HEY GRANDPA

HEY, GRANDPA!
I would have called you, but its like 3:30 in the morning, so I figured an email would suffice. You don't have to answer a lot of them if you don't want to, I just was looking for answers from someone who had done this their entire life. You have preached among the Churches of Christ for 60 years.


Q. Did you always know you wanted to be a minister?

A. In the 1st grade I wanted to be a writer. I was going to write: The Further Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but nothing came of it. However church was always a special part of my life. I grew up in church was used to being around people and able to hold my own with them.


Q. When did you figure it out?

A. I grew up in an intensely religious family. My grandmother Rosa was a strong influence toward me being a preacher. In our tiny congregation at Reynoldsburg, OH, we had visiting speakers every Sunday. One Sunday the speaker didn't come. Grandmother said, "Rhoderick, why don't you get up and say something?" So I marched up to the pulpit, stood beside it, and spoke. "You've got to believe right, you've got to live right and you've got to be good." Then I sat back down. I was age 6. I suppose this had a deep impact on me.


Q. How do you tell if you are really called to be a minister?

A. Don't expect a call like Paul on the road to Damascus. It is a choice you make, a burden you take. If you decide to do it, you are called. But if you think of it only as a cushy job, do something else. It is anything but cushy. However avoid thinking that you are the only one who should make sacrifices. You should be paid a good living salary. You will be respected more. And you should not let anyone look down on you as “cheap hired help.” You are a worker for the Lord.


Q. After your initial decision to pursue ministerial training, did you feel like you wanted to give up?

A. No, but I did experience a lot of turmoil in my life from various sources. College is different from being at home. It seemed like I never had money to do things. And when I married Joan in 1949, jobs seemed impossible to find. Then she died in a car crash in New Mexico in 1949 about 3 months after we had been married.


Q. Did you ever doubt your calling?

A. Not really experiencing a strong "call" I haven't doubted it. I have mostly done what seemed to be the right thing at the time. I went to Kentucky Christian College with the purpose of becoming a preacher. With the death of my first wife Joan, I made no attempt to go into "located" work. But I did preach most Sundays somewhere as a visiting speaker (at Reynoldsburg OH from 1949 - 1959, I was actually one of the church leaders). I worked at various jobs to earn a living. I married Grandma in 1960. Then in 1962 we moved to Shawnee OH (near Athens) to be their regular preacher. When the church experienced money problems (the brick plant shut down; and Grandma had a bad spell), I began driving to Lancaster to work for a new Volkswagen dealer as a mechanic. I continued preaching and trying to bring renewal to the church at Shawnee. The congregation was very supportive of us and very helpful.

Then in 1966 I moved to Chandlersville (near Zanesville) to preach for two churches (Chandlersville and New Concord). This helped the finances, but I preached four sermons on Sunday and was unable to teach the Bible class (and drove 11 miles to get from one to the other). The preacher who followed me there continued to do this. [But as I look back over the years I do not doubt my "call" as God has used me in His work. I can see that He was walking with me all the way.]


Q. What are the most important traits a minister can have?

A. To love people and want to be helpful. To be an "older brother looking out for the younger children." [That's still true even when they are older than you. Paul told Timothy: "Let no one despise your youth."] And to be able to get along with people. You need wisdom and vision.


Q. After becoming a minister or while in college, did you ever get tired of reading scripture or commentaries and try to avoid reading them for a short while? (while studying for school or work, did you ever study the scriptures so much that they seemed to start to lose a lot of personal meaning? like did it ever become more of a text than a spiritual guide) if so, how did you get back on the right track.

A. It is important to remember than you are not God but human, with human needs and frailties. Eccles. 12:12 (KJV) "And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Take a short break from time to time. It is important to have a hobby to relax. Many preachers read Western Fiction where the good guys always win in the end. Or play a guitar, or sing, etc. Sometimes get out and walk. But sometimes in the middle of the night things will come flooding into your mind and you may not be able to sleep. This is normal and everybody does it at some time, not just preachers.

But read the Bible as you would a newspaper, allowing your mind to unconsciously use the laws of language. Read it as you would read a letter from a friend. You are reading to allow it to speak to you. Campbell said he approached the Bible every morning as if he had never seen it before. That's impossible, of course, but he was saying allow the Bible to speak to you rather than reading with a biased mind. And read several translations and make comparisons. Sometimes write out in your own words what you think the text is saying.


