Selected Most Athletic in his 1976 senior class, Hal Taylor crossed the graduation stage headed to Charleston, South Carolina to play football for the Citadel Bulldogs. The former ninth grade Student Council President played four years of high school football, basketball, and baseball at SCPS, as well as invested four years in high school chorus.
However, shortly after graduation, Hal’s mom was diagnosed with a serious illness. He immediately dropped out of school and left the team before their first season game to help take care of her back home in Savannah. She died that December, just a few short months after his graduation and in the middle of what should have been his freshman year in college.
“I don’t regret that decision for a moment,” recalls Hal. “Time was short, and Mom needed me.”
Following her death, Hal says “I basically wandered for a couple of years. I worked a union job on the Savannah riverfront as a longshoreman, and went to Georgia Southern College for a couple of quarters, among other things.”
On Christmas morning of 1978, Hal was living in servants’ quarters on a plantation near Savannah. All alone, he got in his car and started driving. Traveling down White Bluff Road in front of Hunter Army Airfield, Hal noticed the Spanish moss hanging from majestic live oak tree limbs framed against a beautiful blue sky.
“I was struck with the realization that there must truly be a Creator in charge of all this, and maybe He really did love me and have a plan for my life,” says Hal. “I gave my life to Christ right then, went to church the next Sunday, confessed my need for a change in my life, and gave my life to Christ publicly.”
The next year, Hal went to Atlanta Christian College. Eventually graduating with a B.S. in Ministry, Hal worked in full-time ministry in Conyers, Georgia, then Grand Junction, Colorado, and then Newnan, Georgia, serving as a youth minister, a senior minister, and a traveling music minister.
Hal was introduced to the PromiseKeepers men’s ministry in 1995. “My wife heard Coach Bill McCartney on the radio and said, ‘Come here, you need to listen to this. You are going next year.’ I did, and loved it.”
So much so, he started volunteering by contacting churches of different races, blending music teams together, and then leading worship for those events.
In 2004, Hal was asked to join the PromiseKeepers staff part-time to manage church relations in his area and work to fill the 21,000 seat Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia – a sell-out event.
Hal began working full-time for PromiseKeepers about two years ago. He now serves as the Regional Field Director for the eastern United States, overseeing 800 workers in sixteen states for PromiseKeepers national stadium and arena events.
“I enjoy watching men’s lives change,” says Hal. “One of my favorite things, and this happens frequently, is to be in a public place with my staff when a wife or daughter comes up and exclaims, ‘You have no idea how much PromiseKeepers has helped change my husband (or father)!’”
When not traveling, Hal maintains an office at home in Auburn, Georgia, and another at Integrity Music headquarters in Mobile, Alabama. Hal and his wife, Karen, are currently writing a book, and Word Music has published a couple of songs he has co-written.
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| (Front, L-R)) Grandson Jarrett Mason, daughter Jessica Taylor Mason, granddaughter Layla Mason, son Harrison Taylor, daughter Savannah Taylor, daughter Jeanne Taylor. (Back, L-R) Hal Taylor, Karen Taylor. |
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Hal and Karen will celebrate their twenty-sixth anniversary on August 22nd. They met at Atlanta Christian College and were best friends for a year before they dated.
“I opened my eyes one day,” recalls Hal, “and realized this wonderful woman had been right in front of me for the past year. We were married six months later.”
Karen has a degree in Bible from Atlanta Christian College, a Psychology degree from Georgia Southern University, and a Counseling degree from West Georgia College. She owned her own counseling practice for a while, but is now a second grade teacher.
The Taylors have four children. Jessica (24) is married to contemporary Christian artist Babbie Mason’s oldest son. They have two children of their own, and the couple sings and travels from their home in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Jeanne (23) is working on her teaching degree at Gainesville College and plans to serve on the mission field in the Far East, possibly China. Harrison (8) and blue-eyed, blond-haired Savannah (7), are the two youngest of the Taylor clan.
Hal’s sisters – Debbie Taylor Houchens ’74 and Teri Taylor Mirchink ’78 – graduated from SCPS. Their father still lives on Burnside Island in Savannah.
According to PromiseKeepers, the most compelling thing about Hal is his ability to convey his love for God and to lead worship. Their staff writes, “He has that in-born, God given talent of leveraging his heart for worship to help an audience ‘get there’ to worship at the feet of Jesus.”
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