Pastor's Corner

November 2007

On Nov. 4^th KBC will celebrate the 105^th anniversary of God’s faithfulness. Freda and I came to you with our family not too long married and starting a new chapter of ministry. How well I remember the welcome you gave us and the quick sense of acceptance. I can still remember the group that had waited more than two hours for us to arrive. I can remember walking next door for my first Sunday service (how strange to walk next door to church!), how Lou Stagg would drive by in her pickup with some gift, how Katherine Sneve would organize a sightseeing drive to acquaint us with Kinder and its treasures. I also remember bedside prayers as well as countless tears of joy and sadness with people that I love as we watched God work in our church, as we watched young faces grow into young men and women. And I’ve only been here 9 years. 

When Paul Leeds came into this community in 1893 little did he know that he had reached the place of his life’s work. Saved and single at 24 years of age, Bro. Leeds yearned for the life of a missionary in some far away place, coming to serve temporarily in Jennings until a replacement Pastor could be found. Sixty five years later, having organized more than twenty missions and churches, performing more than 700 weddings and 1000 funerals in the Kinder area, the “Bayou Apostle” as he was called died at the age of 87.

What makes for a fruitful life and ministry? The Apostle Paul mentions some things in 2 Corinthians 4 that kept him motivated and focused. First, he recognized that his work as an Apostle was an assignment given to him by Christ Himself (v.1), so only Christ could end it. It was simple in concept, for though he was a child of God by faith, he was to serve in his assignment as though a bond-slave. That meant that he was free from the burden of self-promotion and focused on the single responsibility of preaching Christ (v.5) and letting the power of God accomplish its work (v.7).

 Is it hard serving Christ like this?  You be the judge as you read the way Paul Leeds summed up the years in his memoirs:

            “Much of the work through the years has been the quiet, unspectacular kind which makes dull reading, yet it was full of effort, anxiety, care and prayer, and involved personal dealings with people of various ages, sex, dispositions, and notions. Out of the commonplace service has come fruit even sweeter and more lasting than some which came from trees of brighter-hued blossoms and taller branches. The fig tree has no flower, but its fruit is sweet and healthful. On these various fields, as the years passed, the work was a routine of riding…when a pony was available, walking with joy when walking was the order of the day, spending the night in any home open to me or walking further when the door was closed. There was much prayer, at times through the entire night; teaching the ordinary branches in detached lessons, singing when anyone wanted it, nursing the sick, working on farms, and doing anything that could advance the cause of Christ.”