Fellowship Baptist Church
Avon Park, Florida 33825
863-529-0645

• Education: Bachelors degree from Charleston Southern University, Charleston, SC Masters degree from Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY
• Experience: Served as Pastor of two Southern Baptist Churches from 2009-2014. Served as Minister of Music, Music and Youth, or Music and Education from 1982-2009.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: Ask deeper questions about the scriptures, like "Why did he write this? What was the culture? Who was it written to? What can I learn about the surrounding time that will better explain and clarify this scripture to my congregation?"
• Sermon or series that made a difference: In the 90's I wrote a sermon series on the entire gospel of John. The study of the life of Jesus in great detail was eye-opening in many ways and enabled me to share Jesus with a new light and new passion.
• Family: I have been married to Rhonda Reed for 30 years. We have three wonderful, Christian children. Daniel, 28, is a Navy Lt presently teaching ROTC at Vanderbuilt University in Nashville. Stephen, 27, is a pilot living in Gainesville, Florida. Caroline recently graduated from Southeastern University, married, and works for a lawyer's office. My wife is an RN. I am disabled due to nerve damage in my legs and presently in semi-retirement.
• What my parents think of my sermons: For some reason parents think themselves to be an authority on everything when it comes to their children.
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: Good, but I should use more visuals.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: The most important thing to realize in preaching is when you've said what you wanted to say. Don't preach past the length of your sermon! (90 year old retired pastor mentor)
• Books that have had an impact: Morning and Evening (Spurgeon)
• Hobbies: Woodwork, primarily building or restoring wooden boats.
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: I never thought a lot about the words of Paul where he wrote, "I have run the race, I have kept the faith." Of course he "kept the faith." It seemed obvious - what else would he do? But now, at age 52, having gone through terrible experiences in a couple of churches where I've been treated more like a homeless bum than a minister, and having lost my health in ways I never saw coming, I begin to see why Paul wrote, "I have kept the faith." It's easy to be angered at God and lose faith.
• Something funny that happened while preaching: While serving an affluent church in a smaller town I noticed the congregation's reaction's on Sunday morning as one of our members, a doctor, had his pager go off. He quickly left the sanctuary. No one really took notice. A little while later another doctor experienced the same. No one really took notice. It happened frequently. A mother was paged to the nursery. No one took notice. Then the owner of the funeral home was paged and stood to leave. EVERYONE WATCHED HIM EXIT.
• What I want on my tombstone: I only rented this grave