Enterprise 1st Baptist Church has new interim pastor

“Incredible, dynamic leadership” is one of the ways Joan Newman describes what Sonny Moore brings to the helm at the First Baptist Church of Enterprise. “It’s just completely Providential.”

Newman is the chairman of the church’s personnel committee, and she said Friday when retired Army Chaplain Alvin M. Sonny Moore, III, takes the pulpit at Enterprise First Baptist Church on Sunday, Oct. 18, “it will be a time of unification. A healing time.”

Through a variety of circumstances, Newman said the 500-member church on Main Street went from a staff of six to zero. “It literally and figuratively brought us to our knees.”

“When you suffer such a loss, there needs to be a healing time, a time of unification,” Newman said. “There was no question the person with the incredible, dynamic, charismatic leadership is Sonny Moore.”

Moore is a member of the Southern Baptist Church and served as a civilian pastor for 16 years before coming on active duty in 1982.  He also served in the Mississippi National Guard and Army Reserve for eight years.

Moore retired last year after serving 34 years in uniform and recently moved back to the Wiregrass. He is the program manager for workforce development and community relations for Army Fleet Support at Fort Rucker. He serves as chaplain for Chapter 94 of the Disabled American Veterans and as a board member for the Dale County United Way. He is also a member of the Military Officers Association of America and Army Aviation Association of America. 

Moore’s military career has included service as the command chaplain at U.S. Army Forces Command, Fort McPherson, Ga., the U.S. Army Aviation Center Chaplain at Fort Rucker, the Protestant Chaplain at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., the Cadet Chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., the Division Chaplain at the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C, the Brigade Chaplain for the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., the Battalion Chaplain for the 9th Engineer Battalion in Aschaffenburg, Germany,  and as the Battalion Chaplain for the 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

Moore is a graduate of Northwest Mississippi Junior College, Delta State College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Army Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College. In 2009 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, Pa..

Married for almost 40 years to the woman he calls his “fourth grade sweetheart,” Moore said “Martha went to Heaven on July 4, 2005.” A memorial garden has been dedicated in her memory at Fort. Rucker. The couple was also honored by establishment of the Army War College Sonny and Martha Moore Lectureship which is an annual series on leadership and ethics. Moore is the father of three children and seven grandchildren. 

  His military awards include the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Liberation of Kuwait Medal with three combat campaigns, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Humanitarian Service Medal, Parachutist Badge and the Air Assault Badge. He has also been recognized by Army Aviation with the Order of St. Michael Bronze Medal and by the Army Field Artillery with the Saint Barbara Medal.