A Bible sits on the desk of Bladen County Commissioner Cameron McGill. The pages are dog-eared and mostly all of the passages highlighted from the many sermons he has delivered in the decades of ministry and dealing with the real issues of real life.
MEET THE COMISSIONERS
Cameron McGill has not only been in ministry for 25 years in Bladen County, but most recently he has added another pulpit to his ministry and that is a Bladen County Commissioner’s pulpit. Seen here in a calling that came at 15 years of age, he stands weather resistant and filled with life’s wisdom ready to bring a word in season.
The partnership that was born at the base of the cross stands strong and united in White Lake at the Lake Church. Pastor Cameron McGill and wife Tiffany stand on the ground that their church purchased in 2017 on the shore of White Lake.
With the Lake Church in the background and their beloved White Lake before them, Cam and Tiffany McGill are finding the fruit of a word spoken into their lives concerning local missions. They have accomplished the impossible in ministry, in their everyday lives and now in the office of the Bladen County Commissioner’s office.
Commissioner at large in the third district, Cameron McGill and his wife Tiffany have had the ability to see beyond the storm-clouds that can at times form on the horizon. After many years of leading people, it seemed like a great fit to help lead the people of Bladen County.
WHITE LAKE – Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, James Lankford Bladen County’s own Cameron McGill have all been associated as passionate Baptist ministers and all have made a difference in the political arena.
McGill who gave his heart to God when he was 9 years old said that he was called to preach when he was 15. Most recently, he has been called to serve as the 3rd District Commissioner at large. His wife Tiffany was also called to serve in ministry at a young age.
There are some that have said that church and state should not intermingle and McGill is very passionate about the call upon his life and the following of that call.
“We’ve traveled with a ministry called the American Renewal Project which actually encourages Christians and church leaders to engage the political world. Even to enter the political arena. But our story began in 2019, which was BC (Before Covid) we were able to go to Israel with the American Renewal Project as the guest of, at that time, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and his wife. We had a wonderful trip where we were encouraged to pray for our country to encourage church members to run for office.”
The couple went there first and foremost McGill said because his wife had a burden to go to Israel.
“God sometimes shows up in ways that we are not expecting,” he said. “At that point, we’d been in Bladen County for 20 years, we knew the community well and I pastored the First Baptist Church of Dublin for 18 years. We started the Lake Church (White Lake) as a mission and at in 2019 we were here at Lake Church full-time.”
In 2020, both Charles Ray Peterson and James McVicker said they felt led to come and approach McGill about running for the commissioner seat that was empty due to the unexpected death of Russell Priest.
“I was very humbled and honored,” he said. “I was out just working on the pier and I don’t know if I ever really took them seriously. They told me they’d give me a little bit of time to consider it. Now, I’d helped Coach Priest’s funeral at the ball field and my boys grew up under his leadership.”
After McGill got home he told her that he was approached to run for the empty commissioners spot in a “you’re not going to believe this” moment.
“Tiffany just immediately responded,” he said. “’Well, maybe that’s why God sent us to Israel.’ I then responded that we have so much going on in our lives right now. We talked, and by the end of that day, I called Charles Ray back and I told him that if they really felt like I would be the right guy to run, I’ll do it. And then the reality set in. Running and winning are two different things. Everything we do we try to do with a Biblical perspective and it says that whatever you find to do, do it heartily unto the Lord.”
McGill decided not to stress about running political campaign per se, but decide to go into it as he does every other decision and subsequent path in his life. He decided to go into it with 100% effort – win, lose or draw.
“I understood that statistically, I was probably a long shot,” he said. “But we ran a good campaign. I wanted to be the first to file and didn’t want it to be that I was running against somebody. Rather I wanted to show that I was running ‘for’ something. Anybody that is running in politics I want them to know that you should not run as a defensive mechanism to keep the other guy from winning, but more because you feel led to do it.”
With his family and his church family behind him and fully supportive, he went in as a David with a sling and a stone. He won the seat with a roughly 60/40 vote.
“So, is it OK for a Christian, especially a pastor to be involved in politics and I think, without a doubt, yes,” he said. Separation of church and state exists neither in the Bible nor the constitution. The constitution says that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”
Four members of the Founding Fathers were either present or former ministers and were signers on the Declaration of Independence. Also, a number of signers were sons of clergy. At least half had studied “divinity” at their respective Universities. In addition, one United States President, James Garfield was an ordained Disciples minister.
“Not that we were endowed by government, but by God,” McGill said. “So that settles it to me. The Bible says in Proverbs, ‘When the righteous are in authority, people rejoice. When the wicked bear rule, people mourn.’”
With the experience to not only speak to people, but to counsel, to listen and to lead, a pastor with a moral compass can be one of the best selections.
