Preach the Word
By David Flick

Recalling and recounting special occasions are good for the soul. I enjoy recalling the years of my first pastorate. My first pastorate was the tiny Indian Baptist Mission in Seiling, Oklahoma. Seiling is located in northwestern Oklahoma on the northern boundary of the Cheyenne & Arapaho region of Oklahoma. I grew up at Hammon, Oklahoma which on the western boundary of Cheyenne & Arapaho country and is located about 60 miles southwest of Seiling. Having grown up among the Cheyenne people and having learned their dialect, I was at home working with Indian people.

The First Baptist Church of  Sharon was Seiling Indian Baptist Mission's  mother church in name only. We received no financial support from them. We were, however, receiving support from the Northwest Baptist Association and the Home Mission Board.  My salary was supplied 80% from the HMB and 20% from the association. Each summer during my time at Seiling IBM, I would live on the field in the mission  building, which was an old dilapidated house with a makeshift auditorium on the first floor and small living quarters on the second floor. Those were happy times for me. I spent three happy years as a fledgling young pastor to the Cheyenne population in Seiling.

 I was a student at Oklahoma Baptist University and was driving the 360 mile round trip to and from the field each weekend. Effie and I lived in Prague, which is in Lincoln County, located about 20 miles from the OBU campus. She taught Home Economics at Prague High School and I attended classes at OBU during the morning  and worked on dairy farm in the afternoons.  On Friday afternoons we made our weekly 180 mile trip to Seiling.

After I had been serving the Seiling IBM for about eight months, I was ordained. The ordination service occurred in the First Baptist Church in Sharon on  Mother's Day in 1966. I reflect on this event with pleasant memories. My "father in the ministry" was Harold Heiney.  Harold was the pastor of the Indian Baptist Church in my hometown of Hammon.  He was the man who mentored me through those first tender years of my ministry. He later left Hammon and spent 25 years ministering among the Sioux Indians in South Dakota before retiring in 1990.

I have a lot of memories about my ordination service, but none exceed the sermon which my mentor preached. I can recall, with vivid memories, the text and supporting scriptures Harold used.  The primary text of his sermon was 1 Timothy 3:14-4:5:

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.  I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

From this text, Harold preached a sermon which had as its central theme, "Preach the Word." I still have the Bible I was holding during that sermon. The verses, including notes I took, are underlined and marked in the margins. The sermon was preached many years before anyone had ever heard the term, "inerrancy." It was also years before Southern Baptists considered the Bible "holy" above Jesus and many years before they began to consider the Bible "wholly" above Jesus. These were years when the phrase, "preach the word," meant the same as "preach Jesus."

When I entered the ministry, "preaching Jesus" was the primary task of every  Baptist preacher. I never considered that the Bible was more important than Jesus. I still don't. In that sermon, Harold made references to John 1:1-5, which I also underlined:

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

As Harold preached the sermon, he looked in my direction and pointed his finger at me, he said, "David, ALWAYS preach the word ! Never fail to preach the word! Preach the word in season and out of season! Whereever you go, preach the word! As long as you live, preach the word!" I knew full well what he meant by "Preach the Word." He was telling me to preach Jesus. I have always believed the Bible is the divinely inspired authority for my preaching but it is never more important than Jesus.

For my mentor of years ago, the Bible was simply the book that a preacher used to preach Jesus.  For him, there was never a need to defend the Bible as being some kind of extra holy document, which had to be totally inerrant if one is going to accurately preach Jesus.  Harold never considered the Bible to be "inerrant."  In those days, there was no question but that the Bible was sufficient for preaching Jesus.  Harold taught me to love Jesus first and preach Him above all else. The Bible was simply the avenue through which Jesus could be preached.

I am glad I had the opportunity to begin my ministry in a time when there wasn't a fundamentalist movement going full blast. I am glad I began my ministry in a time when people didn't make it a test of fellowship over what one believed about the Bible.  I regret that I retired in a time when Baptists make it a test of fellowship over what one should believe about the Bible. I regret that I've lived to see a day when Southern Baptists do unchristain things to fellow Baptists because of narrow views about the Bible. I regret living to see the day that missionaries would be fired and dismissed because they do not share the beliefs of denominational leaders who hold the reins of power.  I regret living to see the day that Southern Baptists would force fellow Baptists to sign man-made creeds before they are allowed to preach Jesus to the lost and dying world. I regret living to see the day that Baptists would be held accountable to denominational leaders instead of the Lord God of Heaven.

I regret living to see the day that I would be fired for expressing personal convictions in the public forum.  Far too much energy is being spent defending a particular view of inspiration of the Bible. Far to much energy is being spent fighting a form of liberalism that never existed. Far too much energy is being spent perpetuating false myths about the history of Southern Baptists. Far too much energy is being spent trying to control Baptists to conform to the narrow standard of fundamentalism.

Will it ever end? I don't know.  But one thing is for certain. I am going to preach the Word (Jesus) as my first mentor challenged to me. I will go to my grave remembering the words of my father in the ministry, "David, ALWAYS preach the word ! Never fail to preach the word! Preach the word in season and out of season! Whereever you go, preach the word! As long as you live, preach the word!"

Thanks, Harold.  I will keep that promise.

-- December 15, 2002

 (This article was written for  BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums)