THE CALL TO MINISTRY: The J. Frank Norris Story

I have tried to learn about that term used by some to say that God has asked us to preach. “Called.” In my early years that term was used a lot. Just about every fellowship meeting that my father took us to, there was a loud, tall, in-your- face preacher that would preach “Has God called you into the ministry to preach the Word.?” As a young boy, and saved, I believed that was a good question, so I would pray and ask the Lord if He had plans to call me into ministry some day {but not just yet.) Since dad was a pastor and we had a lot of evangelists come, they were always asking that question: “Has God called you to preach?” I always wondered how God called? By telephone!?

I remember in 1952, just before Dr. J. Frank Norris died, he came to our church and he stayed in our home. Before he left, he asked dad if he could pray for Don and me that God would call us to preach. He laid his hands on our heads and prayed as only Dr. Norris could pray-- loud. Well I was 5 years old, and I do remember that day, but had no idea what that prayer was all about, nor did I know who Dr. Norris was. . Maybe God was going to talk through Dr. Norris about this matter of calling Don and me to preach! .

Maybe God heard Dr. Norris pray that day, and was making plans to do just that when I grew a little older. There were a few others who came by our church and over to our house, and they were always saying, “Everette, are your boys going to be preachers?”

I have a picture of Dr. Norris preaching in Dad’s church. I wish I had the ability to put this in this post. . Maybe someday I’ll learn how to do it. My mother gave a copy of the picture to the J. Frank Norris Library at the Arlington Baptist College.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Proof Read Charity

BIG NUMBERS IN SUNDAY SCHOOL PART 11

(This post should have been yesterday's post. But this is a learning experience.)

I asked Charity, “Do you remember when we would do almost anything to get a crowd in Sunday School?” She said, “Yes.”

From my childhood, in my father’s church, numbers seemed to be important. And in the following years, in different churches, same desire. 1000 in Sunday School was always the goal. I had a dream about being a pastor of a church of 1000.

Going to my first Super Conference in Lynchburg, Virginia, at TRBC, we learned to get a crowd. Dr. Falwell also said, “Saturate your community with every method possible to bring them to church.” Then later we went to the Pastor’s Conference in Hammond, Indiana. A church with over 20,000 in Sunday School and hundreds of buses to bring people to church on Sunday. This was the idea presented to us on a yearly diet of Church Growth.

There was an activity each week to stir the members up to bring visitors each week. “Old Fashioned Sunday”, “Cowboy Sunday”, etc. Then there were the great “Friend Sundays” Some programs would last one month, while others would last three months.

Once while a youth pastor in Connersville, Indiana, we had “Star Wars Sunday.” Now that was a great trick. Our attendance increased 100 in one Sunday. Once I said I would swallow a worm if we had 100 in our Sr High Class.

Once in a church activity we had Max Palmer who at the time was 7'6" tall, and we had a great turnout that day, something like 150 teens. Getting a crowd was always the goal of ministry in those early days.

One of my friends in Ohio, who was youth director, had over 400 teens coming each Sunday. And he really used a lot of activity to get kids to come.

So numbers has always been the objectives of ministry for a long time. “How many did you have in Sunday School today, Charles?”

A pastor friend of mine Lexington, Ky said, “I would rather preach to 1000 anytime then to preach to 50.” And his church for 20 years was next to Churchill Downs in Louisville. He wanted as many cars in the church parking lot as was at Churchill Downs.

I could certainly mention many other occasions that would illustrate the desire to see Big Numbers in Sunday School. Success in ministry was how may were saved, baptized and the attendance in Sunday School.

When I went to FBC in Altoona, Kansas, coming from FBC in Hammond Indiana, from 20,000 in attendance to an average of 17. Where did I go wrong. Had I failed to go to a large town where I should see 1000 in attendance in a few years? What had God done? That is for another post.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Proof Checked by Charity

NUMBERS OBSESSION AND A NIGHTMARE'S OPPRESSION

Now I will move to 2006 and look back over our ministry, in a series of post about how one grows by learning. This is the first of a series that will give a little insight into ministry. My son Chad said I needed to develop my first post. So here is the first: Later I will start at the beginning on this journey in 1947.

