Thirty Years Ago Today

 

From my twitter @Riddle1689:

Thirty years ago today I was ordained to the gospel ministry at age 27 by the first church I served as Pastor, Beulah Baptist Church in Lyells, Virginia. The deacons gave me this Cambridge KJV Bible.

My father J. C. Riddle preached the ordination sermon. We sang this hymn I had written to the ST. ANNE tune in the service. My mother-in-law later created this calligraphy work of the lyrics and gave it to me as a gift. It hangs in my bedroom, so I see it every day.

At this point, I had just come back from two years in Hungary. Before that there had been four years of summer ministry as a college student and three years of seminary where I served in chaplaincy and teaching in my local church.

Over these 30 years I have served three churches as pastor, moving from SBC to RB life, and planting the church I now pastor, 12 years ago.

Ministry is hard. I've seen both the best and worst of myself and others. There have been many Mondays when I wanted to quit and have a normal job. I'll never forget the man I met at the DMV counter one day who told me through tears how he used to be in the ministry.

Through it all, Christ has constantly proved himself faithful and worthy of the greatest admiration. I love him and want to serve him with my life so much more than I did 30 years ago. SDG.

JTR