I have pastored several churches in our area, mostly in Braxton County and one in Nicholas but have preached in many more. 

I have preached for 47 years now, began in 1973. I am not hung up with the shingle over the door.  By that I mean, I am a Christian first and I have pastored Methodist, Baptist and non-denominational churches. I have not become a member in most because of what some of the mainstream churches have been doing which is in direct conflict with the Word of God.  In short, I preach, teach and practice however imperfect, the Perfect Word of God and the Word of God only. My wife,  Barbara has taught Bible studies, children's classes in Sunday School and does them very well and is a great help in our counseling.  She also is a very good singer.

I was trained in the Methodist faith, but left and went to Conservative Baptist because of some of the things the Methodist church was doing at that time and even today.    I am licensed and ordained by the Church of Christ but follow no denomination, only the Bible, the Original King James version. 

 

I was youth pastor of the American Baptist Church in Morris, New Hope Baptist Church,(American Baptist) until I discovered that they and the Methodist Church supported an abortion clinic in Charleston.  I got this from their own financial report from their headquarters. The conference level of this church has been working on this problem over a decade now.

 

I always advise anyone considering membership to any church to see where the money goes.  This doesn't mean that the local church is involved but the state or National levels are, a lot of the time. But the local church should be a good steward of God's money and why it is put into the collection plate.

 

I didn't write the Bible, I just try to obey it and I believe it is the only safe road map that God has provided us so we can endure to the end.  So when I see churches ordaining women, which the book of 1 Timothy 3:2 says "must be the husband of one wife", that pretty much eliminates a women in this position.  I don't agree with some who state a women should be silent in a church, I believe that is out of context with what Paul was up against.  Some of the women converts at that time were originally from Pagan churches and their ritual would be go to the mountain top sanctuary and howl and cry out for the men to come up and it was a big orgy, fertility type worship.  They tried to do the same thing after converted, maybe not for the same reason, but it was causing unrest and confusion and Paul said women should be silent.  So I see no problem with teaching, counseling and any such offices that do not conflict with the Word of God.

When I see churches ordaining gays, and condoning and marrying same sex marriages, which is an abomination to our God and sin according to His Word, how can we be partakers in anything that is contrary to God's Word  Unfortunately many mainstream churches are doing this.

 

My first wife divorced me after 2 years of counseling effort to reconcile our marriage.  Both of us were at fault, but after my illness with MS, which I had for 9 months and then the Lord healed me, after I claimed James 5:14-16, but she decided she didn't love me anymore and had to lie to get the divorce.  I had remarried and I also married a divorced woman and some churches believes that the scripture that I quoted above, the husband of one wife, means that you can't remarry even though you are still only have one wife.  I understand that and respect that and I always made that known when being considered for a pulpit ministry or even just guest preaching somewhere. 

 

I could tell you so much more, like being thrown out of churches for preaching the Word of God  Things that just make your mind spin, but that is the world we live in now.  Too much world has come into our churches and not enough of our churches are really going into the world.

So there is the encyclopedia answer that you probably was not expecting.