Frank Wood - Celebrating the Ministry of My Pastor

Today in a church in a Georgia, people will gather to honor and celebrate the ministry of the Lord Jesus through His servant, Frank Wood.   Frank has been serving the Lord for 50 years.  When I think of pastoral ministry, my mind drifts to Lanny Fox, the man God used to preach and influence me to Christ.  I think of Norman Bell who blazed a trail in the north country and had a huge impact on my life for many years.  I think of Jeff O'Brien and the staff I serve with at Northside.  Jeff has been my pastor (serving as my associate) for more than 20 years.

Today, I want to honor the man I will always call my pastor.  His name is Frank Wood.  Frank graduated from seminary in Memphis, Tennessee in 1978.  He had already been serving the Lord for a number of years but God led him to Memphis to get his seminary education and more ministry training at Mid-America Seminary.  From there, God would lead Frank, his wife Diane, and their daughter Kimberly, to a small remote town in Northern New York on the Canadian border.  That town is Malone, New York which was the home of my family.

I was a junior in college when Frank Wood came to be pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Chapel, which under his leadership would become the Shiloh Baptist Church.  We were a young mission, but with a bright future.  Malone is the county-seat town of Franklin County.  I remember gathering in a rented location for services before we had our own buildings, and 30-40 of us would gather with great anticipation about what God had given our pastor for a message for us each week.  I saw his passion to preach, his love for Jesus, and his heart for Jesus.  I was in college studying for ministry.  He set the bar for what it meant to be a pastor.

As it turns out he would serve as my pastor for four years, 1978-1982.  You may think that is a short amount of time, and in many ways it was.  However, in those four years, Frank baptized me, led the church to license me to the ministry, ordained me to the gospel ministry, encouraged me to go to the same seminary he did (which I did), preached my father's funeral, and performed Kathy and my marriage ceremony.  It may have only been four years, but it was arguably the most critical four years of my life.  From the time I was 20 until I was 24, Frank was my pastor.  I will be forever grateful.

He taught me to care.  He taught me to preach with passion.  He connected me with friends of his in Memphis as he drove from Malone to Memphis when I first started seminary.  I soon was on staff with one of his former classmates and would serve in that church for seven years.  He taught me to believe God for great things, and be bold with vision and faith.  He fueled my heart for evangelism and bringing people to Jesus.  He challenged me, prayed with and for me, spoke deeply into my life and encouraged me.

Many people I have served as pastor have never heard or met Frank Wood - but the truth is - they hear him and see him every week.  God put this man in my life and the lives of thousands of others at just the right time for maximum impact.  I regret not being in Georgia today to bring this greeting personally, but I will preach the gospel in the state Frank grew to love in 1978 and trust God to change lives here today for God's glory with a grateful heart for the man who will always be my pastor.  God bless you Frank - and on behalf of my family - and many more - thank you, thank you, thank you for obeying God's call on your life.