How having arrived at FBC on Main Street..... my secret dream of one day pastoring a large church of at minimal a 1000 people, which would be located on Main Street USA. Only this time FBC was located on Main Street in Altoona, Kansas with a population of 500. "Okay God, have I missed my call to preach and to pastor?" On that Sunday Morning in March 1980, FBC on Main Street had 35 people. "Okay Lord, we have a way to go to have a 1000 in Sunday School."

"How To Get A Crowd on Sunday Morning." Now let’s see what the Jack Hyles’s manual has to say about this dilemma. Maybe I should look into the Super Conference’s Notes from Jerry Fallwall! After all I had just taken a Pastor’s Refresher Course from Hyles Anderson College! I should know how to comprehend the task before me. And FBC in Hammond had over 20,000 in Sunday School.

First, preach like Jack Hyles, and secondly go soul winning! "Read the book, Charles." Thirdly, get the members on board, and in line with your program. Sounds good, Charles. Let’s try it.

Yep! (Charity says, "Charles, you are having fun with this post, aren’t you?")

Let’s see, the Sunday School teacher was a Holiness and a member of another church. The choir director was having Mormons teaching a class in his home. And the women were running the church, because the men were having a little trouble with leadership. Among other things, I had a duty to get these people disciplined with the program.

And the attendance was averaging seventeen per Sunday for years. Lets’s see... 983 people to go to reach 1000. But wait, in that first month, some twenty people left. Oh no! "Lord, have you really called me to pastor this church on Main Street? Maybe I am in the wrong city. "

After a month, I called for a vote to see if the church folks really wanted us to stay as pastor. Somehow the vote was taken, and I was asked to stay. And from that point on, I was glad that we stayed in Altoona. We never accomplished a 1000 of course, never got a big congregation of people to come each Sunday. But we loved our 16 years as Pastor/Teacher.

While nearly every missionary and friend and pastor would tell us when they came to FBC, "Charles, when are you going to go somewhere and have a church of 1000?" For two years we were determined on bringing people into the church. We did have a lot of visitors coming and some people were getting saved.

But in the winter of 1982 I attended the Pastors’s Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church. A new light was turned on about doing ministry. IT’S NOT ABOUT GETTING A CROWD. What!?

I learned that you can get people to come to church (maybe not all at the same time). And I have always enjoyed having people come to church. Having four people come on Wednesday night was really no fun. So having a group of people come to Sunday School or Church is really not a bad thought. But that is not the main objective of church ministry.

I endured to get an envisioning of the idea "GOD BUILDS HIS CHURCH." First, God’s Church is made up of believers, whom He is bringing into His Kingdom. The Lord wants believers to come to His church to worship Him. The purpose of the church is to worship the Lord on Sunday Morning. Thus getting just a crowd to come is not the purpose.

Secondly, the Believers are to be taught the "whole counsel of God." The Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be taught. Thus the pastor/teacher is to teach the believers the doctrines of the Scripture.
Thus I began to preach from the book of Matthew, chapter by chapter, and nearly seven years I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur’s philosophy of ministry is "Doing God’s Work in God’s Way." He says, it’s not about numbers, it’s about preaching the Word of God. MacArthur said, the attendance at Grace Community Church grew as a result of people wanting to hear the preaching of the Scripture. He said that in the providence of God, the church grew.

So it’s not about getting a crowd, it’s about how you get a crowd. If you do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way, and in the providence of God, you will have the people whom the Lord brings unto Himself.

I don’t believe there is any merit of not having people hear the preaching of the Word. . I don’t believe there is any significance in saying you don’t care about how many you have on Sunday morning. The local church is a place where believers are built up into the image of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4 tells us the purpose of having a pastor and the desired result of each believer.

So the success of the ministry is not in numbers attending, but in the numbers of believers who are doing the work of ministry and have a knowledge of Christ and are full-grow in the fullness of Christ and know and live doctrine. This is called "shepherding the flock." Acts 20:28.
The question at issue here is: "Are Numbers an Important part of the Building of the Church?"

Do I believe we should desire to see people come to hear us preach? Yes. Do I believe we should play down our desire to get people to come to church? No. Then what is the proper balance here. Our focus should be on the preaching of the Word, and focus on shepherding the flock. I do believe as a result of proper philosophy of ministry there will be growth.

