I began my pastoral ministry 52 years ago today.

My first pastorate of Berea Baptist Church, Hiddenite NC, commenced with their call to me in their Midweek service / business meeting. 1n 1973, the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday—and yes! they gathered for their prayer meeting and business meeting during which they voted to extend the call to me to come and pastor them.

I had preached for them numerous times before; both during the ministry of their former pastor, ‘Preacher’ Harry Sims. and also during the interim after he had resigned. ‘Preacher’ Sims had been a life-long family friend of ours. He was most instrumental in discipling my own Dad shortly after the Lord had saved him and called him to minister the Gospel—and a few short years later, to found and pastor his first church. They enjoyed many hours and days conversing about the Scriptures and studying God’s Word together.

We [Parks and Sims families] were living in Winston Salem NC at that time. But, Preacher Sims was originally from West Virginia. So, he also made the connections and recommendations between Dad and the Little Sewell Baptist Church in Rainelle WV, where Dad was called to pastor in 1956.

When we moved back to Winston Salem in 1966, Preacher Sims and our family resumed our close family and ministry associations. He was pastoring Rosemont Baptist Church at that time. Then, Preacher Sims pastored for a few years at Berea in Hiddenite, about 45-50 miles from Winston Salem—in Alexander County, just a few miles west of Statesville.

Coming back now to 1973: I still had my 5^th [senior] year of Bible College [1973-74] to complete when Berea called me to pastor them. So, I continued to live at home, attend Bible College, and drive to Berea every Friday evening to minister there over the weekend and Lord’s Day. Then drive back home for school the next week.

After graduation in May, 1974, I moved what little stuff I had [mostly books] to live in their brand-new, beautiful, brick, ranch style parsonage the church had built while Preacher Sims was there. [Debbie called it my ‘monastery’* and would later domesticate it—and the monk—into a home!**]  I could ‘furnish’ it only sparsely; but I had it all to myself, and I was as happy as the whippoorwills that would sing in the nearby underbrush or the frogs croaking in the close-by bogs.

I spent many glorious hours in that nearly-empty parsonage: reading, praying, studying, walking and hiking in the nearby fields and woods, fishing in the neighboring farmers’ ponds, and visiting among the church members and neighbors a LOT—especially around supper time!

They still refresh and delight my heart’s memories as some of the most enjoyable years [1973-1980] of my 50+ years of pastoring God’s people.

   * in the ‘monastery’ with some of my books … and, yes, Debbie bought and gave me the shirt. I didn’t even know such a style existed 😉

** Debbie also lovingly hand-stitched this for me before we were married … it’s still hanging in my office/study … and I’m still closely examining it to see if there is some concealed cryptic message in it somewhere something to the effect: “but just you wait…” 😉