Many years ago, I had the great blessing of having a mentor who was a deacon in my church in Tennessee. He talked me into starting and teaching a New Testament survey class at the church for the betterment of both new and longtime believers who potentially might receive something that he felt was lacking in our church on our Sunday evangelistic mornings — discipleship growth. I’m grateful to Carl for many of the insights he shared with me over the course of our twenty-seven year relationship as a mentor and friend, all the way to his home-going in 2019. But I’m especially grateful to him for that class he talked me into teaching, which opened my eyes to what truly was missing in not just our church, but in many churches…a sound and clearer biblical understanding of what and why we believe what we do.
Awhile after the class began to grow, the senior pastor of the congregation approached me, and asked me to kindly stop planting churches in his church, and go plant churches elsewhere, which he believed was my true calling, in following the leadership of the Lord and the Holy Spirit as a church planter. So, my family and I loaded up the wagon and headed west to plant churches for the denomination that I was raised in and was a third generation minister of. Thus, the Lord led my family to Montana and Wyoming and I am deeply grateful for what Dr. Hammer had the c ...
