MEET OUR NEW INTERIM MINISTER
Reverend Jim Stovall has accepted our call to be the Interim Minister for West Lake Christian Church. His ministry will begin on April 20th, 2008. The following is a brief biographical statement from Jim.
I am reading an autobiography by Clarence Darrow as I prepare to write this. Darrow introduces himself as one who is truly insignificant in the scheme of things. He says he shall surely be forgotten as the future consumes the past.
This was not true of Darrow and is not true of anyone else on the planet. Each of us is important to someone, especially to the One in whom we have our origin and destiny. I, as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have come to realize that ministry matters. Moreover the church matters. I believe I have seen many people lifted up above the commonplace because they were in the church.
I grew up in the First Christian Church of Popular Bluff, Missouri. I remember my Sunday School Teachers and my friends from camps and conferences. I recall being included in the community even at my most vulnerable times in life. I entered ministry as a Timothy from a church that has had probably twenty Timothies and Priscilla's over the years.
I attended Texas Christian University and Brite Divinity School at TCU as well. Texas gave me my undergraduate and seminary education and my wife, Luann who has always been a great supporter of ministry. She is always well liked and appreciated in churches.
After leaving TCU and Brite I tried youth ministry and found the kids to be wonderful and progressive while the parents tended to live in a past filled with racism and spiritual immaturity. At the age of 25 I was also immature. That was when I entered the Teacher Corps and acquired a Master in Education while working with socially disadvantaged youth in Arkansas. I loved it and appreciated the work knowing it was ministry. After teaching and preaching in Southwest Arkansas for six years I had to choose one career in order to achieve any sort of proficiency. I chose ministry and went back to seminary to seek out a Doctor of Ministry program at Phillips Seminary. I was truly blessed and highly enriched by that experience.
Since then I have been in ministry, meaning a total career of 43 years in ministry to date. It is and was a great life. Luann and I have been blessed with two children and two great, wonderful grandchildren. We lost a son who died in a drowning accident 10 years ago. Long term Ouch! So grief has played a pressing role in our lives. Yet, somehow, the future is bright for us as we sink our time and money into a small farm in Smithton, Mo. Luann and I have 8 dogs (7 toy Fox Terriers and 1 Great Pyrenees), 4 cats, 2 alpacas, 1 llama, 6 goats and 3 horses. They are our babies. Luann spins their hair. She taught public school for 16 years and had her own sewing school for ten years.
I love ministry and will keep doing it until it is truly time for me to go to the dogs, etc.