Ministry Memories
I will be spending the week at Capital Bible Seminary (CBS) in meetings with Ambassador Enterprises. I thought this would be an apropos time to share a few ministry memories from my fifteen years with CBS. 
The Invite
I had been at Uniontown Bible Church for just a few months when I called President Homer Heater at CBS to ask if they needed any adjunct (visiting/guest) professors. When he learned of my background, he scheduled a meeting with himself, myself, and George Harton, then the seminary Dean. They offered me a position as founding chairman of the counseling department.
Though flattered, I didn’t think that three months was a good tenure for a Senior Pastor. However, I did begin to teach a course or two a year for CBS. Each year for five years, I was again asked to come on full-time. For four years I declined.
The fifth year, within the space of one month, four seminaries contacted me about heading counseling departments. I’m slow, but even I began to sense a theme here! I was told that my educational background, pastoral ministry experience, and counseling experience made me a prime candidate. Humbled, I still was unsure.
Discerning God’s Will
That’s when I did something that many folks in the business world frown on as unwise and potentially job suicide—and many people in the church world also. I went to my elder board to share with them my situation. Rather than react defensively (“If you’re even thinking about leaving, then be gone!”), they responded maturely.
We prayed together. We pondered together.
I recall one particular meeting where, gratefully, they shared that they didn’t want me to leave, but that they also didn’t want to stand in God’s way. They noted that I “felt the pleasure of God” when I was equipping them to equip others. They wondered out loud whether God might be calling me to equip pastors to equip others.
I factored in their feedback, plus the realization that by God’s grace the church had not only tripled in size during those preceding five years, but also the number of equipped leaders at the church had grown exponentially. It seemed that God was paving the way to release me from one equipping ministry to another.
The Truck!
Now it was time to ponder which school God might be calling me to. I won’t “name names,” but the next event was remarkable. My daughter, Marie, was about 9 at the time. We were sitting in a MacDonalds with a clear view of the road outside. We were talking about what Daddy might do next in ministry.
I mentioned that it would be nice if God just sent a sign in the clouds, but that God didn’t work that way in our day. Just as I said that, a grocery delivery truck drove by. Emblazoned on the side of the truck was the same name as one of the seminaries!
I’m not sure whose eyes were bigger—mine or Marie’s!
Did I end up at that seminary?
Nope.
I still do not think that in our day and age, God typically reveals His will through “signs.” Instead of following that sign, I sought the counsel of many godly men and women. I prayed. I meditated on God’s Word. I looked at my gift-set. I examined the focus of each school. I probed where the best match might be for my calling/gifts/vision and the opportunities and needs in each school.
I chose Capital Bible Seminary…and they chose me. And I’m so glad that I did.
The Rest of the Story
Tomorrow I’ll share why I’m so glad that I chose CBS.
Join the Conversation
How do you discern God’s vocational/ministry will for your life?