Q. When reading scholarly texts on various scriptures, did you ever start doubting what you knew was right? And how did you get back on track if you did?

A. Jesus said: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." Paul said: "The letter kills but the Spirit gives life." We may get information overload. Some CofCs are so intense on the "letter" that they miss JESUS who is the center of it all. You will find that brethren have very many differing opinions on what Scripture means. I wrote in my BSNT Commentary on James 3:1. "For this reason I have not relied on my own scholarship but have drawn heavily from the minds and abilities of many individuals." Standard reference material such as The Expositor's Greek Testament is of help. And you will find that there are many more sides to an understanding than you ever thought of. It is proper to ask The Holy Spirit to guide you. But the most important thing is to KNOW JESUS!

A second thing: it helps to have a poetic soul to really understand Scripture. Jesus was always saying radical things. Someone has said: to the nearly blind you write in large scrawling letters; to the nearly deaf you SHOUT LOUDLY; to the spiritually handicapped you speak in radical sayings and parables. Jesus said things like: If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off! If your eye causes you to sin, poke it out! These are comparisons used to put things into focus, and not commands to be put into practice. And sometimes a command is to a particular person and would not apply to you. "And Judas went straightway and hanged himself." "Go thou and do likewise." "What thou doest do quickly." Each reference is true - but joined together they are false.


Q. After preaching for many years did you ever doubt the validity of scriptures at any point? If so how did you deal with this?

A. Even Peter said Paul wrote some things hard to understand. Some will try to make the Bible a "Paper Pope." Some will say, "Why if you are right, you might just as well throw the Bible out the window." The Bible does not contradict itself. You must make allowance for the language. It may contradict what you THINK you believe (or have been taught). And the Bible is such a book that you may see new things each time that you didn't see before. "Have you received any new light from the Scriptures today?" We should always pray that the Lord will open our mind to the Scriptures. Luke 24:45. And the main purpose of Scripture is to bring us to the Eternal Word JESUS.

Joel Osteen opens his TV program with this prayer - which people repeat after him. "This is my Bible: I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do. Today, I will be taught the Word of God. I'll boldly confess. My mind is alert; my heart is receptive; I will never be the same. I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living Seed of the Word of God. I'll never be the same - never, never, never! I'll never be the same, in Jesus' Name."


Q. Did you have trouble writing sermons when you first started writing them? how did you go about writing sermons your first few years in ministry? how did you go about writing sermons in the later years of your ministry and why did you change the way you did?

A. It isn't necessary to reinvent the wheel. There are no original sermons. Some write the sermons with elaborate outlines. A few write their sermons out completely and then read them out loud from the pulpit. Others can jot down a few notes and speak for hours. I used to sometimes arrive at Sunday morning with nothing to say. A standard outline will help then. There are books of sermon outlines published. But always study the outline to be sure of what the writer intended and to make it your sermon. [I have trouble following someone else's outline. I always have to rewrite them to fit my thinking.] I began writing my outlines on a 4x6 file card - a few notes to keep my thinking together.] At Ithaca when I developed eye problems (cataracts) I began writing a few scripture references on a sheet of paper in large letters and reading from a large print Bible. When I broke my wrist 2 years ago, I could not hold a Bible. So I began putting my sermon in the bulletin. I print my scriptures in full so I can just hold the bulletin and read them from it.


Q. What advice do you have for someone who isn't sure whether or not they are called to be a minister?

A. Go ahead and try it. Time will tell. But some who are not psychologically equipped to deal with people in a located situation, might succeed as a Meeting preacher. There are a few who are psychologically handicapped who would be a disaster as a preacher. [And there are some charlatans.] But keep on loving the Lord and giving Him the praise and the glory. Don't forget to come boldly to His throne of grace. YOUR OWN PERSONAL PRAYER LIFE IS VITAL.


Q. If you ever felt that you were doomed to fail in ministry, how did you get past this feeling? (what led you to succeed as a minister?)

