The Dream Began 33 Years Ago Today!

On a beautiful winter Sunday morning in Houston, 33 years ago today, January 18, 1981, I preached my first sermon as pastor of Christchurch Baptist Fellowship. I was 29 years old, my wife Barbara was 27. Our eldest child, Heather Dawn was a bubbly, bouncy 3 year old, our second child Juliana Marie had just turned 1. Jonathan Paul and Sean Patrick were yet to be born. We were meeting on what was then State Road 149 in Northwest Harris County, 22 miles from downtown Houston. It was a small rented old church house with limited parking. Our sign was a portable one with removable letters. Before me that day sat a group of smiling people wondering what kind of pastor I would be. Would I stay? Would I help them? Is this the place I want to rear my family? I was looking at them wondering what kind of pastor I would be also. My wife became the pianist on that first Sunday. In my opinion, she is the best church pianist I have ever heard. Her playing still blesses me beyond my ability to convey. A little lady named Victoria Lord was one of the first Sunday School teachers at our church. She had moved down to Houston a year or so before we moved down and she happened to be my wife’s 4th grade Sunday School teacher back in Indiana. She subsequently became my daughters’ Sunday School teacher as well. She became our first full-time secretary and she is still to this day. I know of no better secretary in America. For three decades she has served in absolute loyalty to our church and this unworthy pastor. As a matter of fact, I have for 33 years been surrounded by a loyal people who have lifted me in prayers as I preached to them and they have supported me and my family as I have preached around the world. I believe I pastor the greatest Church in America.

On the following Tuesday, January 20, 1981, after our first Sunday, we moved into our first house. It was rented and not something with stunning curb appeal, but it was home. And we were glad to be there. I was no longer working for the world’s largest Sunday School under a strong leader. I was now employed by God, shipwrecked on shores of Providence with the hammer of the Word of God and a hand full of youngsters in our home and in our pews. But we had dreams! Big dreams! As we began to move our furniture in, we plugged our 19-inch television set into the electrical outlet and raised our small antenna. The first thing that appeared on the set was the face of Ronald Reagan and he was giving his first inaugural address as President of the United States. Perhaps this is one reason I have always felt a kindred spirit with President Reagan, because we shared a new beginning together. His beginning was publicized and only few made note of the Pope’s new beginning, however I felt as though God noticed. We believe after all these years God more than noticed, He orchestrated the change. On the day we moved in, Ronald Reagan said, “It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams…We have every right to dream heroic dreams.” On January 18, 1981, I started dreaming with Christchurch Baptist Fellowship and I am believing God for the answers to our greatest prayers and fulfillment of our grandest dreams. Above all, I long to bring glory to God and exalt the majesty of Christ who died, was buried, lives forevermore and who will soon return! My goal is to stay faithful for how ever many days, months or years the Lord will allow us to preach and pastor.

I love you Christchurch! Thank you for letting me be your pastor in the perfect will of God.