OLD: Just ask my grandchildren they will tell you how ancient I am. I am not quite as old as they think, but I am old enough to tell them about living in a farmhouse with a wood cook stove and without indoor plumbing.
COUNTRY: Someone said that I am as country as a mess of turnip greens. I can’t help it and I no longer try to hide it. I grew up in the country. I went to a country school (it had a route number, not a street address). I have lived most of my adult life in the country on a dirt road (about a mile from the pavement). I raised my kids in the country. In the words of Loretta Lynn, “You don’t see no city when you look at me cause country’s all I am.”
PREACHER: That also describes me. I have been a preacher for more than 50 years – mostly as a pastor, but also as a youth minister, an evangelist, a missionary, and a lay preacher. Preachers are on both sides of my family. My great grandfather was an ordained Baptist preacher. (But he was also a farmer.) My uncle, who was a pastor for about 50 years, led me to Christ. He was my hero and my mentor for many years.
I attended Bible college in Tennessee and California (where I met my lovely wife). I finally graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
So, there you have it, I am an old country preacher.
