Main Thing Podcast
This podcast encourages others to love God and people by leading them to know and follow Jesus’ truth.
Main Thing Podcast
Pastor Steve's Story of Redemption and Purpose
Pastor Steve shares his transformative journey from a non-Christian upbringing to faith and ministry, filled with challenges and growth. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity in leadership and nurturing future generations in their faith.
• Personal testimony of accepting Christ at age 15
• The impact of early mentors and opportunities in ministry
• Challenges faced in various pastoral roles and churches
• The importance of authenticity and trust in leadership
• Legacy and hopes for future generations in faith
Thank you for us to recall, in today's divisive and dark culture, from foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture. Allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey. Well hello, pastor Steve. Good morning, thank you for being with us again my pleasure. I'm excited about this one. You know we finished the questions that the church asked.
Speaker 1:We did a little series about a previous message that you preached back in June, a couple of years ago, and today what I'd like to do is just walk through your story, your salvation experience, to give the church and you've shared it periodically through messages, but I thought it'd be awesome to have one sit down, hear your testimony, hear how the Lord brought you to the pastorate to preaching, and hear about the victories, hear about some of the times that the Lord has molded you in the past and made you into the man you are today, and then finally just get to where the church can hear your heart, the legacy that God has done through you and through the work in the ministry, and where you want to be and how you want to finish, because I believe I know me as a pastor. I have this idea of what I want to do and what I want to accomplish, but I'm curious to hear from you in your stage of ministry, so before Steve.
Speaker 1:I know that you were saved at a young age, but can you give us a background as to how old you were when you accepted Christ? What was going on before then? Your upbringing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I came from a non-Christian home. My dad had dabbled in the church but had never been saved. He even did a little lay preaching but had never been saved. He even did a little lay preaching but he did that, in my humble opinion, as a lost person. Two uneducated parents my dad went to the fifth grade, my mother went to the seventh grade, and so it was that typical backwards central Alabama poor family.
Speaker 2:My grandmother was a Christian, a very solid Christian, but she lived a couple hours north of where we lived, so I had very limited interaction with her. And so at the age of 15, which I'm guessing would have been around the ninth grade a friend I'd made, a friend at school and his name was Tommy, and Tommy started inviting me to church and so I finally go, and it was a series of Sundays that I went, and then one particular Sunday I remember it like it was yesterday Pastor preached on Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and I expressed to them that day that I wanted to accept Christ. And so Tommy's dad I've talked about him much over the years Ray Holly, he was a deacon in that little country church and he was just an appliance repairman. You know nothing special about him as the world would look at him, but very, very faithful, and he led me to the Lord. After the church service that morning and took the time.
Speaker 2:Just I remember him on his knees on the front row, with me sitting in the front view going through scripture with me, explaining to me how to come to the Lord.
Speaker 2:And so January 5th 1975, beautiful day in the middle of the winter, and it so radically transformed my life I literally ran home. I lived about a mile from the church and I ran home that day. I was so excited it still kind of befuddles me to this day. You can't get Christians to talk about what God has done for them. Because I couldn't wait to go tell somebody. So I immediately went to one of my friends that lived next door to me and told him what had happened, and of course I told my parents. Nobody was excited but me.
Speaker 2:And so the next day, on Monday afternoon, I went to Tommy Letlow's house, who was another good friend, and it was just such an amazing moment. I was able to lead Tommy to the Lord and I literally didn't know one Bible verse. I just told him dude, I just know you need what I got. And so my first convert, Tommy and I, were baptized together the following Sunday, you know, and Tommy went on to be a church of God preacher, and so God took him in a very different direction, but yet a very similar direction. So yeah, that's my story of coming to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Now, if I remember correctly, just piecing bits together of sermons through the years, wasn't there a point in your teenage years where you were asked to preach because someone saw a call on your life? Yeah, this is an amazing thing. You know, I believe in specific revelation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is an amazing thing. You know, I believe in specific revelation, which would be, for example, Scripture and general revelation. You know, you look at the stars and the sky and the moon and the sun and of course Romans talks about all that. None of us have an excuse to say there's no God. Just look around. There's evidence everywhere. So my youth minister at that little church was part-time and his name was Leon Dunn. Leon's retired now he lives right up the road in Mississippi. And back in those days you did youth choir tours. They were very popular. So spring break came up and Leon wanted me to go on a youth choir tour. Well, I knew something was going on, because I can't sing a lick. I mean not one note. And so I said dude, I don't sing. And he said I'm not asking you to go sing. I was a football player into lifting weights and he said I need not asking you to go sing. I was a football player into lifting weights and he said I need somebody to tow the equipment and I was like well.
