Trusting God When The News Is Not So Good

Do you ever get some news that you wished were not true? All of us from time to time have to deal with the “not so good news.” However, as born again Christians, we deal with “not so good news” in a totally different way than the person who is not born again.

In the fall of 2003 following my annual physical it was discovered I had prostate cancer. I had been thankful over the years for exceptional good health and the news came as a shock to me. The doctors reassured me that the cancer was in its early stages and most likely surgery would take care of it. I had surgery and the pathological test confirmed that the cancer was local and I would not need any additional treatment.

Each subsequent year following the surgery my annual physical was clear. However my annual physical in December of 2008 indicated that the prostate cancer might be returning. A second blood test was taken and it was confirmed the cancer had returned. The doctor felt I needed radiation treatments, matter of fact when I visited the radiologist I was told there would be 36 daily treatments.

This second go around with prostate cancer has been more difficult to deal with. The first time things happened so quick. I was reassured from the beginning it more than likely could be taken care of gave me hope that this was just a bump in my life. The second time drove home to me that I could be dealing with something that may not go away. I knew that this was a time for my faith in God to hold me steady and keep me looking up.

As I face the beginning of radiation 36 daily radiation treatments beginning in a few days here is my thoughts:

1. God is sovereign and in control I will trust Him.
2. God does heal and if He wills to do so He will heal me.
3. God has given the medical field great tools to work with and if He chooses to heal me through
the radiation treatments I still will know my healing came from God.
4. I believe in the prayers of God’s people and that we are to share our burdens. I will ask them
to pray for my healing.
5. Christians are not exempt from the troubles of life, however we are promised grace sufficient
to deal with whatever we have to face.
6. I will accept whatever God allows me to go through with knowing His way is always best.
7. I will always believe in God no matter what.

Intentional Interim Ministry

In 2008 I took 80 hours of classroom training with the Center for Congregational Health (www.healthychurch.org) to become certified as an Intentional Interim Minister. I am currently seeking a local church field project which when completed will grant me my certification. You might be asking, what is Intentional Interim Ministry? As an Intentional Interim Pastor you sign a contract with a local church for 18-24 months to shepherd them through a process that is designed to help them become a healthier church. One of the agreements in the contract you sign with the church is that you will not be a pastor candidate when they are ready to do a pastor search.
Intentional Interim Ministry is working with a local church as an interim pastor taking them through an intentional five step process. One of the first important steps an Intentional Interim takes after coming to a church is with the help of the congregation they form a transition team. The transition team is to be formed so that it represents a cross section of the church constituency. The transition team will work with the Intentional Interim guiding the church through the intentional process.
As mentioned it is a five step process, the steps are called focus points and they are as follows: 1-Heritage; 2-Mission; 3-Leadership; 4. Connection; 5-Future. One step at a time the Intentional Interim and the transition team examine what is needed and not needed for the church in each of the focus points. As each focus point is worked through the goal is to bring the church to a point of spiritual health in the particular focus point. Step five is about the future and prepares the church for the calling of a new pastor. If the Intentional Interim process has been effective both new pastor and church should be ready for a new start as a healthy church.
I am excited about the prospect of this ministry. I look forward to working with churches in North Carolina East District Wesleyan Church where I will continue to serve as district office administrator as an Intentional Interim Pastor.

Back to North Carolina

In January 1997 we moved back to North Carolina. I accepted the call to pastor the Bannertown Wesleyan Church in Mt. Airy, North Carolina (one of the garden spots of the world). Bannertown was a much smaller church than our previous two pastorates and that took some adjustment. We were thrilled to be back in North Carolina. I was 50 years of age now and thought maybe this would be the place where I would spend the rest of my ministry years. During our first 5 years there the ministry went well, the church nearly doubled in attendance and people were finding Christ. About the 5th year trouble began to brew, some long time church members who had fallen out with most every pastor begin to stir trouble. I did everything I could to keep things together but they were seasoned at trouble making and eventually tore the church too pieces. I tried to outlast them so they left the church. Once they left the church they took more liberty to tear things apart. I was now 58 years of age and was not sure where my ministry would go. After the experience at Bannertown prospects did not look bright.

I had resigned the church and had nowhere to go. The kids were nearly grown and they did not want to move away from North Carolina and I did not either. A few days before we were to move out of the parsonage a friend called and said I was being considered for the position of District Office Administrator to work with the newly elected North Carolina East District Wesleyan Church district superintendent. I had always had a knack for administrative stuff; planning, organizing, etc. In a day or two after my friend called the newly elected DS called and said he would like to talk with me about the position. To make a long story short, within two days I had the job.

