Do any of you remember that radio and TV show called, "Can you name that tune?" Contestants were challenged to identify a song after only hearing a few notes, not even bars, of a song.
When I was in seminary, I had to learn 50 hymns, the hymn tune, and be able to recognize the title of the song after a few measures. That was tough for me, and I love music.
Jumping quickly now from naming a tune, I would like to write about something else that is pressing in on my heart.
I am so grateful for Malcolm Herndon's sermon that we published in Hugh's News called, "The Empty Chariot Seat."
That message started me thinking about the possible names of future preachers that will be produced at Holmes Bible College. That Bible college has turned out some great ones, and I will attempt to name a few; however, I am sure you, my readers, can add many more names to the list. And I do need you to participate in this "Name that Chair Contest for Future Preachers" who will be called to preach, and begin to develop preaching skills with a powerful anointing and a passion for lost souls at Holmes Bible College.
Recently, I've been reading the biography of Charles Spurgeon. Let me give you a quick overview of this great preacher.
Charles Spurgeon was a great preacher and pastor in England in the 1800s. He played a significant role in his generation as well as ours.
He was raised for a period of time by his grandparents because his own parents were at one point too poor to adequately care for him. Spurgeon‟s father was what we would call today a bi-vocational pastor—he pastored and worked to make a living.
Spurgeon's grandfather was also a pastor. Charles Spurgeon didn't have a college education—for the most part he had been trained in the common manner of village children. However, his grandmother paid him a penny for every hymn text he memorized and it is little wonder that you cannot read one sermon by Spurgeon without encountering at least one hymn text.
Charles began preaching at the age of 17 to a handful of villagers who met in a makeshift barn—within two years it had grown to over 400 people. Then, at the age of 19, he was invited to preach in London at the well known New Park Street Chapel—a once great church that had been dying for several years, now with only a handful of people gathering on Sunday, although it seated a thousand people.
Spurgeon thought the invitation was a mistake and tried to decline. Eventually he accepted the invitation and arrived to preach. When he arrived to preach there were less than 100 people in attendance.
History records that his clothing didn‟t fit him, his hair didn't lay down obediently and he simply didn't fit the London scene. His father would even tell him he was making a mistake to go.
A teenage girl in the small congregation that Sunday happened to recall how Spurgeon's appearance was distracting—if not comical. She wrote that his “long, badly trimmed hair, oversized black satin coat and his mismatched blue handkerchief with white spots, which he graphically described as an illustration in his sermon, brought all the more attention to it—which awakened in me feelings of amusement.”
This young lady would later become his wife . . . and no doubt probably helped him pick out his handkerchiefs!
Within two years, the church was overflowing and several years later they built the Metropolitan Tabernacle which seated 5,000 people and Spurgeon would preach there for a little more than 35 years.
That recalls again to mind the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, “Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble—but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong" (1 Corinthians 1:25-27).
It seems that God chooses nobodies to confound the somebodies! You see, God turns the mountain upside down! It’s time the church got it right!
If the Pentecostal Holiness Church is to grow in the United States, we must have gifted men and women who can preach. There is no substitute for preaching. While it it true we need structure, facilities, and leaders for growing churches, that alone will not fill up the auditoriums and sanctuaries of our churches. Strong Biblical, even espository preaching, will do it. When a preacher is on fire, people will flock to see him burning with an excitement and knowledge of God's Word. God still calls preachers.
Everywhere I go it seems that people are telling me that their pastors are not preaching the Bible. They are earnest, sincere stalwarts of the church and many are so discouraged that they are beginning to leave the church to go where the Bible is preached.
I have given a great deal of thought to Holmes Bible College in recent days. I am convinced that God has sent James D. Leggett to be the president of this Bible college. He is one of the finest preachers this church has ever turned out. Young preacher boys and girls will flock to this Bible college when they learn what we have there. It is a wonderful place to learn how to study the Bible, to preach, and witness for Jesus Christ.
The question that keeps coming to my mind, where I sometimes think, is this: "Who will sit in those chairs in the chapel and the classrooms? Think about it for a moment.
Will there be another Paul F. Beacham, Kenneth Benson, Dallas Tarkenton, Louis Cowart, Hugh Padget Robinson, John Swails, R. O. Corvin, Leroy Baker, Dwight Burchett, Danny Shafer, J. Floyd Williams, Leon O. Stewart, Ronald W. Carpenter, Sr., Joseph A. Synan, Sr., Bob Ely, Dan Beller, Dan T. Muse, Robert L. Rex, Ray Hughes, Walter Nash, George Bass, John Hedgepeth, Freeman Mashburn, Ervin L. Shirey, Sr., Vernon V. Pate, O. N. Todd, Sam Todd, I. H. Presley, Hugh Morgan, Phillip List, Joel S. McGraw, David Stephens, J. W. Cato, Sr., Jackson Presley, Moody Presley, Hal T. Goodman, Lawrence Johnson, John Ingham, G. Earl Beatty, Phillip Hart, Greta Campbell, Edward Boyce, Joseph Campbell, Jesse Simmons, Carl Campbell, Carl Thurman, Thurnace York, Wesley Russ, W. A. Mills, Doyle Marley, James Pennington, George Harris, Jerry B. Walker, John Todd, Byon Jones, Chris Thompson, Jimmy Whitfield, Ronald Q. Moore, Kenneth Dantzler, King White, Wiley Clark, Karl Bunkley, etc., to name a few.
I don't have the ability to compose a complete list of names. However, you can help me complete the list and name many others you would like to be placed there. We need no less than 100 students at Holmes Bible College. I think we can take care of that many students for now.
Let me encourage you to pray for Dr. James D. Leggett, President of Holmes Bible College, his staff and faculty, and most of all the students. Pray that God will send students from the north, south, east, and west. We need preachers and I can't think of a better college to educate, mentor and produce preachers not only for the Pentecostal Holiness Church, but other charismatic and Pentecostal denominations.
You can go on the Internet and find the website for Holmes Bible College in Greenville, SC. Encourage and help a young man or woman to consider Holmes Bible College and help them to get there.
[Ediitor's Comment: This news blog was not requested by Dr. Leggett. What I have written may not express his views, opinions, thoughts and policies. I wrote it because it was in my heart to do so. I love the college, Dr. James D. Leggett, Dr. G. Earl Beatty, and others who are there. May God grant them wisdom and glowing health (Daniel 2:23, The Living Bible).
Posted on
Fri, February 25, 2011
by Hugh Morgan