Easter and Legacy: A Tribute to My Dad

If my math is correct, tomorrow marks the 35th Easter in a row during which my dad will preach a sermon(s). It is also his last Easter sermon at the church I still call "my home church" -- the church where I met my bride and learned to pray and serve with men twice my age.

It is likely that my dad is experiencing a world of mixed emotions tonight as he does his final walk through his selected Easter text. I am sure Satan would want him to be filled with doubts and a litany of "shoulda, coulda, wish-I-wouldas."

But Satan is a liar, and Easter is the proof.

Satan slithers into the Garden and urges us to believe God is withholding the good life from us. The Son of God leaves behind the good life, willingly goes to the cross to give us His righteousness, and is raised again to give us His life.

Over the last 35 years, my dad has served the church in remarkable ways. His name will never be mentioned from the platform at the SBC, but I suspect He will have more than enough crowns to lay at Jesus' feet.

Though my dad's last Easter sermon as a lead pastor comes tomorrow, his legacy, to the extent he has pointed people to Jesus, endures forever. And, he has done so remarkably well.  As my dad nears this final sermon, I would like to remind him (and us) that Easter is not merely our only hope but also our certain hope. I hope to encourage him with four ways he has lived out the resurrection life and proven to me and to many who love him that Christ is risen!

1. My father has embraced the counterintuitive wisdom of God, the humility of our Savior. After 35 years of ministry, it sometimes amazes me how few people realize my father is an incredibly brilliant man. My dad is smarter than most men I know - including many PhDs. If you doubt this, I defy you beat him in a game of Trivial Pursuit or to beat his GRE score from an exam taken when he was 40 years of age. Most know him as the happy and highly-gregarious encourager God has gifted him to be, but few realize he is also wicked smart.

This is by design. Somewhere along the way, my dad must have decided he would rather be who God has made him to be in Christ and allow sophisticated people to underestimate and malign him than to limit his overall effectiveness in the Kingdom of God by insisting people also know him as "smart."

In Christ, my dad learned humility. He learned the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25), and he was just "foolish" enough to trust the message of the cross more than his intellect. He learned to prefer brokenness to brilliance. More than any methodology or strategy, this convictional approach to leading and pastoring is the "secret sauce" to my father's success in ministry.

2. My dad genuinely loves people with the self-sacrificing love of God. For all of his interests in "church growth," I have never known him to treat one person -- not one -- as "just a number." Methods and approaches come and go, but none can replace genuine love for "all the flock" (Acts 20:28).

The role of the pastor as one who feeds the flock by being with the flock is one my father takes seriously. The nearness of Christ to His people is to be communicated by the nearness of the undershepherd to the local flock. My dad understands this and considers the responsibilities of being a "pastor" to be a divine privilege. Consider these examples.

• One of my earliest memories of my dad is of him counseling a family whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in a vicious car accident. I became weary of him being gone so much, so he took me with him. I am so glad he did. I saw my dad bring the healing hope of the resurrection to an awful situation. To my 8-year-old eyes, it seemed like my dad had actually become Jesus. Everyone he saw and everyone he touched seemed to be healed of their heartache. I don't remember what he said, but I will never forget the unmistakable transformation on their faces.
• I saw my father leave family vacations early to lead families through the grieving process and to preach the funeral.
• I saw my father loan cars to struggling church members on numerous occasions.
• I saw my dad, early in ministry, preach every Sunday, run the youth ministry, plan and drive the bus for all church events, and essentially work for 70+ hours/week -- not because he was a workaholic, but because he was desperate to help people know Jesus even when there was no one else to share the load.
• I saw my father drive for hours to share the gospel with a church member's lost father.
• I saw my dad share the gospel with a drug addict, stick with him through relapses, give him hope by offering him a job painting our house, and then take him to Charlottesville routinely during the last months of his life. My dad could have delegated this. Many leadership gurus would say he should have. The gospel said otherwise.

3. My dad refused to let the world rob the church of confidence in the Scriptures which reveal to us the Risen Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation for all peoples. Every good preacher will readily admit some sermons and some Sundays are better than others. Sometimes, things just do not go as planned. But, you will not find in 35 years of material one instance in which my dad preaches another gospel. You will never hear him preach salvation by works or reduce the gospel to only the "nice" saying of Jesus. Quite the contrary, you will always get a robust defense of the faith once-and-for-all delivered to the saints and an exhortation to trust and honor Jesus in all things no matter the cost.

4. My dad is always willing to do whatever it takes to honor Christ. For years, a large sign in the sanctuary at Green Ridge Baptist read, "Whatever it takes." That's my dad. Whatever it takes to be faithful to his calling. . . whatever it takes to point people to Jesus. . . whatever it takes to show people the indescribable love of God in Christ . . . whatever it takes to keep the people of God pursuing their Risen King.

My dad's ministry has been characterized by doing whatever it takes, and he is doing it again now. It cannot be easy to transition to a new day of ministry, but dad perceives that is what God would have him to do for the good of His church. Once more, dad is laying down his life in order that others might know that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Once more, dad is doing whatever it takes to point people to Jesus, trusting that Easter makes all the difference.

Dad, I love you. Christ is risen.