TGC’s Ordinary Pastors Project seeks to find wisdom and honor in faithfulness, demonstrated in varied contexts. Learn more from the introduction by Matt B. Redmond. If you’d like to honor and encourage the ordinary pastor who shaped you, tell us about him in about 500 words and include a photo, or record a video testimonial of five minutes or less and send the link to [email protected].
When Howard Davis came to Shreveport, Louisiana, with his wife, Melissa, directly out of seminary in 2002, they saw here a culture that was profoundly churched but radically in need of the gospel. At the time of his arrival, our congregation at Grace PCA was thrilled to have a fresh young pastor. It became immediately clear, however, that Howard was not content to simply shepherd from the pulpit, and to some, being engaged with the gospel on a level that shook them up was uncomfortable.
Regardless, he was committed to loving these men and women by getting involved in their lives. Howard knows in his heart that the power and work of the gospel is entrusted to the church, and that at its core, the church is a community. So he set about to foster the genuine, sacrificial, messy, loving-of-one-another kind of community that was the power of the early church. As one longtime church member put it:
In working with Howard I saw [community] radically lived out. I saw him leave his comfort zone and get into peoples’ lives, oftentimes causing himself and his family much discomfort and even great pain. He shared personal sin struggles that must have been painful to share. He shared his money, his family, his home, his time. I saw him apply the scriptures to peoples’ lives in ways that actually made sense. He met them in their darkness as a brother and showed them Christ. The scriptures weren’t just principles, doctrine to have in our heads. They came to LIFE!!! And God worked through both Howard and Melissa mightily. Over the years, He has blessed the fruit of their labors through answered prayers and changed lives. I have seen other disciplers rise up in our church over the past several years as a direct result of God’s work through Howard.
Unfortunately, many of the parishioners who attended Grace at the time of Howard’s arrival have since left. Does this mar his image as a faithful minister? I can’t say that it has. Howard could have acquiesced to the feelings of his parishioners in an effort to maintain his flock at the expense of his vision, but then to what would Howard have been faithful? Like Job who grieved the loss of his entire household, only to have it restored along with his heart to even greater heights, I have seen God restore our church. We are at once a congregation of needy and hurting people who look to Christ for our every need and receive his grace daily. Through Howard’s consistent leadership and vision, God has cultivated in the members of Grace a similar drive to establish God’s kingdom on earth by pursuing a genuinely loving community of believers.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
