Finding purpose at 60: A pastor’s tale of resilience, faith and community revival

Scott McQuay remembers the first time he walked into the First United Methodist Church in New Madrid in 2024.

The colors of the front stained-glass window sparkled into the sanctuary. As he stood, he said he began to get a sense of the church and its history.

“I got this impression that this church and all it has been through is so strong and so rooted, it will survive,” McQuay, 66, recalled.

That July day, McQuay became the pastor for the Methodist churches in New Madrid and Portageville. It was his second appointment as a licensed pastor by the Methodist church since his decision in 2019 to study for the ministry.

McQuay’s journey to lead the two New Madrid County congregations is filled with both ordinary and extraordinary moments. All are couched in his deep faith in God.

Adopted at the age of 2 from an orphanage in St. Louis, McQuay grew up in St. Louis. His parents also had a farm at Piedmont where they would take McQuay, his two brothers and sister each weekend. In 1975, the family moved to Piedmont.

For on his first career, McQuay listened to his bank account. He needed a job.

In 1981, McQuay worked for Prudential Financial Services. After 11 years in the insurance and financial business and faced with high inflation and the roller coaster economy, his health was impacted. His doctor recommended a job with less stress.

“So I came back to Jackson and worked at a grocery store as a night manager,” McQuay recalled. “Soon I was saying to myself there has to be more to life than this.”

For his next job, he listened to a Christian friend and applied with Lone Star Cement Plant in Jackson. He remembers being one of about 180 applicants for the 12 openings and being turned down. When his friend encouraged to reapply, McQuay hesitated but went through the hiring process again.

“I will never forget. I came home and had such a sense of peace that I was going to go to work there and not to worry. Within a day or two I got a phone call and they said come on down, you are going to work,” McQuay said.

He worked at Lone Star, now Buzzi Unicem USA, from 1992 to 2017 when a series of surgeries forced him to take retirement disability.

With nothing to do and facing changes in his personal life, McQuay was searching for the next step in his life. His path took him to the La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau.

He credits La Croix pastor Ron Watts with helping him find his way.

“I was sold on their religious approach, their openness, their warmth, their caring, their honesty,” McQuay said. “That is when I started developing a desire for the ministry – not as a pastor but as a lay leader in the church.

Soon McQuay was involved in the church’s ministries. He used his love of running to reach out to others.

“Running brought me back to a deeper relationship with God. It got my mind focused. So I started teaching a class, called Run for God,” he said.

His message, he explained, was not to see how fast you could run or if you could beat someone else across the finish line. He wanted the participants to support each other as they worked to better themselves.

“I really think that started me with a compassion, an empathy for people who needed encouragement,” McQuay said. “That started opening the door that I had a gift.”

McQuay became a certified lay leader and involved in pulpit supply, volunteering to fill in for ministers.

Life was running smoothly. McQuay and his wife, Juanita “Nita” McQuay, married in 2011 and created a combined family of five children and eight grandchildren. They moved to Sikeston to enable Nita to be closer to her job.

Then there was another bump in the road. McQuay’s mother was involved in a car accident and placed on hospice. He described those final six weeks as time he was able to grow even closer to his mother.

When his brothers and sister decided to keep the family farm at Piedmont, McQuay took on the job of overseeing the work. Once again McQuay’s spiritual life would take a turn.

McQuay said one day he turned into the parking lot at the Piedmont Trinity Methodist Church. Soon he found himself talking with the church’s pastor, Tadd Kruithoff.

As part of their talks, Kruithoff shared a book, “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard. McQuay described it as transformational.

“To define that in simple terms, spiritual transformation is when we start living like Jesus is living through us,” McQuay said. “Now, will we ever be perfect? No. But if we do begin, peace becomes joy. It becomes natural. We don’t struggle.”

McQuay said he also wondered if there was more he should do with his life. This time he listened to his heart.

Following a suggestion by the Methodist district superintendent, McQuay, then 60, found himself on road to becoming a licensed local pastor.

After his appointment in 2021 as pastor for the Methodist churches in Steele and Cooter, McQuay was sure there was a stop sign ahead, signaling his retirement at 65. The call for he and Nita to move to New Madrid and take over the church there and at Portageville required several days of prayer before they accepted and moved that retirement sign to age 70.

But he said there are signs their decision is the right one.

The first few months he and his congregation were busy. Now more members are participating in services, five young people are going to go through confirmation and three babies are slated for baptism in February.

He described the resurgence as typical of the church’s history, pointing to the floods of 1911-12 which almost brought an end to the local congregation. Then the congregation and their new pastor brought in two evangelists and hosted a month-long revival to rebuild the church membership.

McQuay said today, the congregation in New Madrid and Portageville are continuing that tradition of reaching out.

“You can’t make disciples sitting in the pews,” he said. “Our mission is to come together as a group of people, develop a community and take that outside of the church and to love the people.”

As a pastor, McQuay described his vision for the church as one of inclusion. He wants the church to be a place where individuals not only grow in their faith but find support and a way to contribute to society.

He still hopes to retire. But, McQuay acknowledged, once a preacher, always a preacher.

“The No. 1 thing I want when I retire is a sense of I did everything I could in my power to be the best for who created me and his plan for my life,” he said. “His plan for my life since he brought me here is to bring him glory. Has it been easy? No. Have I made a lot of mistakes? Yes. But by calling me into the pastorate at age 60, he has given me an opportunity to give back the things I have learned in the process.”

McQuay described his life as a story of God’s grace.

“It is about the grace that God has extended me by working in my life in a way that I could not do,” he said adding, “He did not give up on me; he did not give up on me.”