We Will Remember

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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Shortly after I became a Christian at the age of 13, I began to sense some type of call to ministry. It was weird because no one in my family served as a pastor or evangelist or even a missionary to a foreign country. I wasn’t sure if my “calling” was simply a response to the truth of the Gospel and wanting to present it to others or if it was something that God was nudging me toward.

Over the decades since that time, I’ve served as a youth minister, an associate pastor and even as a youth director/janitor in a church. It was interesting that in all those service opportunities, the only direction I received from any pastor I served under was to pursue my Master of Divinity degree because if I was really called into the pastorate, I would need that. It made sense. I already had a bachelors in Bible degree.

Over the years since then, I’ve earned a master’s in biblical studies and then went on to complete my doctorate in theology. Looking back, it was very interesting to see how these things came about. I’ve written over 30 books mainly on theological subjects as well. I’ve always been involved in some form of ministry over the years including teaching Bible classes at every church we’ve been connected with.

Again though, not once did anyone come alongside me and offer any form of mentorship regarding full-time ministry or the pastorate. I have always found that odd because at the same time I was not on the receiving end of mentoring, I knew several young men poised for pastoral ministry who did receive the mentoring they needed. I’ve always wondered why no one came alongside me to do that. I still don’t know the answer, but I’ve realized it doesn’t really matter because if it was important, or something God wanted to happen, it would have happened.

During the time since I became saved, I’ve always thought and prayed about His direction in my life. Yet even though I have worked in churches over the years, the bulk of my employment has been in the secular world. I’ve operated machines in electronics assembly plants, I’ve worked in fast food, I’ve worked in the insurance industry and other things as well. Eventually, I obtained my clear teaching credential and taught grades 4, 5, and 6 for about ten years and then went onto teach junior college and business classes. I really enjoy teaching and my tenure in public school and colleges honed my teaching ability.

But occasionally, the same question comes up regarding ordination and the pastorate. Weird, but it seems God had not completely dealt with it, so I keep coming back to it and it’s not as though I have not tried to put it behind me once and for all. Does God want me there? On one hand, if He did want me there it seems like that would have happened already. On the other hand, maybe I wasn’t really prepared for it at previous points in my life. Still, I continued to occasionally pray and seek His will in the matter of ordination and pastoral responsibilities.

This has all led me to the point where I am now. On September 8, I will be ordained by the pastor and deacons of the church where we are members. This came about because I continued to pray about it and asked God to make straight my path and clarify whether or not He wanted me to become ordained.

I’m on the Pulpit Supply list for our Baptist association and I’ve preached at several churches since being placed on that list. I was talking to my pastor about this and asked him if he thought that me being ordained would be a good thing, to present a bit more credibility to congregations. Without hesitation he said he approved the idea. The next step would be to talk to the deacons, which he did, and everyone approved of that as well.

Some time had gone by and because it was summer, people were gone on vacation or just trying to get caught up with all the things they could not get to during the school year. I really hate reminding people about things, and I hated reminding my pastor about ordination because I knew how busy he was. He told me not to worry and just go ahead and remind him.

We tried to nail down a date in July but that didn’t work. Then we shot for August but that didn’t work either. I was thinking again that maybe this whole thing was simply my druthers and not necessarily God’s hand in the matter. So, I decided to let things go and not bother him about it.

However, the more I prayed about it, the more I thought, “Lord, if this is the direction you want me to move in, then I’m asking you to ignite within my pastor the desire to get this done.” Because he is so busy with everything, including pursuit of his doctorate, I’m not sure how he keeps track of everything and he didn’t need one more thing to add to his schedule.

In reality, I was placing another stone of remembrance before the Lord. The answer would be either a yes or no and in either case, it would be a stone of remembrance,[1][2] reminding me forever of God’s direction in this area. God directs us to remember His works (Psalms 77:11-20).

So, this is what I did. I prayed about it and did my best to leave it with Him. At one point, I seemed to sense an important urge to ask my pastor whether or not a date in August would work for ordination. When I saw him at church that night, he seemed to be more than willing to move ahead with a bit of a fire that I had not seen yet. He asked me to talk with him after the service.

