The family and South Columbus Community are mourning the lost of Pastor and School Board Member Reverend Joseph Roberson. He was tragically killed in a car accident Saturday evening on his way home from a Conference. NBC 38’s Maria Jones sits down with those closets to him as they come to grips with their lost.
They described him as the ‘calm in the storm’ with a genuine concerned for others. “A person who is really concerned about your life and what was going on, he was very, very complementary and encouraging. Never left an encounter with him that you didn’t feel better about yourself,” Reverend Allen Page III/Pastor Holsey Chapel said. Pastor Roberson moved to Columbus in 1994 and began preaching and teaching with less than fifty members over the years as he reached out to those in the community his membership would grow by the hundreds. “From a congregation of 45 persons basically an Anglo congregation that was struggling with the changing atmosphere of the neighborhood and he took those 45 persons and grew the congregation to what it is today, we have approximately 700 members,” Reverend Denise Walton/Senior Pastor-South Columbus United Methodist Church told News 38. Reverend Denise Walton is now the senior pastor at the South Columbus United Methodist Church, where Roberson served for nearly two decades. She says he was her mentor for years who now leaves a great legacy. “In terms of outreach, mission, evangelism, the administration of the church, teaching, preaching all of those things came together to build a tremendous opportunity for us to move forward in the future and continue with the legacy that Reverend Roberson has helped to build,” Walton explained. A visitation is set for Friday, from 6pm to 8pm at the South Columbus United Methodist Church located at 1213 Benning Drive. His Homegoing Service has been scheduled for Saturday, at 11am at the St. Luke Church on 2nd Avenue in Downtown Columbus. If you’d like to make a donation you can send it to the Columbus United Methodist Church on Benning Drive or call 706-689-5094.