Contributors
MELVIN's church

Ridge Chapel
Kansas, Oklahoma 74347
918-597-3375

About MELVIN
  • Education: Undergraduate degree, Dallas Christian College, Dallas, TX; Graduate work, Lincoln Christian Seminary, Lincoln, IL; Post-graduate work at Washington University and the University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO. Honorary doctorate, Mid-South Christian College, Memphis, TN.
  • Experience: After student ministries during College & Seminary, served 15 years as Minister of the new First Christian, St. Ann, MO (during which our congregation swarmed 4 more new congregations & helped start 10 more in the St. Louis area); 2 years as Associate Director of North American Christian Convention, Cincinnati, OH; 8 years as President of Dallas Christian College, Dallas, TX; and, after 25 years with Central Christian, Brownsville, TX., I retired, moving to Kansas, OK & now serve Ridge Chapel.
  • Comment to those looking at my sermons: I’m a much better editor & rewriter than I am a creative writer, therefore much of what I preach is a distillation & reworking of what I have read or heard from others. I am convinced that we are part of a divine chain-reaction that will never cease. If what I write, or how I say it, is of any help to you as you prepare your sermons, then I praise God for it. And may He receive all the glory!
  • One of my favorite illustrations: True story: It was an important meeting in Atuntze on the border of China & Tibet. Chinese officials, local authorities, & a Tibetan warlord, (most had never seen a white man before) were meeting with my father, a medical missionary, to find out why we were there. Sitting in the back of the room by an old Tibetan man, I heard my father tell about Jesus to men who had never heard of Jesus before. The old man said, "It's not true!" When asked why he said that, he replied, "If it were true, we would have heard about it long ago."
  • Family: I’ve been married 68 years to Ethel Wilmoth of Dallas, TX. We have 3 children: Daughter, Patty Duke (husband-Walter), formerly houseparents at Cookson Hills Christian Ministries in OK; Son, Gary (wife-Ruth), Minister at Northeast Christian, San Antonio, TX,; Daughter, Shari Borders (husband-Russ), who is Children’s Minister at Gateway Christian, St. Louis, MO. We have 9 grandchildren (Jason & Taylor are ministers, & Allie is a missionary with Casa de Cristo, El TX), & 13 great-grandchildren.
  • What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: The first draft of my sermon is usually 10-12 typewritten pages. After rewriting it 3 or 4 times it is about 7 pages long. Then I give it to my wife & request that she help me eliminate about 2 more pages. And she does! Now if I could just get her to write my sermons in the first place... Seriously, her insight has enhanced the quality of my sermons. And since she is already familiar with it, she goes to the church prayer room to pray for me as I preach. And that makes a real difference!
  • Best advice given to me about preaching: Many years ago my father, who was a missionary (China, Tibet, Philippines), a College President, and a church planter (36 that I know about) said, "Preach so that a 12-year-old child can understand, and somehow the adults will catch on." In more recent years, the preaching of Dennis Slaughter, formerly Minister Emeritus of Valley View Christian, Dallas, TX has had a profound effect on my preaching content and style - particularly in helping me develop a more conversational presentation.
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Newest Sermon Illustrations

  • We Will Tell Your God On You!

    Contributed on Apr 13, 2015
     | 2,806 views

    by Amy Carson Phillips (Adapted by Melvin Newland) “Night is falling on the Congo, O’er the jungles far and near. Soon the blackness will be brooding - He who walks will walk in fear. Yet no black man seeks his hut, All are waiting on the shore, Gazing, peering through the ...read more

  • Old Fat Bald Hero

    Contributed on Sep 3, 2009
     | 7,481 views

    OLD FAT BALD HERO One of the great sports stories of the decade of the 1990’s was of George Foreman regaining the heavyweight boxing championship of the world. At age 45, George Foreman, more than a decade past the prime of most fighters, knocked out his opponent, Michael Moore, and regained ...read more

  • Not Dead

    Contributed on Sep 3, 2009
    based on 1 rating
     | 8,544 views

    After he retired, one man wrote, I get up in the morning, and I dust off my wits. I go out, get the paper, and I read the obits. If my name is missing, I know I’m ...read more

  • Afraid Of What?

    Contributed on Sep 3, 2009
     | 7,801 views

    AFRAID OF WHAT? Jack Benson was a missionary to China. He was held up by some bandits who took all his valuables & then held a gun to his head & forced him to kneel in the road. They told him they were going to shoot him. Benson knelt calmly, maintaining his composure through it all. The ...read more

  • Does He Show Through?

    Contributed on Sep 3, 2009
     | 6,842 views

    DOES HE SHOW THROUGH? One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother & said, "Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God ...read more