ALLARD RESIGNS CHURCH POSITION

The Rev. John Allard's sadness at resigning his post as senior pastor of
Lexington Avenue Baptist Church is tempered by excitement over his new
calling. Allard, 56, announced his resignation to the growing congregation
Sunday. He will soon assume the full-time, non-paid post of director of
community relations/chaplain at Caring Services Inc. on Chestnut Drive.

"It was very sad yesterday," said Allard, a former professional hockey
player. "There was total shock and disbelief in the church - people crying.
"I really love the people here, and it's a good church. You build
relationships that are going to last forever."

Lexington Avenue Baptist was Allard's first senior pastorate. The church
has flourished during his tenure.

"I think when I took over, we had an average of 135 (at Sunday worship),"
he said. "We've grown it to 225."

"We've accomplished a lot in three years. We have a lot of new members, a
lot of young couples, a lot of children, and we've been using our (new)
Family Life Center for about four months now."

Though Allard is leaving the pastorate, he stressed he won't abandon ministry.

"I don't feel that I'm leaving the ministry," he said. "I feel like I'm
really going to a harvest. It's just not going to be under a church umbrella.

"There's a pretty big population at Caring Services. Most of the population
are ex-drug addicts, ex-cocaine addicts. I see it as an open harvest."

Caring Services, a transitional housing program for recovering drug addicts
and alcoholics, is ready to welcome Allard.

"We're delighted to have him with us," said Becky Yates, executive
director. "We think he'll be a tremendous asset to our program.

"He's highly regarded in the community. He will address spiritual issues
and those kinds of things with our population."

Caring Services recently became state-licensed to provide out-patient
services, according to Yates. The facility now has 66 in-patient beds.

"We're hoping that he (Allard) will be able to do a lot of awareness
seminars and help educate the community about substance abuse and about the
need for programs like ours," Yates said.

"We hope that (Allard's addition) will free up a couple of people to do
more outpatient services."

Whatever Allard's future holds, he said he'll always remember his time at
Lexington Avenue Baptist fondly.

"Personally, I feel the Lord blessed me here more than I ever could have
imagined," he said.

"When I first came here, I didn't think we could turn it around like we did."