August 20, 2020
This past Sunday night's installation service was joyfully humbling for me and my family. The turnout was so encouraging (even my mom was there!), and many who weren’t able to make it have told me that they were delighted to be able to watch it online (including my father and brothers!). Before the service, I have to admit I was feeling a bit anti-climactic, since I’ve been functionally serving as Senior Pastor since the day after the installation was originally scheduled (March 22).
But then I remembered that I’m a Presbyterian not merely by pragmatic convenience, but by Biblical conviction - and an installation is not a mere formality, but rather the final step in a process of confirmation of God’s call that progressed from the recommendation of the Session as search committee, to the affirmative vote of our congregation, and to the approval of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley. In keeping with Scriptural pattern and precedent (Acts 13:3; I Timothy 4:14), the council of elders from the churches in a particular region (the Presbytery) is the body that places a man in that work to which they recognize God has called him. An installation is the formal and official acknowledgement of their approval, and the lack of that formal installation is like a diploma without a university seal. Thus I thank God that this final step in this long journey is complete.
So many thoughts have been swirling around in my head. Here are three:
I am standing on the shoulders of the three men who formally served as Senior Pastor of this flock: Bill Whitwer (1978-1986), Chuck Frost (1987-1993), and Carl Kalberkamp (1994-2020). These men paved the way for me to serve a flock that is knowledgeable of the Scriptures, passionate for the lost at home and abroad, led by faithful elders and deacons, and filled with love toward one another. What a privilege for all of us to still have Carl minister among us, and for me to have him forty feet across the hallway, for wisdom, counsel, and encouragement.
This is my fourth call as an ordained teaching elder: Solo Pastor of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Columbia, MS (2003-2007); Senior Pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Cookeville, TN (2007-2014); Associate Pastor of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church (2014-2020); and now Senior Pastor here. There were also three churches/ministries I was privileged to serve even before ordination: volunteer and staff youth leader at First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge during high school and college (1993-1997); intern with Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN, after graduating from LSU (1998-1999); and senior high youth intern at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS, while in seminary at RTS (1999-2003). Each one of these previous calls has contributed toward making me the man and pastor I am today by the grace of God, equipping and preparing me in a variety of ways for this new field of service.
At each of those stops along the way, my biography has been intertwined with that of godly men and women who have left their imprint deeply upon me. One of those men prayed for Carl and me this past Sunday night: Mr. James “Bebo” Elkin. He was the Mississippi Coordinator of RUF from 1983-2011, and poured much wisdom into me through staff training during my RUF internship, in his home garage auto repair shop, on drives around Mississippi, and over the phone and lunch table on innumerable occasions. He was the first one to teach me through the Westminster Confession of Faith and to present a Biblical philosophy of ministry. He is the human reason I came to RTS-Jackson, with the simple question of how I was going to cover living costs while in seminary leading to the encouragement to consider applying for the youth internship at FPC. Throughout my journey he has been alongside me, and the truths he has taught me have by now become so ingrained I probably don’t even remember that I learned them from him. If I can be half the insightful questioner and godly exhorter that he is, I will consider myself a blessed man. Needless to say, it was a rich privilege to have him present Sunday night.
God has been undeservedly good to me and my family, not least through you the flock that I now have the privilege of pastoring. I love you, and I pray that Paul’s words to the Thessalonians will continue to set my course: “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us” (I Thessalonians 2:8). I want to share God’s truth and my life by the power of the Holy Spirit, spending and being spent so that you might be grounded in and transformed by the gospel of grace. I want Colossians 1:28-29 to be written over my ministry here, as long as God gives me the opportunity to preach and pastor: “We proclaim Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
Pray with me and for me, that Jesus might be my strength in weakness, the content of all my spoken ministry, and the compassion of all my personal ministry.