The Rev. Steven Owens says he enjoyed interacting with customers one-on-one during his many years in retail, and he likes being able to do the same with church members as a minister.
Retailers serve one customer at a time, and even though ministers deal with large groups of people, they can still reach members individually, says Owens, who has been pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church for about three years.
In both lines of work, “you might multitask, but still it’s one person at a time,” he said.
Owens, 52, was born in Amory and grew up there around the family business, Owens Grocery, thinking he would run it one day. He earned a business degree from Alcorn State University in 1985 and worked in retail for several decades, including jobs at Sears, TJ Maxx and restaurants as well as his family’s store. He also spent seven years at the Bank of Mississippi, which is now BancorpSouth.
He said his decision to become a minister wasn’t based on a specific event but just a gradual feeling that God was calling him elsewhere. He had grown up around the church and continued to be active in it, and he found that he “enjoyed the church work more than the business world,” he said.
“You know that there’s something else you should be doing,” he said. “And the more you do the work in the church, you say, ‘Well, this is it, and retail is not it.’”
So, though he liked his work in retail, he doesn’t miss it. Before coming to Greenwood, he served as a pastor in Picayune, Pontotoc and Okolona. He earned a master’s degree from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2008 before being ordained as a minister in 2011.
Owens said he knew some people from Greenwood during his college years but knew little about the area before being appointed to lead Wesley; he had only passed through on U.S. 82 occasionally on the way to visit family in Texas. But through his involvement in the Methodist church, he did know about Wesley and knew it had a long history. Still today, when he mentions his church, people often tell him they once went there or have some other connection to it that prompts a story.
“If I’m in Walmart, I hear it — wherever,” he said. “If they know that I’m from Wesley, then that’s a connection right there. And they tell the story. And so you sit there and you listen to them.”
Owens said his main goal is to keep sharing the Gospel daily, and he believes God will increase his church’s membership as God sees fit.
He has stressed community service at Wesley and has participated in events involving sororities, retired educators’ groups, and other civic organizations. He also preached at last year’s community Easter service on the banks of the Yazoo River and took part in the Greenwood Ministerial Alliance’s Thanksgiving service.
He and his wife, Diane, have been married for 25 years. They have a son, Justin, who lives in Atlanta, and a daughter, Jenisha, who is a sixth-grader at St Francis Elementary School.
In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and exercising, including walking three miles a day and working out at Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s Wellness Center. He also likes to take short trips to such places as Greenville, Yazoo City and Jackson and just soak up the environment.
In general, he believes in taking one day at a time, keeping things as simple and organized as possible and helping whomever he can along the way.
“And what comes in the run of that day, you take care of it,” he said. “And if you can’t take care of it, you move on.”
He said it’s important to be patient and not move ahead of God’s plan.
“He blesses us little by little, day by day, and many times we overlook those blessings because we’re looking for something larger,” he said. “And that’s why I try to stay simple and just look for the small things — how God is blessing and leading.”
• Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
