the things that quickly becomes evident about Holderfield is that he loves to reference his father, Brother Paul Holderfield Sr., the founding pastor of Friendly Chapel and the one who first oversaw the soup kitchen and the fish fry.

"Daddy said, 'We found out within the first month of the soup kitchen, we didn't start it for them. We started it for us,'" Holderfield says. "We're the ones who really have benefited from the soup kitchen because they get a full stomach and we get a full soul. ... It warms their body but it warms our heart. They get temporary help, but we get eternal help."

The elder Holderfield knew what it was to be hungry, his son says. "He identified with a lot of people who would come in that soup kitchen. ... His dream was to have a place where everybody's welcome and everybody's loved. Everybody's made to feel important."

A place for all people

Holderfield Sr.'s dream encompassed Friendly Chapel itself. Its original congregation was a group of children, most of whom were black and from North Little Rock's Eastgate Terrace Housing Project. It met at the North Little Rock Boys Club, where Holderfield fed the children. Holderfield Sr. -- then a new Christian whose story of transformation from bigot to lover of all races became one of the trademarks of his fame -- felt led to start a church because of the racial bias that marred the church where he'd accepted Christ.

Friendly Chapel was formally established in 1972 in a modest frame building in an area of North Little Rock considered to be high-crime. Several years later, Holderfield Sr. left his job and answered the call to pastor.

Clark McGlothin, president of CBM Construction Co. in Little Rock, was a good friend of Holderfield Sr. He's a fan of Holderfield Jr., too. "He turned out to just be a natural preacher," he says. "Just the ministry in general and the mission that he was all for Jesus drew me to him. And so I've been with him ever since."

Holderfield says he began feeling his own call to preach four years before his father died.

"When I told him I felt called to preach -- we were sweeping the gym together -- he got so excited. He said, 'Oh ... that's great. I'm going to get you in some classes,' and I said, 'But Daddy, I feel no call to pastor.' He said, 'But if he was to call you to pastor and if you were to come in here behind me ... don't try to be me.'

"The second thing he said to me was, 'And if you was to come in here behind me ... don't worry about that fish fry.' He said, 'That thing is totally out of control.'"

Holderfield Sr. suggested his son have a "little" fish fry in the gym.

Now the fish fry is in a gym, with nearly 20,000 seats. About 5,500 diners showed up for the 2016 Fish and Fowl Dinner, resulting in gross proceeds of more than $71,000 and a profit for the ministry of nearly $35,000. In addition to helping with debt-free construction of the Buddy Building, the Fish and Fowl Dinner has helped to support such Friendly Chapel ministries as the Russ and Billie Matchett Thrift Shop, which features items for $1 or less and whose proceeds go to pay for scholarships for church members who are students (close to $200,000 has been awarded in scholarships over 26 years).

The fish fry also has supported buying new school clothes for children, with nearly $300,000 worth bought in 25 years; the purchasing of more than 87,300 gifts provided to more than 4,540 children for Christmas via an annual Country Store; and the remodeling of 10 "Houses of Hope," including three bought by first-time homeowners at no interest and two transitional houses.

The church also takes its teens on an all-expenses-paid trip each year to Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla.

"We've always been about kids because that's our heritage -- we started with kids," Holderfield says. "We put our money where our mouth is. And it seems like through all these years, God just continues to give us what we need to do what he's given us to do."

In his steps

Holderfield Jr. grew up in a house two blocks south of his alma mater, North Little Rock High School, a home where he lives today. His father, before founding Friendly Chapel, worked as a firefighter. Holderfield Jr.'s mother, Barbara, who's still living, worked for Southwestern Bell/AT&T.

An athlete who played multiple sports and boxed (his father earned a Midsouth Golden Gloves championship; his uncle, the late Buddy Holderfield, a National Golden Gloves championship), Holderfield aspired to be a sports broadcaster. With that goal in mind, he graduated from high school in 1971 and headed to Arkansas State University at Jonesboro. However, he got married and dropped out.

Holderfield eventually got a job as a sales representative for Colonial Bread Co. and "just loved it; loved everything about it." His plan was to retire after 25 years and help his father at the church.

In January 1998, Holderfield was six months from that retirement when his father died of a heart attack at 65.

Father and son had already begun to talk a little bit about where God might be leading Holderfield Jr. When his father died, he says, he knew exactly where God wanted him. The church's board knew, too. They met and decided to ask him to accept the pastorate. He had a bit of a predicament, though: He could only officially retire from Colonial after those 25 years of service.

God provided a solution.

"My sales manager and my supervisor came by the church," Holderfield says. "They said ... 'This church needs you more than we do, [so] we're going to make you a consultant.' ... They made me a consultant, but they never called me."

Now, Holderfield oversees the same outreach programs that defined Friendly Chapel in its early days ­-- programs that benefit from a host of volunteers, in the soup kitchen as well as at the Fish and Fowl dinners.

Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde is among the notables who have served as dinner helpers. He has known Holderfield for two decades and praises him as "just a good man, a good Christian man. And he just never wavers." Right after meeting Holderfield, people get a sense that they can trust him, Hyde says.

Hyde has been among those who have been through Holderfield's figurative revolving door, venting about one thing or another.

"Whatever it was, he would just quietly listen ... and always has the same answer: 'Well, you know Jesus is with you; it'll be all right. You've just got to keep moving forward.' [He] just always seems to have that calming comment to take that drama out of your drama."

Some well-meaning, would-be volunteers Holderfield has had to turn down. He tells the story of the call from the district manager of a restaurant chain known for its scantily clad female servers. The manager wanted to send some of these servers to volunteer in the soup kitchen.

"And I just paused for a long time," Holderfield says. "I said, 'Uh, now you realize this is a church. You realize this is not just a soup kitchen. This is a church.' [He said] ... 'Paul, I'm not bringing them in uniform ... they'll be dressed down.' ... And I said, 'I'd love to show you around the church ... but I just don't think we're going to do that.' Oh, it was hilarious."

Family ties

For all his work at Friendly Chapel, Holderfield is very much a family man. Holderfield first met his wife, Cathy Parker Holderfield, in seventh grade. The couple were reunited years later ... "and [I] fell head over heels [in love] with her all over again," Holderfield says.

They have been married 34 years. Their family includes Patty Camp and Courtney Bland, Holderfield's two daughters from an earlier marriage; Krystin Cheatham and Paul III, his children with Cathy; and four grandchildren with a grandson on the way. The church staff includes his sister, Paula Owens, head of the children's church, and his brother, Phillip, who serves as visitation pastor.

Phillip Holderfield says he and his older brother share a very special bond.

"He's always just been my hero in everything that he's done, and is still my hero today by the life that he's lived," Phillip Holderfield says. "He's not only my brother and best friend; he is also my pastor and spiritual leader. He has never disappointed or failed me in either capacity."

Family, to Holderfield, encompasses more than just blood relatives, though.

At the church's Thanksgiving lunch, Holderfield was urged to recite one of his poems. One he'd just learned:

Trump lover, Clinton lover, or none of the "abover,"

White, red, black or brown or any other color,

Every woman is a sister here, and every man a brother.

Let us lay our judgments down

And love one another.

High Profile on 01/15/2017