Speaker 2:I can do that, you know. Yeah, I can tow the equipment. So that's how they got me on the youth choir tour. Well, we sang at five different churches Monday through Friday on that trip that week, every night. And the first church we were in, as they gave an invitation, he motioned for me to come to him and I thought, hmm. So I walked up there, he handed me the microphone and said I want you to give your testimony, and I was mortified. First of all, what is a testimony?
Speaker 2:I mean I had only been a Christian a few months. So he said just tell people what Jesus did for you. And to this day, it's one of the greatest miracles I've ever experienced, I think, was God revealing himself to me, because all five churches every night some elderly person would come up to me and say young man, god's calling you to preach. Wow, he had me give my testimony every night, and so I go home overwhelmed. You know, I came from as we would say when we talk about status in America I came from nothing. I was nobody and the concept that God would be calling me to this very honorable profession just blew my mind. So I surrendered to preach in April of the year. I was saved.
Speaker 2:Saved in January, surrendered to preach in April, preached my first sermon on a Wednesday night. My first sermon on a Wednesday night, april or May of that year. You know, back in the old days you didn't worry about mentoring people. There wasn't much of that. That went on. He said God called you to preach, preach Wednesday, go do it, you know. So. You know we got through that and it was a slow progress from there. But I preached a good bit during high school. You get up in the Bible Belt. There's a lot of those little small churches were always struggling with a pastor, so there was always somewhere to fill in that kind of thing, and so I did a good bit of preaching before graduating high school. And so, yeah, god kind of in my understanding at least made it clear to me pretty early on this is what you're to be doing.
Speaker 1:Whenever you preach that revival on angels. How far are we from that point? Was that when you were in your early, your late teens? Yeah, I'm in high school.
Speaker 2:I'm like a junior in high school and you know we don't do this kind of thing too much anymore, but we used to have Youth Sunday and the youth would do everything. They'd take up the offering. They teach Sunday school classes. One of them would preach, one of them would lead music and the normal ministerial staff would just sit back. And it was your day to learn how to be leaders in the church.
Speaker 2:And I had very little knowledge on how to prepare a sermon, and so I had been to my wife's grandmother's church for something and picked up a Bible study that they had laying in the foyer on angels. So when I was told you're preaching for the Youth Sunday, I'm like oh no. So I really just took that Bible study on angels, made it fit me and went out there and preached it. Bible study on angels made it fit me and went out there and preached it, and I forget the exact numbers. There were like 17 people that were saved that day and 22 rededications. And then, to add to my anxiety, the pastor announces at the end of the service God's moving, we're going to do this through Wednesday. He looked at me and said be ready tomorrow night. So I'm like where can I find another Bible?
Speaker 1:study somewhere.
Speaker 2:But God moved. It was a great week. He did great things, but it was further confirmation for me that he had called me, because, look, when you're about 17 years old and you preach and 30 or 40 people respond in an affirmative way, you've got to be an idiot to think it was you. Right you know Somewhere I still have that cassette tape and it's pathetic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's pathetic.
Speaker 2:So it was absolutely a moving of the Holy Spirit of God. It wasn't because of my skills in any way, but it further confirmed for me. You know. Yeah, this is what you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, praise God, and I know you mentioned Ray and Tommy and those that influenced you to come to Christ. Mentioned Ray and Tommy and those that influenced you to come to Christ. After Christ you're saved, you're beginning to preach. God's moving and he's confirming that call in your life. Do you recall maybe the first hard situation or struggle that you encountered in your young faith that didn't rock your faith but made you maybe question faith or question the Lord or question His Word in any way, and was there any kind of crisis?
Speaker 1:of faith that you've encountered at a young age.
Speaker 2:No, and this is important for people to understand, I'm not being critical of other people's experience. You're saved in your personality. You worship in your personality. I'm an extrovert.
Speaker 2:Okay, when I came to Christ I went all in and never considered this might be a problem. I did struggle as a teenager. I went to a large high school. In fact, my football coach I played for just passed away. They had his service last Sunday. He was a godly man, which is almost an anomaly in athletics, and so I was blessed to have some great men in my life on the football field, some great men in my life at church on the football field, some great men in my life at church, you know. But my biggest struggle was being a teenage boy who had come to Christ, who had surrendered to the ministry, and yet all my buddies are still running and gunning, you know. In fact it became a deal. You know such a different time in the middle 70s. All you had to do was we would all park at a service station on the weekend and sit there until we figured out something we wanted to get into that we shouldn't, and my faith was real for me.
