Sherrie Forehand began her career at First Baptist Church Trussville in the summer of 1979, the summer between her junior and senior years at Baylor University. At that time, she was First Baptist’s summer recreation director. She soon received her Bachelor of Science and Education in church recreation from Baylor.
“I wanted to get into church drama,” she said, “and in the ’70s, the path was to have a degree in church recreation. So here’s my God story: I didn’t even take P.E. in high school, and my degree is in health, physical education and recreation. It just shows that God will get you where He wants you because church recreation was under the HPER at Baylor.”
Forehand worked in several areas at First Baptist for a few years, including as the Weekday Early Education Center director, and then in Tuscaloosa for a while.
In the late ’90s, Forehand took a pause in her career to stay home with her children. One day, she received a call from then-Pastor Gary Hollingsworth, who asked her to come back and manage the gym, and she was hired as the director of recreation, where she served for 20 years…