When I approached him, he said that August would not work, largely because he had several baptisms that were going to happen. That’s been encouraging seeing the number of young people who have received the Lord at our church and seek to follow the Lord in baptism. My pastor asked if the first Sunday of September would work. Unfortunately, we were heading out of town but what about the second Sunday? He checked his calendar, and I checked mine and it worked for both of us.

It seems that God had moved. Though being ordained does not answer the question of me being in the pastorate, it is another step in what appears to be God’s will for me.

In my case, there would be no ordination council where other pastors gather and throw a bunch of questions at the person nominated for ordination. My pastor and I have talked at length about doctrinal issues and the only thing that he and I really disagree on are aspects of eschatology. For me, that’s not a big deal. But because we talked in depth about things and that my wife and I have been members of the church for a number of years and I have been teaching an adult Sunday school class at the church (first Revelation, then Daniel and soon, Zechariah), my pastor knows full well where I am on the important doctrinal issues. In essence he is satisfied, and the deacons approve.

Since there will be no formal ordination council, the only thing left is to take the time at the end of a Sunday service, with my pastor introducing to the congregation the intent to ordain me and why. Prior to this, he has asked me to speak at the monthly church business meeting and explain my calling and experience.

But at the end of the service, the deacons and the pastor will gather around me to lay hands and pray for me. I will be officially ordained. What I’ve begun to understand though is that while this answers one question, it doesn’t answer another. Will God put me in the pastorate, or will He simply choose to use me for pulpit supply and short or long term interim pastor at churches that do not have a full-time pastor in our area for one reason or another?

I have no clue and it’s something else to pray about. What I’m certain of is that the Lord will guide me in the steps of His will with a “need to know” understanding. I believe things will become clear as I move ahead trusting Him to help me walk in His will.

In fact, it’s a bit ridiculous at this point to think that God needs to show me all of His will now, before it even happens, isn’t it? Yet, that is often what we Christians want. We want to see how the road before us opens up to the reality of His will. We want to know ahead of time. But God says, “No, just trust me and rely on me to move you in the way I want you to go.” That is a difficult part of being a Christian, learning to lean heavily on Him and trust in His direction. We sometimes feel as though we are walking with a blindfold on. Faith sees beyond the blindfold though.

I say all of this to simply note that through this whole process (over the years and including recent events), God has chosen to answer my prayers not only with a “yes,” but in a way that helps me to understand the reality of answered prayer. It is a stone of remembrance that cannot be denied. In a year, two years, five years or more, I’ll be able to look back to this “stone” and again see His direction in it. No one can take that away, not even Satan. The truth is that God is directing my steps and the evidence for that is overwhelming. I cannot forget it.

In some way, I really appreciate how God directs us in stages or even in small steps. He doesn’t necessarily reveal everything in our life. He helps us understand what’s around the next bend, one bend at a time.

There is a song I’ve grown to love. It’s called “We Will Remember,”[3] written by Tommy Walker. The first stanza says these words:

We will remember, we will remember
We will remember the works of Your hands
We will stop and give you praise
For great is Thy faithfulness

The chorus states these truths:

When we walk through life’s darkest valleys
We will look back at all You have done
And we will shout, our God is good
And He is the faithful One

Here’s a link to Walker singing this live.[4] The reality is that we Christians need to spend time deliberately remembering just how faithful God is when it comes to answering our prayers. This does not mean of course that every answer He provides will be a “yes.” It simply means that He will respond to our prayers in a way that is clear and at times deafening so that there is no mistake that He has directed. Whether it’s a “yes” or “no,” each one should become a stone of remembrance because each one will build our faith mightily.

However, if we fail to mentally or even physically catalog God’s answers to our prayers, we will lose a great deal and even begin to doubt that He answered because we don’t recall that He did. This is a big way in which Satan robs us of our faith.

The way to avoid this is to create a journal that catalogs God’s responses to our prayers. I have more to share with some examples in a future article. I hope you’ve begun the process of writing down God’s answers to your prayers. Don’t rely on your mind alone to remember them all unless of course you’ve got a true photographic memory. Even then, I don’t think I’d rely on that alone.

May the record of how He’s responded to your prayers build your faith and cause you to even go to Him more because you come to know how willing and able He is to provide answers to your requests.

[1] https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/07/31/stones-of-remembrance/

[2] https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/07/26/remembering/

[3] https://genius.com/Tommy-walker-we-will-remember-lyrics

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZzgeUJXmCM

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective