May is a special month especially as we see that the weather improving, flowers blooming, and more people gathering for ballgames, picnicking and other outside activities. May is a time of graduations and celebrations. Couples even plan weddings to take place in May. I just saw one in the park the other day while walking the dogs.
This May of 2022 has special significance in my life. 50 years ago, I graduated from Johnson Bible College and 50 years ago I was ordained into the ministry by the Elders of the North Street Christian Church in Butler where I was also baptized and where the minister, Wilbur Reid, tied the knot between Kathie and me. (53 years ago). I knew at the age of nineteen what I wanted to do after hearing the call three times during my growing up years, once at 5 in a Baptist church in North Carolina, again at
12 in a Nazarene church and then finally 19 at North Street Christian Church. North Street Church along with my wife and my in-laws played a huge part in my successfully entering the ministry.
I served only three churches in those 50 years. I went right out of college to become the youth minster of the First Christian Church in Orlando where I spent seven marvelous years in the entertainment capital of the world and where I was a supporter and founder of Florida Bible College which is now part of Johnson University. From there I went to my first full pastorate at the Havana Church of Christ in Illinois. Again, they were great years. The calling came for us to be closer to parents and so we moved back to Pennsylvania to minister at the First Christian Church of McKeesport where I have been now for over 36 years.
I have come to learn much over the years as a minister. Not everything is what you expect when you leave college. There are many blessings and there are many challenges. A lot of water has gone over the dam. One is grateful for both as that is what life is about—ups and downs. I met an uncountable number of friends and people who became more than friends. One thing that I have learned above everything else to make up who I am as a minister comes from Colossians 2:4. It defines my purpose. “My purpose is that they may encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ….” Do I always succeed? Most unlikely. Is everyone encouraged by me? Again, not likely. But I still press on and encourage those who are opened to being so. Encouragement does not always feel good especially when we are encouraged to do something we may not want to do. But when I say, “be encouraged,” I do with the intent to turn your eyes on the Christ.
So, 50 years into the ministry I say to you with the greatest of sincerity and with the emotion of love,
Be Encouraged,
Ray
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