A. Everyone at some point feels discouragement. You might feel a need to escape! But circumstances may make it impossible to make a change just at that time. Remember Paul's thorn in the flesh. We found the church at xxxxx had a seriously flawed leadership. But we were unable to move away. We were there 5 years and some of our best work with college students was done in the last years. As I look back I do not see how I could have done things differently there. I believe the Lord was using me as a troubleshooter.


Q. Do you think someone one with very bad social skills can succeed in ministry?

A. What would be bad social skills? Some things just come from experience. One who gossips and carries tales will generate a lot of friction. But one who is kind and loving and who will be a friend will find a lot of friends and be greatly blessed. Some will come into a room and everyone just lights up! Others can come in and make you feel like hiding in a corner.

When John D. Rockefeller was asked what quality he was willing to pay for the most when hiring employees, he responded without hesitation, "The ability to get along with people." It is the lack of this ability to get along with people that makes difficult people difficult. Every congregation has a few people like this. In different places, difficult people may come in different shapes and sizes, but they all share this common trait: They are difficult! Remember, people have become difficult because being difficult has worked for them. Basically they are fearful of close personal relationships that would require them to be emotionally vulnerable. So their behavior is designed to push your buttons and pull your strings--to put distance between them and others.


Q. When I asked the question about bad social skills, what I meant is having almost no charisma and not being good at making conversation. I have never been very good at making conversation especially with people I don't know. Normally ministers are pretty good at making conversation, at least most that I have met and a lot of them are very charismatic. Some people always know what to say and I'm not one of these people. And it is important for ministers to know what to say at the right time. I guess the best way to describe myself is not good at interpersonal communication. (I'm not really interested in gossip or any of that and don’t try to make others feel bad about themselves or anything like that.)

A. You yourself cannot be the judge of how much charisma you have. It is what others think of you. If you allow the light of Christ to shine through you, this is charisma. If you get up in the middle of the night to sit with someone who is dying, this may be charisma. I think your personality is much like mine. I know there are things I cannot do, but there are things I can do. I knew a preacher who came to a church in Ohio who was very charismatic. For a few weeks he turned everything upside down with great enthusiasm. But in three months he moved on. I have been here 23 years now.


Q. It’s my lack of good communication skills that made me switch majors to info tech. It wasn't because I want a job with computers, but because I am good with computers. I'd actually hate to have a computer job (even though I'd do really good at it), but you have to do what you have to do to survive. I just am not confident in my ability to function as a minister and if I can’t do ministry I have to do something, so computers are the next likely choice. ( I don’t hate computers, they have just always been sort of a hobby and I never have wanted to make them anything else)

I also have the heart for ministry. Like I do really care about God and people. I'm just not extremely good at communication. I guess I could get better at communication, but someone who isn't good at communicating would have a hard time being a minister. I could write a sermon that could communicate God’s word effectively, but its the stuff outside of that that I’m worried about.

A. Don’t sell yourself short. When I moved to a new place, I always tried to develop lines of communication in the church between the members themselves. And I tried to build lines of communication between the church and the community. I worked to improve the Sunday School classes, especially the adult studies. (Some think Sunday School is only for kids.) I tried to treat everyone the same and not play favorites. And even though they were paying my salary, I always remembered I was working for the Lord. I was there to bring revival, renewal, and spiritual awakening.


Q. Is there anything else you think may be helpful that I didn't ask?

A. A preacher needs a wife who is a companion-counterpart. Your Grandma has a gift with people. (But she suffers from nervous problems.) And it is important to be a part of the church-family. You are brothers and sisters in the same family. Plus this saying: "It is better to get 10 men to work, than to try to do the work of 10 men." A preacher is a coach and not the whole team. But some churches have the attitude: "We hired YOU to do that!"


This from the Christian Standard's Web Page. " THE NACC opened with a challenge from President Jeff Stone, labeled by Wayne Smith later that evening as "the best sermon on grace I've ever heard." "Your grace is enough for me," about 5,000 convention attendees sang. Stone challenged them to "take the grace we've received and dispense it to those who need it most." "May we always be amazed by what You've done for us," he prayed to close. "May we always be amazed by what You're doing in us and by what You want to do through us." The convention, with the theme, "Still Amazed," continues through Friday morning.