Speaker 2:So I became a designated driver before that term was ever coined and I drove my buddies around many a night while they were doing stupid things, took many of them home on my shoulders, knocked on the door and their parents let me in. I laid them on the couch and they thanked me and I went on home and it became a joke. If they wanted to go somewhere, their mom and dad say Steve, go on. You know, and so I hope the Lord used me to save several of them from worse situations somewhere along the way. But that was my biggest struggle was trying to live my faith as a teenage boy in the athletic world, playing sports and dealing with my friends, many of whom claimed to be Christians and attended church every Sunday. But that wasn't who they were, you know, and that's when it's, I think, even harder.
Speaker 2:I went home to preach a homecoming oh, probably 15 years ago now, and about 20 of them showed up. I was so honored and several of them came to me and said man, I owe you an apology and you don't owe me anything. We're all on a journey, you know. But thank you Because as they grew in the Lord you know. So many of them are now deacons and leaders in their churches and they realized how stupid they were in the teenage years.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that was my struggle.
Speaker 1:So after you came to Christ and you're growing in your faith, you're a young man. At this point I know you experienced the call to be a pastor. You knew the Lord was calling you to preach, but how did that transpire into school and then your first pastorate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're looking at a guy who had 19 first cousins older than me that didn't finish high school Wow Okay. First cousins older than me that didn't finish high school Wow Okay. In my family tree meaning my mom and dad and all of my first cousins in that group, I was the first one to ever finish high school Wow. And my pastor at the time handed me it was a little bitty booklet on Mobile College. He spoke at one of our pregame meals. The coach I played under we always had a pregame meal and we always had a local pastor come give a devotion and he spoke at a pre—he wasn't even my pastor at this point. He would become my pastor and he gave me the book. He said I hear God's called you to preach. You need to consider this school.
Speaker 2:And I began to look at Mobile College. Had no money to go to college, had no means to even think about it, was accepted to the State Trooper Academy. My dad was a cop. He was a city cop and that made him so proud that I'd been accepted to the State Trooper Academy because he knew you had to be a high school graduate to apply. He never could even apply and so he was heartbroken when I told him I was going to school, god called me to preach. I'll never forget he told me. He said, boy, that preaching's fine but you can't make a living doing that. And um, that was our conversation. Uh, and the day I left for college I had a uh, chevy, chevelle, v8 350 and even back then gas much cheaper now, but it wasn't that cheap. What did it get? Five miles to the gallon it.
Speaker 1:It got about 10.
Speaker 2:And he handed me a $5 bill and shook my hand and said good luck to you. And that was the amount of support I got from family in college and I just trusted. The Lord showed up and they asked me when I registered, how are you going to pay for this? I said I have no idea. When I registered, how are you going to pay for this? I said I have no idea, but I'm trusting the Lord, we'll figure it out. And was blessed.
Speaker 2:I did take out a little bit of student loan because, jan, we got married a year later and I talked her into going to school too. Between the two of us we only had $10,000 in student debt when we finished and we got that paid off, unlike many. Today, we were happy to get it paid off and give back because we were thankful for the education. You know, without those loans it might have taken us another five years to finish. But yeah, my journey was really just one of trusting. You know we're going to say he saved me. If he can do such a miraculous thing as save you, surely he can help you take care of school.
Speaker 1:Right, you know so yeah.
Speaker 1:So you and Jan get married. You're still a young man, you're pastoring. So you and Jan get married. You're still a young man, you're pastoring, you're learning, you're you're trial by fire in churches and and the Lord's and and many of us. We've heard snippets of those churches, but if you could get us to where we are in a snapshot and what I mean by that is, can you highlight maybe two or three of those churches that had a significant impact on you to get you and Jan where you are today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because that journey is a bumpy journey. My first church I pastored in college weekend church you just went up on. We'd go up on Friday evenings, stay the weekend, drive home on Sunday nights and that's probably the reason I'm still in the ministry today. New Bethlehem Baptist Church in Brewton, alabama. A little small church and they loved us. Oh man, and look, I still. Like I said, I got some of those cassette tapes and you'd preach the most pitiful sermon and they'd all come out the door. You know you're awesome, you're the best preacher. We just love you. You know. And today you know they were lying but they were just trying to encourage you, you know.
Speaker 2:And so we spent right at four years there and I resigned going into my senior year because I had to take 21 hours in the fall and 18 in the spring, and it involved, second year, greek and Hebrew, and so I'm like I'm not a brilliant person. I knew this was going to be a job, but I was ready to get finished and a buddy of mine two weeks later got me into an interim at another little small church and we served it the whole year, my senior year, you know, just going up on the weekend Wait a minute Back up.
