Several people had asked me if I had written an article about the new pastor of Newton First Baptist Church, Bro. Chris Spence. Upon calling him, he agreed. I then realized that my colleague and reporter of the Newton County Appeal, Marty Morgan, had written a series of three articles giving Bro. Spence’s detailed testimony. (March 27, April 3rd, and April 10th issues, available online also.) This column will primarily focus on the lives of this young couple and their plans for the future as well as continuing to feature the calling of God on their lives.
Christopher Allen Spence, from Lake, Mississippi, was born June 7, 1991, to Mark and Tina Usry Spence. His mother died when he was a toddler and his stepmother is Trisha White Spence. His father is a Scott County police officer and Newton County Constable. Mrs. Spence works at Bank Plus in Newton. Tyler Spence, born to Mark and Trisha Spence, now tragically deceased, was Chris’s only sibling.
Chris’s grandparents, David and Diane Usry helped raise him. His grandfather, David Usry, taught Agriculture at Forest before retiring and beginning employment for Joe McGee Construction, where he still works. His grandmother, Diane Usry is retired from the Mississippi State Extension Service. He told me he had a “great childhood,” being raised in a Christian home, with parents, grandparents, and other relatives who made sure he was in church regularly. He recalled his family praying and reading the Word together regularly.
In briefly recounting his testimony, Bro. Spence told me he was saved, with a full knowledge of who Christ is and what He had done for him, as a six-year-old at his home church of Lake First Baptist. He stated, “I recall the conviction and the drawing of the Holy Spirit of myself to salvation vividly,” even at that young age. He explained what he thinks happened later. “I was not wearing the armor of God. I was unprepared, unprotected, as I had left off some of my armor.” He rebelled from the calling of God into a life of drug addiction as a teenager, graduated from Lake High School in 2009 before dropping out of East Central Community College because of his addictions.
Young Chris Spence met Paige Mann from Pisgah at a concert in Biloxi in 2011. They began dating and, with his addictions changed to sources he could more easily hide, he took her to his church at Lake where she was saved. She began praying for him, they were married in April 12, 2014, and in 2017 Chris came to a point of repentance and changed his life for good—and for God.
Amber Paige Mann Spence was born February 12, 1993, to Jannie and Aaron Mann of Pisgah. She has an older sister, Jennifer Mann, a brother Zach Mann, and a sister Grace, married to Jeremiah Benner. Her mother works at a florist shop, Bouquets of Pearl. Paige graduated in 2011 from Pisgah High School, earned her A.A. at ECCC, before graduating from Mississippi State University, Meridian branch, with a B.A. in Criminology. She worked briefly as a police office at Meridian Community College before becoming employed in Pelahatchie with the Rankin County Youth Court as a case manager. She is a grant writer and works with multiple families, helping effect rehabilitation of the entire family. She is also working on her Master’s in Criminal Justice through Loyola University in New Orleans. The Spences have no children yet, and they are actively seeking to adopt a child, while praying for God’s will concerning any other children they may have in the future.
After a couple years spent seeking God, serving in his home church in Lake, and volunteering with the FBC Lake Prison Ministry, Bro. Spence entered Southeastern Baptist College in Laurel, Mississippi, and earned his Associate of Arts in Bible in 2021. From time spent in 2018 as a Pastoral Intern at FBC Lake, he was called and pastored Decedar Baptist Church in Montrose, Mississippi, from 2018-2021. He served from March 2021 as Family Discipleship Pastor at his home church before being called to begin ministry as Pastor of Newton First Baptist Church in September 2023.
In 2024 he graduated William Carey University with a Bachelor of Science in Christian Ministries and a minor in Inter-cultural Studies-Missions. He is presently working on his Master’s at William Carey University. When I asked if he had done a mission trip yet, he said that he, friends Brian and Paige Rushing, and Joe Pugh from his Newton church are planning a “vision” trip to Morelia, Mexico, for two weeks. The contact there is a Pastor Roberto, whom Newton First Baptist had been helping for some time.
I asked Bro. Spence about the Newton First Baptist Church “population,” to which he replied that it is multi-generational, having a lot of great senior adults, as well as younger families, including some of the African-American community. He told me, “Our church serves this community well,” and told me of some of the ways they serve. He and Paige have bought a house in Newton and have lived there since January. As he stated in one of the previous articles, “We wanted the community to know we’re all in. We want to spread the light of Christ in Newton.”
As we see the light of Christ’s Second Coming gleaming in the near distance, we pray for our troubled country, with people needing salvation and revival. As one with the experience of having an inspiring testimony of his own repentance and commitment to Christ, Bro. Chris Spence is prepared to help others repent and be saved initially, or rededicate their lives to God.
There are pastors all over Newton County who are ready, willing, and able to do that very thing. Please simply ask the God who created this universe, and His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the only way to the Father, to direct you to a church, a body of believers that would welcome you and help you ensure that your soul is saved for eternity. In fact, Jesus defined eternal life, in His priestly prayer to His Father, before His crucifixion. He prayed, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)
In countries on the other side of the world, where it is too dangerous to preach this precious gospel, people are becoming Christians as a result of having dreams and visions of Jesus Christ Himself coming to them to invite them to be saved and be with Him in eternity. Please accept His invitation to you, also, as He is getting His church ready to bring His children home to the place He has prepared for us. “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me…I go to prepare a place for you…I will come again, and receive you unto Myself…” John 14:1-3.
People get ready! Jesus is coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
