Next week will be a very atypical one for the Rev. Willa Grant Battle. Yes, she will be honored for her 50th anniversary of leading Grace Temple Deliverance Center, but that's just for starters. The big difference is that Battle, 84, is finally going to sit back and let someone else do the work of preparing and leading the services.
"I'm going to soak it all in," she said. "I'm just going to bask in the preaching and teaching."
To the members of the congregation at 1816 4th Av. S., just across Interstate 94 from downtown Minneapolis, the notion of Battle taking it easy is foreign. She never takes it easy.
"If you take it easy, you're not involved," she said. "If you don't keep current, you become obsolete. I keep up with all the issues. I keep moving. I'm busy all the time."
Battle and her late husband launched two churches in the Twin Cities. While she led the Minneapolis church, the Rev. Walter Battle, who died in 1995, led the Gospel Temple Church in St. Paul, which was founded one year before the Minneapolis facility. Both are Bible-based churches that are not associated with a denomination.
The biggest change she's encountered in half a century of preaching is in the nature of the young people.
"They have a TV mentality," she said. "They think in terms of a stage and actors. They don't want to work at being at church, they want to sit back and be entertained."
Her anniversary celebration -- which is also the 50th anniversary of the church -- will include services at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. next Sunday. They all will be led by guest preachers, but that will be enough sitting around for Battle.
