At 92, a Jackson Deacon Publishes a Spiritual Dictionary and Signs Copies in Thomasville

At 92 years old, with a deacon’s tenure stretching back more than six decades, Jimmie Sullivan has published a book. And on June 23, he sat down at the Thomasville Public Library to sign copies of it.

Sullivan, a deacon at Saint Union Baptist Church in Jackson, hosted a book signing at the library featuring “Kingdom Language: The Language of the Believers.” The work is a spiritual dictionary, and its premise is deceptively simple: that many of the words readers encounter in the Bible do not mean what a standard English dictionary says they mean.

The Idea Behind the Book

Sullivan’s argument is that misreading scripture often begins at the level of individual words, and that readers import modern, everyday definitions into a text where those definitions do not apply.

“I want them to learn that some meanings of words in the Webster dictionary are not the same in the spiritual dictionary,” Sullivan said. “There are so many words that have different meanings in the Bible, so that’s why I focused on the words. Words like hear, see and fear have different meanings, so that’s what motivated me to write the book so that people can understand the Bible better.”

The three examples he offers are well chosen, and they illustrate the point better than any abstract explanation could:

• Hear in biblical usage often carries the weight of obedience, not merely auditory perception. To hear is to heed.
• See frequently denotes understanding or spiritual perception rather than the operation of the eye.
• Fear, perhaps the most commonly misread of the three, is generally rendered as reverence or awe rather than terror, which changes the meaning of a great many familiar passages.

A reader who substitutes the plain modern definitions in each case will arrive at a materially different, and often much narrower, reading of the text. That gap between the everyday word and the scriptural word is the entire territory Sullivan’s book sets out to map.

A Ministry Behind the Manuscript

Sullivan became a deacon at 28, meaning he has served in that role for roughly 64 years. He said the outreach ministry of the church has always been closest to his heart, and he has spent years carrying that work into jails and other places in the community rather than waiting for people to come to him.

He describes the book as an extension of that same effort, a way of continuing the work of explanation and encouragement in a form that outlasts any single visit.

His account of what has sustained him is unsparing.

“I am a believer, as simple as that,” he said. “I have been through a lot. I have sleep apnea, have had two heart attacks and have had cancer but none of that bothers me because I was already healed before I got it. I learned how to lean and depend on Jesus and that is the key that everyone is missing. You can’t do it by yourself. You will never win a battle against Satan by yourself but you got to know that if you go to (Jesus), you can win.”

The Library as a Local Stage

The signing points to a role that small-town public libraries fill quietly and well. A first-time author from a neighboring community, without a publisher’s publicity budget or a bookstore tour, needs somewhere to meet readers.

Sullivan’s book is available for checkout at the Thomasville Public Library, which means readers can encounter it without buying a copy. That is a meaningful distinction. Local authors who place their work in the library collection reach a far broader audience than sales alone would deliver, particularly among readers on fixed incomes.

The library also invites other authors to do the same. Writers interested in scheduling a book signing can contact the library staff by phone or by email at [email protected].

At 92, Sullivan has done what few first-time authors manage at any age: he turned a lifetime of study and service into a book, and then he sat down to sign it for the people of his corner of Alabama.