New Life Christian Church
Chantilly, Virginia 20155
7032228836

• Education: Bachelor of Science from Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, MO with a major in Preaching.
• Experience: 2 1/2 years of full-time ministry in Milan, MO. Currently serving at the Petersburg Church of Christ and plan to be here for a long, long time.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: Keep in mind, a lot of my outlines aren’t real organized. I have developed my own style of preaching and so it may be hard to follow for others. I hope you are able to at least get some good ideas from them and maybe use your own illustrations in place of mine. Especially since I memorize my illustrations and it’s hard to remember word for word what I said in the sermon.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: I did a Sermon Series called "What’s in a Name?" It was a series designed around the names of God. I learned so much in that series and will probably have it posted someday. I was just able to learn so much about God and His character. It really helped me to come to know Him more. I’m not saying my sermons were wonderful and I learned so much from them, I’m saying my research really helped me to grow. I think God used that on me and at a time I really needed it especially.
• One of my favorite illustrations: The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported in September, 1985 a celebration of a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season. Times-Reporter, September 1985. I found this on sermonillustrations.com And for some reason I use it a lot or some variation of it. It is really powerful when applied to many churches get so excited about little victories or when they reach a certain attendance, they stop working. And people are still dying and going to hell while we dance around and celebrate like we’ve done something special.
• Family: I come from a long line of preachers. My great-grandfather is Archie Word. He was a travelling Evangelist who eventually settled in Gering, NE. Both grandfathers are preachers, one is too unhealthy to preach anymore, but still works with Senior Ministries. My father was a preacher, my uncles are preachers and I have 3 cousins who preach. I just kind of runs in the family.
• What my parents think of my sermons: My mother loves my sermons, but that’s because I’m her only boy, not necessarily because I’m something special. My father passed away in ’98 but I’m sure he would be proud. He was a minister also.
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: My wife is very good about praising my sermons, not just to stroke my ego, but she really likes my style. However, there are days when she is honest and tells me things like, "You really should not have said something that way. It would have been a lot nicer to say it this way". She is a great help to me.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: Don’t allow your structure to keep you from saying what God wants you to say. If it’s unorganized and you don’t like it, that’s okay because God probably used that sermon more than you know. Don’t rely on your preaching/organizational skills alone, let God help you!
• Books that have had an impact: The Bible, The Purpose Driven Life, When God Builds a Church, If You Want to Walk on Water You have to Get Out of the Boat, Building a Church of Small Groups, Acts Commentary by Gareth Reese!
• Hobbies: Sports, sports, sports! Football especially. Go Chiefs and Go Huskers!
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: Stop allowing man-made traditions to hold you back. I’m sure I could come up with about 10 hours of material for a sermon with that as a topic. I would be pulling a Paul and I would just preach all night. And would definitely be "strengthening the brethren with a lengthy message", Acts 15:32, when it came to that topic. I think this is so important because so many churches are missing out on God’s purposes for them because they are so stuck on things that aren’t even biblical. I think among churches in general, this is a huge epidimic.
• Something funny that happened while preaching: At college we had supply preaching for churches that couldn’t afford FT ministers. So us college guys would go to different places each week and just bring a single message to a few smaller congregations. One week, when i was very young and didn’t know what I was doing, I just kept preaching. I was finished about 10 minutes early, but thought I had to fill the time. So I rambled on and on and on saying the same thing over and over. I was just up there killing myself. Anyway, I finally looked at my wife who was just my girlfriend at that time and she was making that motion where her hand was cutting through her throat as if to say, "Stan, you’ve baked yourself. Shut up and sit down while you’re still ahead". And we still laugh about that today.
• What I want on my tombstone: A Servant Leader!

• Auburn Christian Church
• The Rodda’s
• My Blog Page
• My Alma Mater
• Petersburg Church of Christ