Ordination 1984

    After being in the ministry for a while, I realized that there was still one thing I needed to do and that was get ordained. On October 28th of 1984 an ordination council came to Scottville Bible Church to spend a day asking questions and evaluating if I should be ordained. The process actually began months, maybe even a year, before with a lot of prayer and study of God's Word. I knew that they would be asking questions about the 9 basic doctrines, from the Doctrines of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, the Church, End Times, Man, Sin and much more... Just when I thought that I was ready I took a trip to Grand Rapids and visited Paul Deal, director of Independent Bible Mission to see if he would help me prepare. After talking with him and him asking me doctrinal questions, I realized that my studying had just begun! It took me several more months more to study each doctrine, writing my personal testimony and a doctrinal statement of each the 9 doctrines. I also called on a few pastors to help me prepare and really making sure I knew the materials. 

   Finally it was time to ask some Godly men to be on the council. The council was made up of pastors, mission leaders, friends. My first pastor Ray Logan came from Minnesota to serve as moderator. On that day each man took a doctrine and was assigned to ask me questions about that doctrine. I really do not remember many of the questions, but all I knew was that I was nervous, but God gave me grace and peace that day. After the questions and prayer, they dismissed Linda and my self and discussed my fate. By the way, the council does not do the ordination itself. They are strictly an advisory committee to the local church which actually does the commissioning. After a while they called us back in and told us that they unanimously agreed that I should be ordained. I think that it was they next Sunday that they actually ordained me and laid hand on us prayed for me and Linda. 

   (If you look at the picture on this page you will see the men of the ordination council. On the far left is Howard Peterson, Regional Director with what was then the American Missionary Fellowship. Way in the back you will see a small, gray haired man with glasses. That is Tom Jones (No not the singer). Tom and Marion Jones became our best friend when we served at Luther Chapel. To the left of him, is Phil Platz. He and his wife, Linda attended GRSBM they same time we did and we became very good friends. He recently passed away. On the other side of Tom Jones is Pastor Ray Logan. In front of Tom Jones is Larry Marvel, who was the present pastor of Luther Chapel. In the front row with the red tie and mustache is Robert Schults, director of Child Evangelism in the Ludington area. Many of these Godly men are now gone to be with the Lord, but we will remember their impact on our lives.)

The weird thing is that Scottville Bible Church held my ordination papers until it closed a couple of years later. Then it was transferred to Faith Church (Pastor Logan's church), which closed a few years after that. Who holds it today? Only God knows. It really does not matter, because I am ultimately answerable to God alone.   

Stay Tuned!!!!