Speaker 1:Was that first church, the church that you and Jan used to sleep in the church because it had air conditioning? Yes, on the weekends.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, the little church had been remodeled. It's a beautiful little church but a very small church, and we would stay. The little church had one deacon, mr Riley Barnett. Him and Miss Eva. They were in their 70s and you've got to think. This is a different time. This is 40 years ago and they didn't believe in air conditioning and that's who we stayed with every weekend. So sometimes in the summer months you'd wake up on Sunday morning and it'd be like you'd wet the bed.
Speaker 2:You'd just be sopping wet and sweat you know, and Miss Eva was afraid of the dark and way back in the 70s you had these lights clap on, clap off.
Speaker 2:And all night long you'd hear. You know she'd be cutting the light on and off so she could see what was in the house. And so every now and then, on Sunday evening I admit my sin we would lie and say we're going to make a couple visits and we'd go to the church and they never locked that little church. And we'd lock the door and crank the air conditioning down and the pews were padded and we'd take a nap on those pews on Sunday afternoon. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, and the next churches that you've been through. What I'd like to hear, Steve, can you pull out maybe one of the biggest struggles you've had in the pastorate and at a church and how that changed your life and prepared you for what God had next?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, we left Mobile College, went to Southern Seminary, spent two years there. He spent two years there and pastored a church over in what they call Floyd Knobs, indiana. It's just across the Ohio River from Louisville and it was a good little church. I actually built a building while I was there for them. They were meeting in a hardware store. You know, young preachers need to pay attention.
Speaker 2:I had grown up in construction and of course that was on my resume. And here I thought they were calling me because I was a great preacher. They were calling me because I knew construction so I could build their new church. And we did and we learned a lot there. But then at the time I was at Southern, it was very liberal and we reached a point where we didn't feel like we could stay, so we went home. I became a part-time youth minister at a church there in my hometown for about four years and worked a real job, as people would say. And then we went to Talladega, alabama, right out by the racetrack, and spent a little over five years at a little church called East Aboga Baptist Church. It's an Indian word that means east of the bog or east of the river. And again and again, very loving, very caring. We'd probably still be at that church today, but as my family continued to grow, they had, like, a lot of small churches. I'm not disparaging them, they had that mentality of this is what we pay.
Speaker 2:So you know, preachers, come and go, if you won't work for it, we'll find one that will. And so, with three small children, I reached a place. I felt like I was forced for my family's sake to make a move. Worst decision I ever made in my life I'm getting to your question Went to a church in Birmingham, alabama, that said all the right things, showed me all the right documents, and it's the worst church I've ever been associated with in my life.
Speaker 2:We were there 18 months and couldn't wait to get out of there. Wow, and I've often said everybody needs an 18-month church because once you've had that church, when you then get a good one, you'll know it, because you know what it ain't. You know the church was very dysfunctional and lied to us about several things, budget being one. I learned an important lesson there when they show you a budget, a lot of these churches have a reality budget and a challenge budget, and I didn't know the difference. I'd never had a real mentor in ministry, so I was flying blind. And so I found out about a month after being there that the real budget and what they thought they might get was two very different figures. And so, yeah, we dealt with every problem in that church. You can imagine, and some you can't.
Speaker 2:And I could not wait to get out of there. Yeah, people say there are a lot of bad preachers, and I agree there are some bad preachers, but I'm going to tell you there are a lot of bad churches, too that have no clue what it means to be a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's their own personal little family club and their opinions and their belief systems are based on what they think, not what Scripture teaches. And unfortunately, people talk about these statistics with all these churches closing. I think for the health of the kingdom, some of them closing is a good thing, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in a rural part of Virginia I know a church that grew significantly and in that area you would consider it a megachurch just because of the population I think they were running a little over 300, but it's a small town and the pastor's been there for 45 years and this is what you hear people say he's been there too long, you know? Yeah, god bless, the man's been there for 45 years, faithful to one church, and it's a bad thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you always have the opinion critics. I believe this with all my heart. I don't care what it is ministry, a secular job, your marriage, it doesn't matter. I believe it's true. Longevity does not guarantee success, because I know some people that have been on their job or in the ministry for 30 years but it's a mediocre performance because you know they just their personality is the type they just want to coast and if nobody pays attention that's all they'll do. But to have real success you got to have longevity. Somebody has to plant and invest and pour their life into that place or you'll never have sustainable growth. You may have flash-in-the-pan growth and people five years later are talking about you. Remember back when they were. You know it's my prayer we never become a church back when they were. You know that we remain a strong, viable church for the kingdom.