I went to work with NC East District Wesleyan Church as District Office Administrator first of August 2004. Office is in High Point, NC., we moved there first of September 2004. I have continued to serve in that position to the present. About a year after we moved to High Point we bought a 1.2 acre lot west of town and begin plans to build a home. We moved into our new house first of January 2006. God is good. I miss pastoring very much, however I believe I am serving where God placed me. I enjoy the work and as long as God leads will continue to serve with the district.

The Ups and Downs of Ministry

In October 1988 we moved to Asheboro, North Carolina, to pastor the Neighbors Grove Wesleyan Church. This was a big change in our life. Not only did we move 600 miles from the area where we had lived all our life, (Central and Southern Indiana) we left old friends behind, the legalism we had grown up with, and Naomi’s family. We did not know anyone in North Carolina, except Darrell’s family who lived in Salisbury and a couple ministerial friends who previously had moved to North Carolina. Immediately Darrell fell in love with the area, it took Naomi a while to adjust.

Neighbors Grove Church had been a leading Wesleyan Church in North Carolina but had fallen on some hard times. We plunged into our ministry there and the church began to take on new life. During our 6 years there the Sunday morning attendance increased from 140 to 210. The church built a new Family Life/Day Care Center. We built our first home to live in outside of a parsonage. During our years there we finally freed ourselves from the legalism we had always known. It had been a slow struggle. Always wanting to do what was right and the legalism so ingrained in us as the “only way” it had been painful and difficult to get free. Once free from the legalism we realized what bondage and suppression it had been. In our sixth year at Neighbors Grove we begin to experience difficulties with pastoral staff. During a time of tension and staff interference I made a hasty decision to resign. This was a decision I soon regretted and realized it was a mistake.

The year following us leaving Neighbors Grove was difficult. I was not able to find myself. We continued to live in the home we had built, did some pulpit supply, worked at a couple jobs, continued to look for a new pastorate.

In the summer of 1995 I accepted the call to pastor the Forest Hills Wesleyan Church in Evansville, Indiana, a move back to Southern Indiana. Again I made a bad decision. Forest Hills was a leading church in Southern Indiana and I thought this would be a good move for us. We sold our house and moved. I remember as we pulled out on the highway Naomi asked me, “do you think we will ever return to North Carolina”? Right then and there I should have stopped, and said "let’s don’t go", none of us really wanted to make the move. I had recently had a chance to go to another Wesleyan Church north of Greensboro and should have. We moved on to Evansville.

The Evansville Forest Hills Church was a good church, I tried to put myself into it. After we were there about six months, I looked at Naomi one day and said, I am not happy here, she was not either. Right away I made contact back in North Carolina hoping to find a pastorate there again.

The Years of Transition

We pastored at Aurora, Indiana, for 7 years. During the last year of ministry there in 1984, I began to feel stirrings for something different. I had a desire to step out of the boundaries I had always known. One area of interest was planting a new church. Although this desire was real I never felt the climate was right for it in the circle of ministry I was in. During the last years at Aurora I also was slowly breaking free of the legalism that had been a part of my life since childhood.

In 1984 we accepted the pastorate of a Wesleyan Church in Martinsville, Indiana. The move to Martinsville was a move that I soon realized was a mistake. I did not wait on God to work out His will although it took me some time to come that realization. We were at Martinsville for only 18 months.

During out short stay at Martinsville we adopted our second child, our son Shawn came into our lives when he was 11 days old.

The Wesleyan Church at Greenwood, Indiana, just 25 miles from Martinsville came open and I felt on my heart to go there in 1986. The Greenwood church had declined in the last several years to almost nothing. Our first Sunday there we had only 23 people in Sunday School. The parsonage there was in a declining section of town and not a good place to live with my young family. Despite the negatives it seemed this was a move that God was in. The church responded to my ministry and we began to grow and see new people come in and come to the Lord. I took on my second building project there as well. We built a very nice new parsonage near the church. Although we only were there 2 ½ years it was a good pastorate. The church more than doubled in attendance and my confidence was rebuilt from the bad move I had made to Martinsville. Greenwood church was like many southern Indiana churches, a small mindset and no real desire to really step out and do something “out of the box” for God. I longed for a more challenging ministry. I began to search and God moved us nearly 600 miles away to Neighbors Grove Wesleyan Church in Asheboro, North Carolina. My parents had moved to Salisbury, North Carolina with my younger brothers and sister 13 years before. Although our move to North Carolina was not related to them being there, it was an extra blessing that God sent our way.

Early Years of Ministry

I graduated from Frankfort Wesleyan Bible College in May of 1970 with an AB degree in Religion. Previous to graduation I had sent my resume to various Wesleyan Church district superintendents seeking a pastorate.

I was called to be pastor of Shelbyville West Side Wesleyan Church in Shelbyville, Indiana and we moved there in June. The church agreed to pay me $40 per week, $5 more per week if I would be church janitor along with being pastor. The church also provided us a parsonage to live in. We spent two years in Shelbyville learning the ropes of pastoring. In the church were five widow ladies who were sisters, they couldn’t get along with each other let along other people. They certainly taught me those two years.

