My Life’s Journey of Faith-Part 6

In 1976 Radene and I decided to move to a better school district and away from the industrial side of Houston to a better climate. We chose Spring Creek Forest subdivision not far from Klein High School and in 1977 had a house built at 6419 Moccasin Bend. We sold 723 Cheam and in August moved into a rent house off I45 and Spring-Steubner Road while we waited for the new one to be completed. In September we moved to the new home; the kids had already started school at Benfer Elementary. For months we drove back to 1st Baptist Jacinto City each Sunday to attend church and visit family. One reason I felt we needed to commute back each Sunday was to get in at least a year of service after being ordained as a deacon in the spring of 1977. In late spring or early summer of 1978, we started attending Spring Baptist – the church that Buddy Canady, a former member of 1st Jacinto City, had moved to.

Harlan Caton was the pastor, and I soon learned he held some different doctrinal views than I even though he was a conservative Baptist. For one, in adult Sunday School we immediately saw a strong emphasis on the pre-millennial view of the end times and taught as though it were the only acceptable view. It seemed strange since I had never been in a church with that belief. Dr. Ford had earlier taught that there were three end-time views: pre-, post-, and a-millennial. His view was a millennial. What bothered me most at Spring Baptist is that they were so certain and dogmatic about their pre-millennial views. Pastor Caton’s sermon style was cocksure and dogmatic as well. That’s Ok except in areas where there may be legitimate disagreement. One such area was the Creationist view of a young earth. Pastor Caton believed it and even had the founder of the Creation Research Institute come to Spring Baptist and teach that view of history. At that point in time, I would say my most likely explanation for resolving the question of evolution versus creation was theistic evolution. I certainly believed that the physical evidence did not support a young earth 11 to 12 thousand years old. Two related encounters on this subject convinced me that I could not join this church. First, the Creation Research Institute founder conducted a Q&A one night, and I went to hear their explanations. I generally was skeptical of the explanations and answers I was hearing. Finally, I raised my hand and asked this question, “Scientists have been able to determine that some stars are billions of light-years away – that is, the light we see left the star millions of years ago. How then can creation be only 12 thousand years old?” His answer was that even though God created the universe 12 thousand years ago, He created it to look as if it had been created millions or even billions of years ago. That was about the weakest argument I had ever heard. You could use that argument to explain away anything observable in the world. In my view, God would not be so deceptive, and these guys were barking up the wrong tree. The second encounter was in one of Pastor Caton’s sermons, shortly after the Creationist had been there. Pastor Caton said that if you didn’t believe the Genesis account of creation literally in six twenty-four hour days, then he doubted you were a Christian. I certainly did not believe in a 12 thousand-year-old earth and as I said earlier at the time I thought that theistic evolution was the best way to reconcile evolution and creation. I can get along with people whose views in these matters differ from mine, but when the pastor says he doubts the Christianity of people with different views on this, then I knew he was not the pastor for me, and we stopped attending there and started looking for another church in the area.

I had been meeting my carpool riders in the parking lot of Champion Forest Baptist Church, so I decided to visit it one Sunday and loved it, especially the sermon by Damon Shook, the pastor. Radene came the next Sunday, and she liked it too so we joined. This was in late winter 1979, and we were members there for the next 20 years. This was the church our kids grew up in and where so many friends were made. Almost immediately Radene and I became active – she as a teacher and I as the director of the 6th grade Sunday School. Over the 20 years, my other activities there included teaching SS for 8th-grade boys, Choir, Evangelism Explosion personal witnessing training, member of various committees, prayer room ministry, deacon ministries, coaching boys church basketball, and hosting several Disciple Now events. I also went to several Bill Gothard seminars and Promise Keepers meetings. I grew spiritually during those years primarily through two things: Damon Shook’s sermons and Evangelism Explosion. Damon taught us the Bible in his sermons. He was humble – always preaching to himself as well as us, and his sermon points were convincing and always applicable. The most important practice I learned from him was to have a daily quiet time – reading the Bible and praying. I began to do this early in the morning consistently by 1982, and it has continued until now. Initially, I made notebook entries and comments on what I had read and learned then switched to a journal. I evolved to where I only write in the journal when I have something significant I want to save – like an insight or clearer understanding of spiritual truth. The quiet time is when I can have in-depth Bible study, meditation, and true fellowship with God and our Lord Jesus.

In 1983 I enrolled in Evangelism Explosion and learned how to share my faith. Finally, I had the confidence to go out and witness to people. I had had the wonderful experience of leading my two children to the Lord, but I had lacked the confidence to go out and witness as part of our outreach/visitation program. I was involved in EE for 5 straight years and usually tried to get a couple of my eighth-grade SS boys to go out visiting with me on EE nights. I have had the privilege of leading several people to Christ including one of the boys who went out with me. I was also emboldened to witness to some work friends and to my mother, my sister Beverly, and her husband Dale. Though I’ve learned two other ways of sharing my faith since then (FAITH and NET), I still prefer the EE method.

The most difficult sharing experience was when I became convicted about sharing the gospel with a long-time business associate and friend, Randall Lovelace, in 1992. We had been fishing buddies since 1975, and in addition to working closely with him since the early 1970s, I had been his supervisor at Exxon in the mid-1980s. Through all those years I had neglected to share my faith with him, but in 1992 I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Why had I waited so long? What would Randall think when after all those years I approached him about matters of faith? Randall had just bought a new color depth finder, so I asked if I could come to his house after work to see it. That whole day I anguished over how Randall would react. At Randall’s house after checking out the depth finder, I told him I needed to talk about something else, so we went into his house, and I shared my faith using the EE approach. Randall responded that he and wife Ann had settled that issue years earlier. Although not completely clear, I took it to mean he had trusted Christ. Since then his involvement with the church including mission trips to Mexico bears that out.

One lesson I learned about sharing is “don’t do it in a letter unless you have no other choice!” I had heard a neighbor make some comments that led me to believe he was not a Christian. Thinking he wouldn’t allow me to share the gospel in person with him but would cut me off, I decided to share in a letter. I alluded to the remarks he had made as to the reason I wanted to share it with him. Well, it was a disaster! He took it very personally and wrote me back a stinging letter. He said my letter was a low blow at a difficult time. Among other things, he said his grown son had just been diagnosed with life-threatening cancer, and he actually had been a Sunday School teacher in the Unitarian church for 25 years. I had tried to couch my letter in a very caring way but he didn’t take it that way. I realized I should have had the courage to go and talk to him in person. Fearing he would cut me off was not a reason to substitute a letter for face-to-face contact. I called him as soon as I read his letter and apologized for my poor timing and use of the letter. I tried to reassure I cared about him and was concerned about his spiritual well-being. I said I hoped I hadn’t mucked things up between us. We stayed friends and he even went fishing with me a couple of years later and he caught a 20-pound catfish. When he moved away later I gave him a framed picture of him holding his catch. I learned my lesson – any time you can share face-to-face it is best so you can have a dialogue and find out as you try to share where the person is spiritually.

Another key thing I learned in EE was how you are supposed to handle fear. Fear in general and fear of rejection, in particular, are the reasons most Christians don’t share their faith. What we learned in EE and I keep reminding myself of is that our job is to go and share and leave the results to God. People are saved, not by our eloquence, but by the Spirit of God working through the gospel story to draw people to faith in Christ. We are to make a good faith effort to learn how to share, then to share, and then leave the results to God. Follow How to find Peace with God for more information.

Up next “Life at Cedar Creek Lake (October 1999 to 2019)