I had the privilege of working with Dr. Paul Broyles who was a Baptist minister who was trained and schooled at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky during its days of academic height and stature in the middle to late 1960’s. In 1988 he was the pastor of a new Baptist church plant, Southern Baptist, in the suburbs of Philadelphia (West Chester). The church met at The New Century Club which was the Women’s Club that started the first free kindergarten in 1899 in West Chester. The church, Emmanuel Baptist, would eventually be the place of my ordination to ministry and so it holds a special place in my heart.
Dr. Broyles invited this young, 25 year old, new missionary and minister in training to learn the art and craft of interpreting scripture and writing and delivering a good sermon. Paul was a thoughtful, moderate, very well educated Baptist minister but not even those credentials would push me over the edge to accept his invitation to learn from a proven preacher, a gifted minister, and a fine gentleman. I was too interested in learning the crafts on my own--the hard way, trial and error. I wish I would have taken him up on his offer to help me learn the craft. I really missed a golden opportunity to learn from him but maybe I learned an even greater lesson than I first imagined. I learned the lesson that learning from others is a give and take process. It’s a matter of opening oneself and being willing to learn and grow. That’s a hard lesson for 25 year old who is sold on the idea of “pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.”
Looking back some 28 years, now, I can see that I was doing the best I could. I was more interested in my own learning than learning from others. Even today I have not forgotten that missed opportunity. I still have fond thoughts of Dr. Broyles and his patient, kind, and gracious approach to Christian ministry. Missed opportunities are sometimes life’s greatest lessons.
Dr. Broyles invited this young, 25 year old, new missionary and minister in training to learn the art and craft of interpreting scripture and writing and delivering a good sermon. Paul was a thoughtful, moderate, very well educated Baptist minister but not even those credentials would push me over the edge to accept his invitation to learn from a proven preacher, a gifted minister, and a fine gentleman. I was too interested in learning the crafts on my own--the hard way, trial and error. I wish I would have taken him up on his offer to help me learn the craft. I really missed a golden opportunity to learn from him but maybe I learned an even greater lesson than I first imagined. I learned the lesson that learning from others is a give and take process. It’s a matter of opening oneself and being willing to learn and grow. That’s a hard lesson for 25 year old who is sold on the idea of “pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.”
Looking back some 28 years, now, I can see that I was doing the best I could. I was more interested in my own learning than learning from others. Even today I have not forgotten that missed opportunity. I still have fond thoughts of Dr. Broyles and his patient, kind, and gracious approach to Christian ministry. Missed opportunities are sometimes life’s greatest lessons.
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