One small town’s first family of faith

CAMILLA — One might expect a man of God whose chosen profession involves God’s work to cite divine intervention as an explanation for his calling.

Jimmy Hayes will go you one better. He’ll tell you a compelling story of a poor man — a man who didn’t even have access to a typewriter to write copy for a life-changing advertisement nor paper on which to type the copy — answering God’s call on faith and, some 34 years and $37 million later, having established a seminary — and a legacy — that continues to bring tens of thousands to the faith he holds dearly.

“The Bible says the Lord will use a foolish man to confound the wise,” Hayes, the owner of the Andersonville Theological Seminary here, said. “Well, I can say that he’ll use the biggest moron there is … maybe that’s why he chose me.”

A man of unshakable faith, Hayes, with the help of family members who share that faith, started an entity that he called a “Bible college” in a corner of his kitchen in the tiny community of Andersonville, where he’d been preaching. Growth led him to add another room for his project, and within a short period, to move the operation to a building he found in a retail outlet in Camilla, his hometown.

Even as Hayes contemplated moving his growing enterprise to an even larger facility, the other tenants in the outlet at 54 South Butler Street in Camilla closed up shop, providing an opportunity for Hayes to purchase the entire facility for Andersonville Seminary.

With 10 members of his family now working at the seminary, Hayes’ humble early dream of merely answering the Lord’s call to service has led to the graduation of more than 30,000 students around the world, and some 5,000-plus receiving education at any given time. These students move on to roles as pastors, Christian school teachers and counselors, as well as military chaplains and other faith-based positions.

“I think the reason our plan has worked so well is, first of all, the Lord is in it,” Hayes said. “It’s all the Lord; this just wouldn’t make sense any other way.

“Plus, everything in our curriculum is Bible-based. We’re a Bible school; the only textbook you need at Andersonville Seminary is the Bible.”

The top graduate of some 444 students at the Massillon, Ohio Baptist Bible College, Hayes was the only member of his graduating class who was allowed to preach in the college’s chapel. When Massillon officials refused permission to send out tapes of his sermons, Hayes returned home to Camilla in 1981 with plans to start his own Bible college.

“I tried to do things based on my own ideas, but there was nothing but discouragement,” Hayes said. “I had to lay it aside.”

Hayes preached at several small south Georgia churches, increasing membership at each one, as he tried to salve his wounded pride. He noted compelling stories — of coming home and seeing one of his sons, in diapers, playing near a rattlesnake and not being bitten and having a semi that had run a stop sign smash into his vehicle, and no one getting hurt — that led his call to the pulpit.

“I asked myself, ‘Why did this happen?’” Hayes said. “I was lost, on my way to hell, yet God protected me and my family. One night while I was laying in bed, the Lord called me to preach.”

Hayes was preaching in Andersonville in 1989 when he made the decision — this time, he says, with the Lord’s blessing — to restart his Bible college.

“I was flat broke when we made the decision to restart the seminary,” he said. “I reached out to this Christian Publishing Company that was well-known all over the world, and I told them I wanted to place an ad in their publication. I didn’t even have a typewriter to write the ad copy, and I didn’t have paper to type it on. But, more importantly, I didn’t have money to pay for the ad.

“It cost $2,100, and they didn’t usually allow people to buy on credit, but somehow they agreed. The first month, I made $300 selling tapes of my sermons, so I asked them for another month on credit. I assured them I would pay them, and while they were reluctant, they agreed again. We did a little better the next month, and soon word of mouth spread. That was $37 million ago.”

Andersonville Theological Seminary now uses some of the country’s brightest Christian minds to conduct lessons for students in all 50 states and 24 foreign countries, countries like Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Australia, Jamaica, Canada, Egypt, Haiti and a number of Central American countries.

Settled in at their Butler Street digs, family members Cherry Hayes, Jimmy’s wife, James Hayes, Stephanie Davis, Michelle Hayes, Brooks Davis, Julie Brown, Paul Brown, Mae Hayes, Rusty Hayes and Jill Hope see to the duties of what has become a multimillion-dollar business. James Hayes, Jimmy and Cherry’s son, is vice president of Academic Affairs and determines the curriculum for Andersonville’s thousands of students.

A renaissance man whose many talents had him considering myriad other careers — he attended the Army’s West Point Academy, changed tach and studied engineering at Valdosta State University, then English at Florida State University and later law school, going so far as taking the LSAT — this preacher’s son who didn’t necessarily want to follow in his father’s footsteps couldn’t deny his calling.

“I was filling in at a church in Mitchell County,” the elder Hayes notes. “There was a deacon there that the Lord was calling to the ministry. During the invocation, I asked if there were those who needed to come forward and answer the Lord’s call, and that man just sat. But another young man came forward … it was my son.”

James Hayes said he’d fought the calling for a significant period and was miserable for not answering.

The younger Hayes pastored four churches over the next 27 years, bringing many Christians to their faith. But after a conversation with his father, a thought occurred.

“I had a choice: Do I put all my energy and time into a congregation that might have 100 even up to 1,000 members, or do I put my energy into training 3,000 to 5,000 people who are then going to impact hundreds of thousands of people?” James Hayes said. “Preaching is a tough job, contrary to what a lot of people think, but I love it. I love teaching as well — I taught English classes while I was at Florida State — and I thought working with the seminary would give me an opportunity to influence a lot of people.”

There’s no questioning the impact Andersonville Theological Seminary has had on Christians throughout the world. Ironically enough, during a recent visit to the Camilla facility, a letter from the Association of Independent Christian Colleges and Seminaries arrived informing Hayes that his seminary had been named the group’s Ministry School of the Year for 2023, an award the seminary has won on a number of occasions.

“Our curriculum is more in-depth, depending on the students’ interest,” James Hayes said. “It can go from core courses to specialized studies on specific people from the Bible. We specialize the curriculum for each student, according to the classes that fit the student’s needs. And we offer everything from auditing classes to a Ph.D.-level certification.”

Jimmy Hayes notes that the Andersonville Theological Seminary does not seek government accreditation because “We don’t believe the government is qualified to certify Christianity.” But the seminary does have private accreditation, and its degrees are accepted worldwide.

Cost, of course, becomes a factor in such ventures, and that’s an area where Andersonville Theological Seminary has an amazing record, given its financial strength.

“We charge $200 to sign up for courses and then $50 a month,” James Hayes said. “We also take no loans, and all of our payments are interest-free. What ends up happening so often is that a preacher spends $50,000 getting a degree, and given what preachers generally make, he can never pay off those costs. We think that’s wrong. We don’t want these men of God to go into debt over some crazy tuition costs.”

The Andersonville Seminary is Bible-based, but it does keep up with the technology that allows for transmission of courses around the world. In the works are a YouTube Channel, podcasts and advanced technology that will allow messages to be delivered even in third-world countries that lack such technology.

“I’ve taken myself off the payroll; I’ve got a great staff to take care of things here,” Jimmy Hayes says. “But I can’t help just sitting back in wonder sometimes, thinking about what the Lord has allowed us to do. I’m truly amazed. But the way I figure it, the Lord will do for an old country boy anything that country boy is willing to do.”

Staff Photo: Carlton FletcherStaff Photo: Carlton Fletcher

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher