Rev. Bill Ellis

Notes from a friend

Bill Ellis to share views through weekly column

Ellis poses with Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham.

DECATUR - The Rev. Bill Ellis, pastor of Peoples Church of God in Decatur for 25 years, is coming home to Decatur. He’s returning not as a pastor, for he has retired from his calling to serve a church, but in the columns of the Herald & Review.

Ellis, now 76 and living in his native West Virginia since leaving Decatur in 1989, couldn’t be more thrilled.

"Living in Decatur was, in so many ways, one of the best things that ever happened to me," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Scott Depot, W.Va., near Charleston. "It shaped my whole life and whole perspective."

Ellis has been sharing that perspective for the past 10 years in a weekly column that started out in the local Putnam Post and now appears in more than 30 newspapers around the world.

The Rev. Bill Ellis delivers a message to children during worship at Landmark Church of God in Princeton, W. Va.

He draws inspiration from the life experiences of the people he meets, including those he met in Decatur.

"I try to show people there’s a better way to do things than the way we’ve been doing them," Ellis said.

Former H&R Editor Tom Blount, now editor of the High Point Enterprise in High Point, N.C., said he carries the column because it offers a high-standard value system needed in today’s world.

"(Ellis) gets his points across without heavy-handed preaching," Blount said.

While at Peoples Church of God, Ellis helped start the church’s annual festival of missions, oversaw the addition of a fellowship hall, parlor and classrooms and helped with its Windows of Christmas presentations.

But his influence reached beyond the walls of the church.

"Rev. Ellis belonged to the community," recalls James Patrick, 85, of Decatur. "He would get up in the middle of the night to counsel a troubled guest at what was then the Holiday Inn.

"He would also lead the Decatur Commodores baseball team in prayer before every game they played at Fans Field."

Ellis is a regular speaker at Anderson University's basketball camp for children in Indiana.

Ellis preached from the pulpit of several other churches in Decatur, including African-American congregations, and went to secondary schools throughout Macon County to talk about the danger of drugs before leaving to become state coordinator for the Church of God in West Virginia.

After holding that post for four years, he has served as interim pastor to several churches in West Virginia and developed a second career as an inspirational speaker and writer.

Ellis holds a bachelor of arts in sociology and psychology and a master of divinity degree from Anderson University in Indiana. He also has a master’s degree in communications and public relations from the former Sangamon State University.

He did radio religious news for several years, has been a member of the National Religious Broadcasters Association and was part of the media support staff for a variety of religious conventions.

Ellis and his wife, Kitty, have been married 50 years and have a daughter, Elizabeth Archer, who lives in Alabama, and a son, Mark Ellis, who lives in North Carolina. They also have five grandchildren.

"Kitty and I loved Decatur, and I am excited about the chance to give something positive back to the city through the pages of the Herald & Review," Ellis said. "I lived there longer than any other place - Decatur is the city in my life."