Second Baptist Church officially has a first family.

Everyone else, come out with your hands up.

Drawing on Acts at the rollicking installation of Pastor Eugene C. Staples Sr. Thursday night, the Rev. Tracy Roddy of New Life Faith Baptist Church sermonized on surrender.

The kind of abandon where you’re no longer in charge of yourself to be controlled by another.

Even when the Bible tells wives to submit to their husbands, “We get a little kickback,” Roddy said.

No one likes being told what to do, but “we all need some humbling,” then God will lift you up, Roddy said. “Shine so bright that someone wants your light and changes in the twinkling of an eye. He wants you to surrender your will and your way to come after him. He is in charge. If he is your Lord and Savior, you belong to him. Every born-again believer should surrender to a man of God” such as Pastor Staples.

“You can worship Him at work or riding down the street,” Roddy continued. “He’s omnipresent. Wherever you’re going, he’s waiting for you. Every one of us has a purpose and at least one gift in you — even if you’re not using it. You’ve got to know what He placed in you.”

Prayer can help answer that question, Roddy said, but so can surrender and coming out with your hands up.

“Start seeking and ye shall find,” he said. “Give up, give in and give it everything you have. Charity starts at home. Don’t hold back. Be your pastor’s pet. Stay close and follow him, even if he doesn’t seem to know where he’s going. God holds him accountable, not you.”

With community leaders looking on, the congregation gathered at the altar around Gene, from South Bend, and his wife Kelly, who he married in May 1988, and their five children, Eugene II, Sidney, Gabrielle, Sam and Adam, and wrapped them in prayer.

The Rev. Anthony Day Jones of New Salem Baptist Church in South Bend, one of eight preachers seated around the pulpit, offered encouragement.

Second Baptist Church was guided for more than 32 years by the Rev. Henry C. Smith, who first preached on June 4, 1972. The church was enlarged, Head Start located in the back lot, the mortgage burned on May 31, 1998.

The Rev. James Blow was the first pastor to preach in the “new” church on South Paul on Nov. 12, 1967. The parking lot and kitchen were completed and a parsonage built at 205 Tuthill St.

Sinbad’s father, the Rev. Donald Adkins, started the children’s choir, vacation Bible school and annual Youth Day before moving to Benton Harbor.