In June of 1972 we move to pastor the W. Terre Haute South 8th St. Wesleyan Church in Terre Haute, Indiana. We served there five years. During our years there some young high school girls found the Lord, one of them went on to be a pastor’s wife. It was a good five years. Also while there Naomi and I decided to try and adopt a child. We made application for adoption in 1974. While serving there my dad died suddenly of a heart attack, he was only 54 years of age. It was difficult because my parents had moved 4 years prior to North Carolina. Trying to help mom over the next several months was difficult with the miles between us.

In June of 1977 we moved to pastor the Aurora, Indiana, Wesleyan Church. We served there seven years. It was there I took on my first church building project. The church needed to relocate and we purchased land outside of town and built a new church building. When we moved to the new location the church became known as the Wilmington Hill Wesleyan Church.
During the years at Aurora I went through an intense spiritual battle. As I referred to in earlier posts I was raised in a very legalistic setting. Women were not to cut their hair, not wear slacks or shorts, no short sleeve blouses, no jewelry, no makeup. Men were not to wear jewelry or shorts, not even short sleeve shirts. We were not to have TV. We were to avoid mixing with the world in any way. In my personal study of the scriptures and from my own experience with God I began to wonder if the legalistic standards were required for salvation. However, I wanted to do right, I struggled within, the struggle was burdensome and wore me down. Slowly I began to be free from the legalism, it took years but the steps to freedom had begun.

During our years at Aurora, Indiana, we adopted our first child. Lorissa, our daughter, she was placed in our home at the age of 2 ½ months, in the summer of 1979. While we lived in Aurora my mother married Cleon Cloud, he was a great man and God gave them 19 years together before Cleon's passing.

The Years of Preparation

Naomi and I were married August 1, 1964, at Salem Park Wesleyan Methodist Church, in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was planning on attending Union Bible Seminary, a small Bible school run by people that had roots with the Quakers or Friends as they are called today, in Westfield, Indiana. Our first home was an apartment in Westfield. I went to Union Bible Seminary for 1 ½ years of their three year program. In the summer of 1966 we moved to Frankfort, Indiana, where I planned to attend Frankfort Pilgrim College. From 1966-70 I attended college in Frankfort, while I was there the school name changed to Frankfort Wesleyan Bible College. I graduated in June 1970 with an AB degree in Religion. Although both Union Bible Seminary and Frankfort Wesleyan Bible College were small schools I learned much about the Bible, theology, and the work of a minister, as well as receiving training in basic college courses. Also at Frankfort I make friendships that have lasted a lifetime. While I was in college we worked to support ourselves and pay for college. I worked in a grocery store and Naomi worked first in a factory then later in the college library.

Attending college at Frankfort Wesleyan Bible College was a leap from where I had come from. No one in my family put much value in education. My father had no more than a second grade education and could not read and write. My mother had a high school education but her narrow “spiritual” views had kept me in a very closed and legalistic environment. My parents were concerned about me attending Frankfort College. In their mind they thought I might become too “liberal” from my College education and training. Looking back on those days I have seen the providential hand of God at work getting me to Frankfort and Bible College. Although Frankfort Bible College lacked in many ways, it was what I needed for that time in my life.

My Teen Years

Before I was a teenager we moved, once again, back to the country, twelve miles northwest of Indianapolis. Although many households now had TV we did not. My teen years were spent playing outdoors, working mowing lawns and later in a grocery store, and going to church.

During those years I developed a love for sports, ball of any kind, and I could hold my own with my peers and then some. However my parents would not let me play organized sports. To this day I still love ball of any kind. Also in my teen years I developed a love for fishing and hunting and to this day still enjoy both very much.

My heart was always tender and open to God. My teen years were filled with the normal ups and downs of a Christian teen struggling to resist temptation and follow Christ. I had my share of ups and downs, although at times I would stray from God's way, I would soon return to the foot of the cross. In my mid teen years God spoke to me and I heard Him say, not literally, but I knew it was God, that He wanted me to be a preacher of the gospel. A short struggle followed, but I soon said “yes” to the call of God.

My parents were wonderful and I value my heritage. I don’t know where I would be today if it was not for Christian parents. However, my parents did get into legalism. In my early teen years our family left the church I had always known, and began a church hopping journey from one legalistic group to another. My mother in particular could not find a church that was "strict" or”spiritual” enough. I did not realize it then but during those years the legalism was having an influence on me that would shape my future and bring some tremendous struggles in later years.

I always liked girls and began dating early. Two months after graduating from high school I married “my love”, I have often said, “we were kids when we were married, we have raised each other.”