Tim Wildmon

AFA president

September 1996 – Ten years ago this past June I came to work for American Family Association. Ten years later I am confident I am where the Lord wants me to be. I would like to share a little bit of my story with you.

After a year of junior college in 1981-82, I went to Starkville, Mississippi, home of Mississippi State University. It took me one semester to figure out school included going to class regularly and studying. For a while there, I just enjoyed the staying up late and playing cards with my buddies. Fortunately, for me, I had a dad that gave me a second semester to redeem myself and, fortunately for me, I did. I didn’t graduate magna cum laude or anything, but I did get my priorities in order for the most part. Now if the Bulldogs were playing, of course, the game would move to the top of the list. Life has to have balance, the way I see it.

For a year I was the sports editor of the campus newspaper, and  for two years I wrote for a local newspaper. If I weren’t working at AFA today, I would probably be a sports editor for a newspaper. I always enjoyed athletics and I had been given a talent for writing, so it was only natural I would pursue this career path. But the Lord had other plans.

Upon graduating, Dad offered me a position here at AFA. My world view was the same as Dad’s, only I was 25 years younger and had a somewhat different perspective. Dad had seen the world change as a child of the ’40s and ’50s. I grew up in the ’70s. But I saw exactly what he saw in that America would only be as strong as the moral and spiritual fabric that held her together. I think God put that in my heart and mind, a lot of which came through listening to and observing Dad.

For six years I was Dad’s right hand man and his understudy. Then, in 1992, while in Jackson, Mississippi, for a church convention, Dad suffered a severe heart attack in the middle of the night. On the scale of 1-10, the doctors said his was a seven. I remember coming into work the next morning and telling the staff. They, like me, were worried about Dad and naturally, about the future of AFA if he didn’t make it. Looking back, I honestly don’t know if at age 29 I would have been able to lead a staff of 50 (now 75) and a national ministry. I was frightened at the thought of losing my dad at age 55, and at the same time, having this huge responsibility placed on my shoulders of leading AFA.

I remember making the three hour drive from Tupelo to Jackson and wondering if Dad would live or die. I was later told by my brother-in-law, in whose apartment Dad was staying, that Dad didn’t know either. In fact, as the paramedic team was on the way, Dad handed Neal his wallet, and told him to tell all of us, his children and wife, that he loved us very much. He didn’t know if he would see us again.

Thanks be to God, Dad did make it, and without open heart surgery. He left the hospital a week after his heart attack.

Since 1992 I have grown and learned so much more from him. He has given me more and more responsibility in terms of ministry decisions and direction. Although you never know how you will respond to a given situation until you’re actually faced with it, I feel more confident now than I ever have before in my calling to leadership at AFA.

I am 33 now. I have a wife of 12 years, Alison, and three children under 10. I have a good family, a hard-working staff, a Bible believing church which supports our work and a name to uphold. The Name of Jesus Christ first, and the name Wildmon, which I am very proud of for all the right reasons.

Pray for Dad. Pray for me. Pray for AFA.