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]. This submission comes from Charlie Evans.
Randy Pizzino is the pastor of All Nations Metro Church in Roanoke, Virginia. In August he celebrated his 42nd year in pastoral ministry. He spent most of those years as the pastor of Trinity Church, a congregation that he began with a few other families in 1981. After almost 30 years of faithful service at that church he felt that God was calling him to minister the gospel to the people in the inner city of Roanoke. So at a time when most pastors are planning their retirements, he left his salaried position at an established church and began to focus his attention on the at-risk community downtown. Soon afterward he was called to be pastor of All Nations, a new church plant in the city made up of a few struggling families with no money and no place to meet.
Randy has been a mentor and a spiritual father to me for more than a decade. When we met I was a new convert with far more zeal than maturity and a chip on my shoulder about “organized religion.” He faithfully met with me and in many ways raised me in the faith. He introduced me to the doctrines of grace, he taught me how to pray and how to read the Bible, and when I met my wife he taught me how to be a husband. Now he’s teaching me how to be a pastor, how to shepherd God’s people, how to carefully exegete the scriptures, and how to handle sin in the church with the gospel.
Our church is very small, and the church he pastored for three decades was also relatively small. He is not a local celebrity, and most of the pastors of large churches in our area might not even recognize him. But the homeless community in our city recognize him. Often I’ve seen him greeted by name by folks who clearly spent the previous night outdoors. He’s invested himself freely in people who he knows will never be “tithing units” because he really believes in the value of the human soul. He really believes the gospel, and his authenticity is apparent. I’ve seen some of the most bitter and jaded folks who are skeptical of all things religious greet him warmly and call him “pastor.”
A few Saturdays ago it was raining, and he was by himself going door to door in the neighborhood around our church to meet people and invite them to our service the next morning. I know this because I live in this neighborhood and saw him. He didn’t announce it at church the next morning or make a big deal about it. He wasn’t doing it to make a show. And that Sunday a man from the next block was sitting there in one of our chairs, looking uncomfortable and holding a big King James Bible. When I asked him how he’d ended up there, he said, “Pastor came by my house, told me I should come.”
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.
