Ridge Chapel
Kansas, Oklahoma 74347
918-597-3375

• 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.