The Author, the Teacher, the Preacher

Written by KANDICE BELL

Dr. Watson E. Mills is an accomplished father, author/ writer, educator, minister, friend and traveler. He has written nearly 150 books and more than 1,000 articles and reviews in professional journals and reference works.

Mills has been sharing his experiences and wisdom with the Coweta community in his “Off the Beaten Path” column and occasional Bible Series in the weekend edition of The Newnan Times-Herald.

Born in Martinsville, Va., Mills was one amongst four children. His father worked at a defense plant in Virginia and then later opened his own life insurance agency. Mills’ mother had a college degree and taught for a while, but stopped teaching to be a homemaker, although Mills said she occasionally taught piano lessons.

Mills studied at the University of Richmond. When he graduated in June of 1961, he decided to go into seminary at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

“I had every intention of preparing myself for the parish ministry,” Mills says. “Like most every other student at the seminary, I dreaded the required courses in Biblical languages. To my utter amazement, my experience with Greek was both so exhilarating and enlighting for me that I immediately signed up for several elective courses.”

Mills says his professor took note of him and let him assist with grading papers and teaching classes.

Mills says his interest in the Greek language continued when he began teaching full time as an assistant professor at Averett University in Danville, Kentucky, in 1968.

In 1979, he was appointed to the faculty of Mercer University.

While at Mercer, Dr. R. Kirby Godsey, then-president of Mercer University, asked Mills to spearhead the startup of the Mercer University Press. It was there he published a textbook titled, “New Testament Greek: An Introductory Grammar.”

In 1982, Godsey appointed Mills as the vice president for research and publication, where he served until 1991.

Godsey said he admired Mills’s work ethic. He said with Mills’s interest in writing, he would be perfect for the job.

“It was delightful to work with him,” Godsey says. “He encouraged people to write.”

Mills said soon after his first faculty appointment in 1968, he began to submit book reviews for publications in professional journals.

“After some initial rejections, I began to produce these on a regular basis. My big break came in 1972 when a revision of my doctoral dissertation was published. Not long after that, I was invited to write Sunday school lesson quarterlies. In 1974, I wrote another book that grew out of my doctoral dissertation and it later appeared as a Book of the Month selection in the ‘Religious Book Club.’”

Also in 1974, he initiated a journal to be published by the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion and served as its editor for 19 years. The journal, “Perspectives in Religious Studies,” continues today as a respected international journal aimed to support academics who teach in the area of religion.

Mills didn’t stop there. In 1985, he was appointed as the executive-secretary of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion. “This appointment brought with it numerous opportunities for writing and editing,” Mills says. “I also served as managing editor of its central publication, ‘Religious Studies Review.’”

Mills taught a total of 34 years, mainly at the college level.

While teaching university students was rewarding, he found himself missing the opportunity to serve in the pulpit.

“Late one afternoon in July of 1980, I was working in my office at the University when a phone call came in requesting someone to supply the pulpit at Sharpsburg Baptist Church,” Mills said.

He would end up serving for the next 27-plus years, commuting from Macon every Sunday morning.

“When I took phased retirement from the University in 1995 and my teaching load was cut in half, I moved to Sharpsburg and reversed my direction and began commuting to the University two days a week until my retirement from Mercer in 2002,” Mills said.

Mills served at Sharpsburg Baptist until June of 2008. He was recognized as pastor emeritus upon his retirement and still occasionally preaches.

“He had, and still has, a beautiful style to his sermons as they conveyed truths and life lessons and the gift that salvation really is,” Beth Clough says. “His style was and is a welcome and positive shift from the ‘hellfire and brimstone’ style, which never ‘filled my tank,’ so to speak.”

Cleve Kiser worked with Mills at the Southern Baptist Convention.

“People of all ages, cultures, men, women, were included.” he said. “Women became deacons and teachers at a time when the Southern Baptist Convention excluded women from these functions. Mills was clearly recognized as a skilled teacher and relevant preacher of the word. He met congregants in their homes and hospitals as their life situation demanded. He simply met people where they were.”

After retiring from Sharpsburg Baptist Church, Mills began traveling extensively, making about 60 overseas trips in the first eight years.

In addition to traveling, Mills said he also enjoys reading things that are not related to his sermons. In 2017, he started writing columns about his travels for a newspaper in Fayette County. In 2021, he began his “Off the Beaten Path” series, highlighting his travel experiences.

“I have enjoyed continuing my hobbies of coin and stamp collecting,” he says. “Perhaps, best of all, my retirement has afforded me more time to spend with my son and grandchildren. He is a lawyer in Atlanta and my two granddaughters are both at Auburn University, one a junior and the other a freshman.”

Mills will be 84 years old in August. He still works out twice a week and, of course, writes regularly. NCM