I may have been born in the nursery of the Wynnton Baptist Church in Columbus, GA (name now changed to Wynbrook Baptist). I do have it from reliable sources that I started Sunday School there 9 months before I was born. I don’t remember missing very many Sundays there until I went off to college. I was saved there and Pastor William Courtney Oates baptized me when I was about 11 years old. In 1961 I was “pastor” of Wynnton for the annual Youth Week.
It was thru the ministry of Wynnton Baptist Church that I yielded to the urgent desire on my heart and committed my life to foreign missions. Wynnton licensed me to preach the Gospel in 1957 and when the Philadelphia Baptist Church in Blairsville, GA called me as pastor, Wynnton ordained me to the Gospel ministry. That was in November 1958 –almost 49 years ago.
I went on to earn some degrees, served as pastor of churches in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, taught in missionary training institutes and served as a professor in 3 Bible Colleges. By God’s grace I have preached the Gospel on every continent. And I can honestly say that all the theology I have ever really needed to know I learned in the Sunday School classes of Wynnton Baptist Church.
This coming Lord’s Day I will have the honor of preaching all three of the morning services at Wynnbrook. I have longed for and prayed for this privilege since the last time I was there in 1976! I think I know how Paul and Barnabas must have felt when they got back to Antioch “from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” Acts 14:26-27
Rejoice with me and pray that I will be a blessing to Wynnbrook Baptist Church.
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