Warren Bailey died July 14, 2000, at age 88. He had no family. And he wasn't much of a church-going man. To the best of anybody's recollection in the town of St. Mary's, Georgia, Mr. Bailey hadn't been to church in at least 20 years. He did, however, make annual donations of around $100,000 to St. Mary's United Methodist Church—a 350-member congregation with an annual budget of less than $300,000.

It probably wasn't a great shock to the members at St. Mary's that the church was remembered in Mr. Bailey's will. But the amount of the bequest was indeed a shock. There was stunned silence among the assembled parishioners when Rev. Derek McAleer broke the news that the man who owned 49 percent of the region's Camden Telephone Company had left the church $60 million.

"It's all unreal to me," said the pastor. "This is a number that doesn't have any reality." Mr. Bailey's will included no instructions on how the money was to be used, so the church has set up an advisory board to decide how to handle its newfound and unexpected wealth as good stewards.

Rev. McAleer reports that he has been besieged by calls asking for money. And he admits to a worry that greed could consume the congregation. This was his lament: "How do we remain a Christian church?"