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Murphy drawn to full-time discipleshipBy Barry Merrill 31 October 2007 — A recent Princeton High School graduate who found Christ through a youth counselor has come back home to help counsel other Princeton area youngsters. William “Scooter” Murphy, a 2003 PHS grad, started at Princeton Baptist Church as their youth pastor in September.
This past Sunday kicked off new programs at the church. They began an 8 a.m. Celebration Service, and Scooter debuted his children’s church program, called Noah’s Park, which will be going at 8 a.m. and also during the traditional service, 11-12. He was completing an order for a “bounce house” for the kids: they will enter Noah’s Park for the program through the inflatable and slide down the slide at the end to enter the classroom.
He is excited about the opportunity to get into the kids’ world, meeting them where they are. In addition to supervising the children’s church program, he will do the “children’s chat” during the traditional service, leading into the children’s church program. He will also teach a teen Sunday School class, will lead their Sunday afternoon meeting at 5:30, and lead the drama team at 7:30 Sundays. Scooter is excited about their youth group, which is called ROPES: Reaching Out Physically, Emotionally and Spiritually. William was known as Will to some as he grew up in the Whitley Church area, and his teachers did not feel that Scooter was appropriate, but he has always been known to his close friends by that name. He is the son of Gordon and Sheena Murphy. Gordon is permanently disabled, after a construction accident many years ago. His mother works as a dispatcher at Johnston Ambulance Service. Scooter was an active student at Princeton, running cross country and track, and playing basketball. He was in FFA, the Spanish Club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and was president of FCCLA, the home economics club at the school; it was kind of a novelty for the club to have a male president. He was always active at Whitley Church, but as one of the shorter people in his class, he was made fun of and he acted out a lot, he says. He says he got in a lot of trouble. Summers were always spent at Camp Oak Hill, a youth camp near the Virginia border in northern Granville County. While at the camp one summer, he got in some trouble and one of the counselors was correcting him, but in so doing showed him the love of Christ. “He lived his faith. There was something different about him. I wanted that and I asked him how I could get that.” Scooter said that was when he gave his life to the Lord. After graduating from PHS, Scooter enrolled at Johnston Community College. While in a Bible study there, he met Laura Creech, a Zebulon-Knightdale area girl. Earlier this year they got married and after their marriage had been living in her home area, until moving to Princeton in September. William got his associate’s degree from JCC, and then went to Heritage Bible College near Dunn and got a two-year pastoral studies degree. He worked at Timberland at the Pottery after school for a couple of years, but had continued to work summers at Camp Oak Hill. Two years ago, the camp offered him an opportunity to work full-time at the camp as their program director. At the start of his senior year at Princeton, Brandon Batten moved to the school when his father, Dwayne, accepted the job of youth pastor at Princeton Baptist Church. The two also went to JCC and maintained their friendship started at Princeton. Last year after Rev. Batten accepted the call to be the senior pastor at the church, he contacted Scooter about being a part of the ministry team at Princeton Baptist. Scooter did not feel that was the time for him to move, but Rev. Batten called him again this year, asking him to reconsider. “I felt God moving me to discipleship. I could help mold and shape lives day-after-day, not just on a short-term basis at the camp.” He shared the opportunity with his supervisors at the camp, and they encouraged him to pursue the opportunity. He accepted the post and began full-time September 2nd. As part of the package, he and Laura live in the home the church owns adjacent to the church property. Laura works in outpatient registration at Johnston Memorial Hospital. Scooter is excited about coming back to Princeton. “This church is amazing to me, really loving.” He is excited about getting to know the youth who want to belong to something on a personal basis. “It’s not about being preps or gamers or jocks or gangsters, as some people label groups of youths, but about being part of one body in Christ.”
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