Post by Charles E. Whisnant at 10:03 p.m. May 19, 2006 Originally

THE STORY BEGIN OCTOBER 22, 1947

AUGUST 2008 CHARLES AND CHARITY WHISNANT
PAULINE WHISNANT AND EVERETTE WHISNANT

THE STORY BEGAN OCTOBER 22, 1947

Charles E. Whisnant

The story began October 22, 1947, in Lynchburg, Virginia. My father and mother: Rev. Everette and Pauline Whisnant. Dad was the Pastor of a church in Lynchburg. In 1950 we moved to Roanoke,Virginia. Dad was the pastor of 9TH Street Baptist Church, and until Feb. 1966 was pastor of a congregation in Roanoke, when my father died of a heart attack at age 62.

In 1954 in my father’s church on a Sunday Morning, the Lord spoke to my heart, enlightened my mind, and gave me the gift of salvation. I know the Lord saved me then, because some 50 years later, the Lord is still in my heart. Praise the Lord.

I sensed the call of the Lord for ministry in preaching in my early teens. My father asked me to teach the young people’s class in 1964. For twenty-seven months I taught the class, until my father died in 1966.

After my graduation from high school in May 1966, my mother moved to Danville, Virginia and I enrolled in the Bible Baptist Seminary, in Arlington Texas, and graduated in May 1969.

In June of 1969 I married Charity Mucha Temple, the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Bob Temple, of West Portsmouth, Ohio. This union has seen four children. Eric (1971) Becky (1976) and Chad (1980) and Kyle (1984). Presently all three boys live in Lexington, Kentucky, and Becky was living in Hutchinson, Kansas, but has moved back to Lexington KY.

Our spiritual journey has taken us (Charity and I) to several places over the last 39 years. In 1969 we worked with Dr. George Norris at Gideon Baptist Church, in the Bus Ministry and Children’s Church Ministry. In 1970 we worked at the Wooster Baptist Temple in Wooster Ohio, as Youth Director.

In 1971-1974 I was Pastor at the Madison Baptist Church, in Minford Ohio. Then we worked as Asso. Pastor with my father-in-law at Victory Baptist Church, in West Portsmouth. Later we worked in Fort Worth Texas, as Minister of Education, then we moved to Mansfield Baptist Temple, where Tommy Leatherwood asked us to be camp director and later Single Adult teacher at the church. Then we worked at Calvary Baptist Church in Connersville, Indiana, under Willie Weaver, as Youth Director.

Then in 1980 we went to Altoona, Kansas to pastor the First Baptist Church, on Main Street. For the next 16 plus years we ministered to the wonderful people in Altoona, Kansas.

We resigned in 1996, we moved to Lexington, KY. where we stayed for five years and worked in the Ashland Baptist Church, and for a short time worked in the Lusby Mills Baptist Church. We stayed about four months and then we didn't have a vote of confidences and we resigned.

We had a short four month stay in Princeton Kentucky, a brief try to pastor a Southern Baptist Church, we had our difficulty with a few, but the many were wonderful. We moved to Portsmouth Ohio to work at the Portsmouth Baptist Church in 2002-03. Then for four years we attended the Bigelow Church, in Portsmouth Ohio from November 2004 thru January 2008.

Where did the last sixty years go. What a great journey the Lord has allowed us to travel. In every step of the journey the Lord has graciously allowed us to see many wonderful things happen, and to His glory some have been saved, some have been discipled, some have entered the ministry and we have many friends today because of that journey.

If any thing has been accomplished that is good, the Lord has accomplished it. Charity and I have given ourselves to the Lord for His service for 39 years. Our love for the Lord today is as strong as ever. While we love the service of the Lord, it’s far better to have that personal relationship with the Lord that really brings the joy to our hearts.

If and when and how the Lord so directs us to be a small part of what He is doing, we are humbled that He would so use us

Each chapter in our journey has a different ending and a new chapter begins with a new beginning.

CURRENT UPDATE: January 2010

Since July 2008 I have been the pastor/teacher in Minford, Ohio. The Rivers of Joy Baptist Church. You can go to our other websites to see more about our ministry.

Charles and Charity Whisnant
Portsmouth Ohio