37 Years ago Today

1 Timothy 1:11  According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 12  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13  Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14  And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy…

Today, August 28, 2015, marks 37 years since I loaded all my worldly goods into my beige ’73 Nova and headed from SW Colorado to San Dimas, CA, where you get the “most on the coast.”

37 years ago today, I sat in the gym of Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College, filling out my class schedule. Rhonda Shook, of the Singing Shook Family, kindly introduced me to Pastor Tom McCrary of Riverside’s Faith Baptist Church.

Pastor Tom needed a good music director and door knocker to hire full time - $50 a week. In me, he found a fair music director and the world’s worst door knocker. We shook hands and struck a deal and I got my first full time ministry position. 

Where does the time go? How many times have I beat out 4/4 time since then? How many solos, duets, trios, quartettes, ensemble and choir numbers have I sung? How many have groaned at my preacher jokes? My goodness, almost 10 thousand messages thus far:

1750 Sunday school lessons

2600 Sermons 

4375 Bible College classes taught

1050 Bible Studies

9775 Messages

Before I left home, my dad had these words for me concerning ministry: “It’ll never last!”

Oh, how many times those words, that challenge, kept me going when I was looking for a towel to knot and toss.

I praise God on high for calling me, placing me and keeping me in ministry all these years. There is no better life, no higher calling, no greater reward than ministry. I am the least of His servants.