Beaty, also a longtime Durant High School chaplain, says “the best years of Lone Oak are ahead.”
On his final Sunday as pastor of Lone Oak Missionary Baptist Church, Pastor Kerry Beaty watched three people be baptized, and four others join the congregation. It was a fitting close, he said, to 28 years in the pulpit.
Beaty, who retired this fall, arrived in Plant City on the second Sunday of August 1998. He had spent nine years as pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Lake Wales and, before that, five years at Midway Baptist Church in Groveland. Lone Oak called him to fill a vacant pulpit, and he and his wife, Laquita, accepted after what he describes as much prayer. Neither had roots in Plant City.
He never planned to stay this long. When the family arrived, the couple’s three sons were in fifth, sixth, and eighth grades, and Beaty asked God to keep him at the church until they finished high school. They graduated in 2003, 2005 and 2006. “We were still there in 2026,” he said. He credits the staying power to a mutual affection between pastor and congregation.
The church has grown modestly. Attendance of 150 to 200 when he arrived now runs 175 to 220, and Beaty said younger couples and families have joined in recent years, narrowing what had been a wide generation gap. The city has changed more than the church has. It is bigger, he said, and no longer as easy to get around, but residents remain “friendly, courteous, outgoing, helpful.”
Growth around the church shaped its outreach. When the Trapnell Ridge and Magnolia Green neighborhoods were built nearby, Beaty told his congregation that God had handed them two mission fields. The lesson, he said, was that “outreach can be as simple as across the street.” Events such as fall festivals, he said, showed families the church cares about their spiritual growth. Three or four families have become members after attending these outreach events.
Beaty’s ministry also reached the classroom. For more than 20 years, he served as chaplain to Durant High School’s football team, attending games, praying with the team before and after play and offering devotionals. During that same period, he coached junior varsity wrestling, a pursuit that began when he was a teenager in Miramar. “The earlier you build a foundation of faith, the better,” he said.
Hardship tested the congregation’s commitment to community. After hurricanes, members reached out to families in need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Beaty said the church tried to continue to build faith by livestreaming services, which it still does.
His successor is Levi Mainous, who joined as associate pastor two years ago and took over the pulpit on a recent Sunday. Mainous said he learned from watching Beaty lead by example and model servant leadership. “He was a great mentor,” Mainous said. Beaty said handing the church to Mainous leaves him confident it is in capable hands.
Asked what he learned from the people he served, Beaty said he told Mainous to “keep grace big.” The larger you make grace, he said, the easier the work becomes. His advice for his successor was shorter: “Love God first, most and always.”
Beaty said retirement feels “very, very different.” A week in, he said he is already realizing he needs something to do. “I retired from pastoring but haven’t retired from ministering,” he said, and he hopes to stay connected to ministry in his new residence in Madison. His wife, Laquita Beaty, retired two years ago after a teaching career that ended at Turkey Creek Middle School, where she taught language arts. The couple has grandchildren in North Florida and South Carolina and a son in Virginia and looks forward to more family time.
Lone Oak marked its 105th anniversary in September. Beaty said his wife and he will always remember the church as a wonderful part of their ministry together. As for what comes next, he said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds it.”
Lone Oak holds Sunday school at 10:00 a.m., morning worship at 11:00 a.m., and evening worship at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, with Bible study for all ages at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. Details are at loneoakbaptist.org.
