The Rev. Cecil McDowell says economic trouble in the world leads too many people into despondency, despair and misbehavior.

So he started a unique ministry aiming to relieve some of that despair on a lot he leases to friends and family for auto sales and service at 323 E. Waco Drive, a block north of the Brazos River.

He erected signs for a “drive-through prayer ministry” behind a wide opening in a chain-link fence on the otherwise nameless lot.

Rev. Cecil McDowell prays with a motorist in the parking lot at his drive-through ministry on East Waco Drive.
Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald

From 5-7 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — “depending on the weather” — motorists can pull in and stop just for a minute to receive a car-side prayer of assurance that God loves them, McDowell said.

“They never have to get out of their cars, and they don’t have to donate any money,” he said. “They can if they want, to help offset expenses, but that’s not what I’m here for at all. I’m here because I’m needed here.

“You can’t just walk into most churches during the week anymore, but people still need someone to share the Lord.”

Tim Randolph, director of missions for the Waco Regional Baptist Association, said he hadn’t heard of the drive-through ministry but affirmed that many churches are closed most weekdays because they can’t afford full-time staff. Even most that can stay open keep their doors locked because of security concerns.

The drive-through ministry’s expenses are pretty minimal — a canvas shelter from the sun, a few folding chairs, a table, a cooler full of bottled water and a big fan. Three or four signs are professionally produced.

McDowell set up for the first time at 4 p.m. last Monday, ready for a two-hour watch as the temperature passed 100 degrees.

He alternated between staying out of the sun and standing at the car lot gate to hold up a sign.

In the first hour, four people stopped, three in cars and one on foot. He spent a couple of minutes with each.

“I won’t try to go deep into their problems with them,” he said. “There’s not enough time for that, just talking to them in their cars. I just pray with them and tell them God loves them and will help them, whatever they need.”

By Friday, he had reset his hours to escape the worst of the heat. That day, nothing happened for about a half-hour, then a car and a pickup pulled in, one behind the other.

The first driver, a woman who did not give her name, said she “just saw the sign and wanted somebody to pray for me,” he said. As McDowell held her hand and asked God’s blessing on her life, she was visibly moved.

The man driving the pickup, Johnny Kellough, first asked, jovially but seriously, “I need to know if you’re a Bible-believing, born-again Christian. I don’t want any other kind praying for me.”

McDowell, a United Methodist, assured him that he is and then shared a prayer for blessing for Kellough and his family. Unbidden, Kellough pressed some money into McDowell’s hand.

A few minutes later, a young man on a bicycle stopped at the gate, and McDowell went to him. He rode off with a smile.

McDowell said he got the idea from an account he had read of a similar effort years ago somewhere in the Carolinas. The concept was never widespread.

His only similar experience was several years ago with the outreach group 100 Black Men, who made it a mission to reach youths on the street and get them into church.

The rest of his time, McDowell is pastor of a church about 100 miles from Waco and operates McDowell Cafe, open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 814 Elm Ave.

He said he doesn’t want to give his church’s name or location for fear the public will think the drive-through ministry is a publicity ploy. He said he hopes other local pastors will join him.

Rev. Cecil McDowell offers passers-by a prayer three afternoons a week at his drive-through ministry on East Waco Drive. “You can’t just walk into most churches during the week anymore, but people still need someone to share the Lord,” he says.
Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald

“I’ve been talking to a couple of other pastors about setting up drive-through ministries somewhere else on days when I’m not here,” he said.

A neighboring pastor, Larry Weaver of Good Samaritan Missionary Baptist Church, said McDowell “really has a heart for ministry and reaching out to people.”

Weaver praised McDowell as part of a family that has been involved in the community and improving society. “He’s a businessman, as well, and the people he’s touched through the years know they can count on him,” he said.

McDowell, 66, a Chilton native, has lived in the Waco area all his life, except for an Army deployment that took him to Vietnam in 1968-69.

Among other activities, he has run his own car lot and retired from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

“I’m going to be patient and wait for word to get around,” McDowell said of his ministry. “There are so many people without jobs, giving in to panic and taking all their stuff to pawn shops, stealing, robbing. . . . They need to remember to talk to God, to stop and smell the roses and say, ‘Give me a prayer.’ When they’re ready for it, I’ll be here.”

dbolding@wacotrib.com

757-5743