Encouraging education

• By JULIE KAY
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 3, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Pastor Alfred Booker remembers being a teenage father with little education and no job.

The desperation he felt and the gun he imagined remain vivid memories for the 66-year-old minister.

“I remember feeling disconnected because I couldn’t read. I had no skills, and no one would give me a job. My family needed to eat,” he said.

The new pastor of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church identifies strongly with desperate young people who feel drawn to crime. God’s calling prompted the young Booker to enter the ministry instead of following such a path.

That’s why Booker, much like other Baton Rouge pastors, sees a role and responsibility for the church today to address crime with its preaching, teaching and ministries.

But they see that role hand in hand with family encouragement and education.

However, getting the attention of the target audience isn’t easy.

Booker said as a young man growing up in New Orleans, the only reason he went to churches was because they had fans and he was hot.

“I didn’t go looking for no Jesus,” he said, reminiscing about the sweltering days of summer before air-conditioning was common.

Fortunately, a pastor’s sermon was able to make a difference, Booker said.

By that time, in the mid-’60s, Booker’s wife was pregnant with their third child.

“I started to work on my GED. My pastor told me that God doesn’t call a man to fail. He also told me to bring my wife, not to leave my wife behind.”

It’s that kind of support that is often one of the church’s strong suits, Booker said.