Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson will visit Crossville Sunday to lead a Bible study and preach at Linary Church of Christ.
Linary Minister Mitchell Covington said he learned Robertson would be in the area for a local high school event. The invitation was facilitated through Robertson’s brother, Al Robertson, who has previously visited the congregation on two separate occasions.
“I wrote Al and said, ‘Hey, I understand your brother’s going to be in town on Saturday, why don’t he just stay over and go to church with us on Sunday?’” Covington said. “And Al wrote me back and said, ‘That’s a great idea. He said, ‘Why don’t I send you the information for the guy that organizes things for him?’ And he wrote them an email and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been to Linary a couple of times, great bunch of people.’”
Covington said the church staff underwent a unique vetting process before the visit was confirmed. He said the Robertson team researched the church and jokingly asked about security after seeing a video of Covington using a toy during a previous sermon.
“They contacted me back again and said that, uh, well, we have a few questions,” Covington said. “They were, you know, security and some, you know, details and things like that for the event. And finally said, ‘You know, I, um, he has one concern. I’m afraid I’m afraid he’s going to get shot by a Nerf gun.’ I thought that was the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. And then I remembered, I said, ‘Oh, I used a Nerf gun as an illustration in a sermon a few weeks ago.’ He said, ‘Yes you did. So we checked out your church. Uh, we always check out the churches before we come to see if we’re compatible.’ Said, ‘We’d love to come. So we’re going to come.’”
Covington said the church decided to open the event to all of Cumberland County as part of its community outreach mission. He said the Robertson family has a significant impact on people and the church previously saw a large turnout when it screened a movie about the family patriarch.
“Well, because we’re part of this community and we we love this community and we want to be an outreach,” Covington said. “And, uh, we know Willie has a great story. We we showed, uh, the movie that his dad, you know, was produced about his dad a few years ago. We had a really big turnout for that. They’ve had a big impact on a lot of people and we’d just like to share that with our community around us. We we do feel like we have a responsibility to reach out to all of Cumberland County.”
Covington said Robertson is expected to deliver a message centered on faith and his book regarding evangelism. He said the Robertson family remains focused on ministry because faith was a foundational part of their upbringing in Louisiana.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever heard any of their podcasts but they talk about the fact that when they were growing up their dad had somebody over the house almost every day,” Covington said. “And he said, ‘You know, it’s just part of our part of our DNA, part of our growing up.’ We don’t know any other way and we think that’s the way, and it’s a good way. And they’re just really, I know when Al was here he came to my house and, uh, we had them over and they’re just such down-to-earth people, love people. And, uh, while they’ve been successful they still are down-to-earth and just as common as anybody you would ever meet.”
Covington said the event is free to the public and does not require a ticket for entry. He said the church will also provide door prizes for those who register, including autographed books, bobbleheads, and items created by the church’s “Devo and Sew” group.
“Well, that, of course, that Jesus loves us and as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay there,” Covington said. “And he wants to he wants to reach out to us and he gives us a community called the church, a family that we can get involved in to help us to be able to overcome all the obstacles we have in our lives today and we have so many. We need that fellowship, we need that family and that’s what the church provides. And and hopefully that’ll get people look and say, ‘You know what, I need something like that.’”