Enjoy the Journey BY BRAD RANSOM
The older I get, the more reflective I become. Anniversary dates and milestones are important to me. This year I celebrated seven years at North American Ministries (NAM). This is a big deal to me, because I never dreamed I would be here at all. I started out in ministry just doing what God called me to do, and I have been so blessed! God allowed me to serve on staff at three great churches: Grace FWB Church and Logos Christian School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1980-1988); First FWB Church, Ada, Oklahoma (1988-1993) and First FWB Church, Sulphur, Oklahoma (1993-2007). I honestly thought I’d spend the rest of my career pastoring the First FWB Church of Sulphur, Oklahoma, and would have loved doing it. But a conversation with Jim Puckett (then Oklahoma state mission director) changed the trajectory of my ministry and life. When Jim asked (more like told) me to pray about following him as state mission director, I thought, “Why me?” I had no experience or background in missions other than being a pastor who believed in and supported missions. I had been on several mission trips and personally supported missionaries and church planters. When Allen Mabra, chairman of the Oklahoma State Mission Board reached out and asked me to pray about it, I resisted. Why would I leave the church I loved pastoring, where I had a successful ministry? Back then, I had no idea “why.” In fact, the answer wouldn’t become clear for several years. After resisting the invitation to consider serving as the state mission
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director, I finally conceded to pray about it, still never believing it would come to fruition (or wanting it to). In my final prayer before conceding to the “call,” I remember telling God all the reasons why I couldn’t go. Our church was growing. We had just finished building a new sanctuary and had seen new outreach efforts reaching more people than I could have ever dreamed. We had voted to hire a new outreach minister, we were remodeling older facilities, we were raising money to build a family life center, and we were winning many people to Christ. Why would I want to go anywhere? My people seemed happy; they loved me, and we loved them. It was every pastor’s dream! Then God spoke: “You’ve given Me all the reasons you don’t think you can go, but you haven’t asked Me if I want you to go.” I told God right then, I’d go wherever He wanted me to go. After a difficult and tearful departure from my beloved congregation, I’ll never forget my first day alone in the new office at the Oklahoma state office. “What in the world am I doing here? I am out of my league! I don’t know what I’m doing!” These and many more thoughts like them were running through my head. But one thing I knew for sure. God had led me there. I still wasn’t sure