“In our county we are so blessed,” he said. “Even the most liberal amongst us is extremely conservative when you compare what is going on in the nation. I think that God put us where we are. I consider myself not a politician, but public servant and a pastor who happens to be involved in a political process. I’m not a politican who happens to be a pastor.”
In his early start on this earth, McGill was born in Danville, Virginia,” he said. “And also was back and forth to Winston Salem due to my parent’s jobs. My dad was a professional photographer and my mom worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for 30 years as an administrative assistant in the purchasing department.”
McGill said that his family began predominantly as a lower-middle class family. Growing up, he was 6 years old when Ronald Regan was elected and the first inauguration left some vivid memories.
“I can remember as a child just sitting and watching, totally enamored the wisdom of Ronald Regan,” he said. “He had an insight and wisdom that was truly beyond mortal man. There was a discernment from God that was upon that man. Growing up and all through high school I worked in small campaigns, canvassing and giving out palm cards and things like that. Looking back, it was God planting a seed in my heart.”
After graduating from Kerwin Baptist Christian School McGill went on to college at Wingate College where he was a member of the young Republicans and then went on to Emanuel Bible College which was in Connelly Springs, North Carolina.
“Saved at age 8, called to preach at age 15, and while at Wingate, I answered a small little add on the bulletin board for a church that was looking for a summer youth worker,” he said. “It was in Kannapolis, North Carolina. I went there in the summer of ’92 and then at the end of the summer, they kept me on. In the spring of ’93 I met Tiffany. I told her the day that I met her that I would marry her and spend the rest of my life with her.”
McGill said that it was “love at first sight for him and love eventually for her.” The love story blossomed and the couple married in 1995.
“By the time we were married, I was serving full-time as a youth minister in Spencer, North Carolina,” he said. It was 25 years ago now that we moved to Dublin to be the senior pastor and it was my first pastorate.”
According to Tiffany McGill, she said she was “pretty sure” it was love at first sight.
“I always said that I wouldn’t tell him I love him until I knew 100% sure,” she said. “I first met him at a thing he was doing for his youth group. Student from Wingate came and led the event. So, he talked me into going with him that weekend and there was an unexpected blizzard. It was March 13 of ’93.”
That divine intervention allowed the young couple to continue to talk and cultivate and plant seeds for the powerful and successful ministry that they both have to this day. She did hear him preach for the first time three weeks later.
“I was called into the ministry at 15 years old as well,” she said with a big smile on her face. “I was attending First Baptist Salisbury and had an amazing youth minister – and I had been on mission trips, I was very active in my youth group. One day we had a group from the African Children’s Choir come to church and through that I felt a strong call to the ministry, which at that time, I thought it would be missions.”
A year later, the man called to pastor and the woman with the heart of a missionary joined forces and the charisma and the love between them is unmistakable that a divine hand has been guiding them along their path together.
“I wouldn’t be pastoring the Lake Church and I certainly wouldn’t be in politics if it wasn’t for her,” he said. “When she was 15 and was called to missions, that call stayed in her heart. So, we came to Dublin and my goal was to be the best pastor, to have the best church and doing all the things a pastor was supposed to do. About 10 years after we were in Dublin, her heart for missions became so restless and she would say that she thought we needed to be more missions minded. Long story short, God developed a missions mindset in Dublin and we adopted and started partnering with a church in New York City and one in Moldova. We realized that ‘Here, there and everywhere’ was our missions strategy.”
On a trip where a Moldovan minister came to North Carolina to preach and to spend time with the McGill’s, he put forth a challenge to be missionaries also to North Carolina.
“So, when the Lake Church was birthed, her heart for missions came full circle,” he said. “We met in the Venue for seven years and then buying this property in 2017 and developing the camp – and now she’s the camp director here. From the time we met we’ve been in partnership in ministry. I would have bailed and left Bladen County within the first six months if she had not said, ‘Put on your big-boy britches and let’s fight through this.’”
When McGill came in to fill an unexpired term from 2020 – 2022, he got his feet wet and learned a lot about what the county needed. In 2022 he had won the hearts of the voters with his integrity, his wisdom, his love for community, his ability to not back away or back down from the issues and to speak out when his voice needs to be heard.
His current term runs until December 2026. If there are questions or comments, he is readily accessible at [email protected]
Bladen County is blessed to have this commissioner and his wife on board and from just a few moments with them, you will know without a shadow of a doubt that they are not here to just exist and collect a paycheck. They are life changers.
Meet the Commissioners of Bladen is a series highlighting those chosen to preside over our towns. It is the hope of the Bladen County Journal that you will be able to see the people behind the title and get to know them on a more informed level.
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: [email protected]