I can’t ever remember not wanting to be a preacher. In elementary school, my third grade teacher asked our class one day what we wanted to be when we grew up. Of course, the answers were pretty standard: a fireman, a baseball player, a police officer, a teacher, etc. When my turn came, I proudly said, “I want to be a preacher!” My teacher was shocked!
Guess what? I didn’t really know what preachers did, but I still had my heart set on becoming one! Now I know it was the Holy Spirit moving in my heart.
Four or five years later, my pastor’s wife took me to camp, where I was gloriously saved and called to preach! The progressive calling on my life was birthed into reality on Tuesday, August 4, 1970! I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life when I got up from that altar. No doubts! I was called to preach the gospel.
The call continued to intensify over the next few years, when in 1974 the Lord directed me to enroll at Evangel College (now University) in Springfield, Missouri. I earned a double major in Mass Communications and Biblical Studies. I guess my melancholy personality needed a back-up plan! When I met Lori Owens and things got serious, she informed me that she would not marry me unless I was going into “the ministry.” I was able to quickly announce, “Of course, I’ve always wanted to be a preacher!” The rest is history.
Now, five churches and 35 years later, I cannot thank God enough for calling me to preach earth’s greatest message. Sometimes I feel like Paul, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
I marvel at the grace and goodness of God when I think about Him calling that middle Loomis boy–the shy, backwards one, the most unlikely–to preach the gospel. Not a day passes when I don’t thank Him for His love and mercy.