Speaker 1:Stephen, what ways has the Lord blessed you as a pastor through Covenant Church.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, and I have to qualify this Before I got here in my 40s I was 40 the year I came and I can't, I'll never forget this there was an old director of missions that loved me and I loved him, and he said something to me when I was about 32, 33, that made me mad. He said you'll never really be a good pastor until you're about 40 years old. And I thought who do you think you are, you know? But once I got to be about 50, I began to realize he knew what he was talking about. And it's not that you're smarter at 40. It's that you've experienced more and you begin to see what's really important in your role as a pastor. So when we came here, this church was very typical of churches I had pastored. I served on staff here for the first year and a half. Pastor who was a good friend, a college study buddy, stayed after me to come down here. So I finally felt, okay, maybe that's what we're supposed to do. We came and his idea of what a good church was and mine were two very different things. His idea of what a good church was and mine were two very different things.
Speaker 2:Our church was run by a small group of people, most of whom had come down here from North Louisiana. They were good people, they loved the Lord, but they had tried to impose a North Louisiana mindset on a South Louisiana congregation. And so the first five years were pretty tumultuous. I wouldn't lie to you about it. It was tough, but I had reached a place in maturity. You know, as a young pastor, you get somebody who don't like you and you think, well, maybe I need to leave. And I had gotten past that. My view was I'm not leaving my church because you got a problem. And so I think the Lord blesses the stickability I really do. And after about five years it began to change the attitudes, the culture, the disposition of the church. And as we grew and this was not intended to be this way, it's just an observation I made as we grew, god added to our population those voices got smaller and smaller.
Speaker 2:They didn't have the influence they once had and that made it possible for us to do even better things. And so the short and the quick of it is this in dedicating ourselves here and saying this is where we're supposed to be, we're going to work through whatever comes along. We're going to work through whatever comes along. We're coming out the other side and I think God blessed the church as a result of that and I knock on wood, I didn't do anything stupid because I got skills I can, and after a while, the congregation naturally begins to bless you, uh, trust you, and that becomes your biggest blessing, right? Uh, I really believe I could go paint the sanctuary pink with purple polka dots and get away with it. But the reason I can get away with it is I don't paint the sanctuary pink yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Purple polka dots right and, and so hopefully they know I love them and I believe they love us. And for the last, oh goodness, probably 10 to 15 years serving this church has just been an absolute joy.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So last question is what is your greatest hope for the people that— well, really, what is your greatest hope for the people that? Well, really, what is your greatest hope for the people that you've shepherded in the past, the thousands and thousands of people through the years, and the people that you shepherd here now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'll give you the comical one and then the real one. I joke that my goal before I die or retire whichever the Lord chooses is that I'll love Jesus more than LSU. I think that may be an unrealistic goal. I'm not sure Jesus is ever going to get that high on the list.
Speaker 2:But, in all seriousness, that when you walk away, that there's a crop, a core of people that have grown and can lead. See if you're the only leader in the place. When you walk away, there's a great void, there's a great sucking sound when you go out the door. My heart is that the day I leave here, under whatever conditions, is that it never misses a beat and that it does better than it's ever done. You know, my great joy would be to see you know sometime after I'm gone. The church is doubled rather than going backwards. I know a lot of old preachers. It breaks my heart. Well, since I've been gone, they've gone down to nothing. You know it breaks my heart. Well, since I've been gone, they've gone down to nothing you know, and they tell that like they're proud of it.
Speaker 2:Well, that's ego. That's ego. It must have been about you to start with. You know, I think one of the things that help any pastor is to remember that you're not as important as they act like you are yeah, and you're not as bad as they act like you are yeah, and you're not as bad as they act like you are. Just be faithful. Be faithful.
Speaker 2:So I hope, when I leave here, people can say I was faithful. I hope they'll say I was genuine because I don't think there's any value in a plastic preacher that I was real and, hopefully, that I built a foundation that they can move forward on and not have to rebuild it. You know, one of the things that helped me the guy that I came here under that left. He was here six and a half years. He fought a lot of ugly battles in six and a half years. He fought a lot of ugly battles in six and a half years, and so when I became pastor, when he left, there were some things I didn't have to deal with. He had built some foundation that.
Speaker 2:I could spring forward from, and that's one of the things that really helped us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for sharing, brother, my blessing, and thank you for those of you who are watching and those of you who are listening. We'll see you next time.