Simplicity

 September 26, 2020

He had only a Bible school education; three years at Practical Bible Institute. He started out bi-vocational, working at Kodak while pastoring the fledgling congregation he and a handful of young men and women founded on the west side of the city; hence the name: Westside Baptist Church. We weren’t charter members, but also weren’t far from it when my mother decided we needed to start going to church. Though the church has grown and changed much since then, I can still point to the place in front of the kitchen where I received Christ. The sanctuary where I walked the aisle to publicly profess my new faith is now the gymnasium, but to me, it is still holy ground.

Shortly after I left that church to go to college, there was a change in pastors. The community was growing, was becoming a bit more sophisticated. A pastor with only a Bible school education wouldn’t do; a seminary-trained pastor was needed. Or so they thought. The man who got the job was a good man, more sophisticated perhaps, but things were never quite the same, and when the new pastor received a call to a larger and even more sophisticated church, he jumped at the chance. The church has had a string of pastors since then, none of whom I ever met.

Pastor Ellis (no one ever thought of calling him by his first name) took on a quaint meeting house congregation in a more rural setting, and eventually retired. I had the opportunity years later to visit him in his retirement community in Florida where I told him how much his ministry meant to me. When I think of what it means to be a faithful pastor, I still think of him. And today when I read one of the day’s Psalms, his face came into focus in my mind. It was just a phrase, but it captures his ministry, and hopefully, mine. I had the privilege of going to seminary, but when I think theologically or ministerially, I go further back to my roots at Westside Baptist. The phrase that caught my attention was this: “The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me.” (Psalm 116:6) 

I’ll leave the philosophy and critical theory to others. I’m no deep systematic theologian; my mind works much more simply. As John Newton was wont to say, “I was a great sinner, but Jesus is a great Savior.” I am thankful tonight that I came to Christ under the ministry of a simple Bible-school educated preacher, and that simplicity hasn’t left me in the sixty years since. The Lord truly does preserve the simple and saves those brought low in humble repentance.