By Brenda Cannon Henley
“…but be thou an example of the believers…”
(1 Timothy 4:12)
In my last column I wrote about learning from those we come into contact with in person, by book, in documentaries and biographies, in our neighborhoods, and in our churches. I believe each of us can learn from every single person we meet and incident we observe in our lives. Some things will be good and we will want to emulate or put those habits into our own lives. Some may not be so good and we will want to turn from those. I watched a situation unfold recently, and as it played out, I thought to myself, “Man, I cannot believe this mess is sponsored by a Christian organization.” The buildings were falling down, unpainted, literally filthy, windows were broken, yards were a mess, and I would have been frightened to be asked to spend one night under that dilapidated old roof.”

I was blessed of God to work for a dynamic pastor in the Atlanta, Georgia area for more than two decades. Dr. Curtis Hutson was a US Post Office mail carrier. In fact, he was carrying the mail to a large residential neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia, on Route #33, when God spoke to his young heart about taking on the pastorate of a small rural church. Under Dr. Hutson’s leadership and God’s anointing, that small church grew from just a handful to over 9,000 members in the time we worked on the staff.

My dad and mom became the 13th and 14th member to join under the young pastor’s time at the church. My husband and I were asked to resign good paying jobs and serve full time on the staff, which we did with great joy and many blessings.

We organized a bus ministry for the church when this was a novel thing to do. We ran 56 bus routes all over the sprawling Atlanta area and brought in men, women, boys, and girls who would have otherwise not been able to attend churches. We became the second largest bus ministry in the world. I decided that if the Atlanta Bus Transportation Company (MARTA) knew how to move thousands of Georgians around the area each day without mishap, they should share some of their secrets. I called and made an appointment with one of the officials and he later invited me to spend time with their schedulers and routing folks. I saw the huge plastic overlays placed on the big wall maps of the Atlanta area that showed where every bus was located for all times it was on the road. Remember, folks, this was before computers were common in every office and especially in church plants.

We went back to our buildings and I had big plastic overlays made for our bus ministry. I could plot out the routes; the time the bus would arrive and depart, and tell a worried parent when his little one or grandmother would be back home. Trained drivers and helpers were assigned route numbers and each child’s hand was numbered upon pickup. Each adult was given a nametag to wear that helped church staffers greet each visitor upon arrival at our big parking lots. I am pleased to report that we ran those routes with success for many years and never once had a chargeable accident. We also expanded our Sunday services and included trips to Disney World and others for those who won awards or excelled in some part of their study.

I had the privilege of going to Disney World in Orlando 24 times in 22 months supervising these trips. One of our dear ladies, Betty Andrews, said to me as we arrived back on the parking lot after a whirlwind trip to Florida, “Miss Brenda, please, please, don’t make me have any more fun for a few weeks.” That pretty well describes what those trips did to the body, but, boy, did we have fun and children who are now adults, all over the Atlanta area, remember seeing the ocean for the first time, riding Space Mountain, and eating in a real restaurant. Checking into the Hilton was a big deal to them, too.

We organized everything about our ministry and it ran like clockwork. We had 300 volunteers just in our children’s churches and I taught anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 folks each Sunday in Super Church.

Events on this scale do not run without advanced planning, much prayer, lots of money, and dedicated workers. Our pastor believed the church was the most important business in town. He often said, “If most businesses were run like most churches are, they’d be out of business in six months.” He thought the buildings should be spotless, no paper lying around, pictures and posters mounted properly with no tape showing, trash cans emptied, and God help the worker that did not care enough to change out announcement signs and take down old, outdated posters as soon as the event had been completed. We had a team that changed the big church sign out front while the service was going on to reflect what was happening next. My pastor called it “free advertising while the guests were with us,” and he was right.

Our printed materials were first class. Our lessons were pre-planned and coordinated. No Sunday school class was left without a teacher in place 15 minutes before the students arrived. Food was kept in kitchen and dining room areas and guests were welcomed warmly. People came from everywhere to see what we were doing and why God was blessing that little work. A dedicated staff cleaned our buildings daily and people were treated royally when they visited any class or the auditorium. Our finances were without reproach and annual audits were done each calendar year with full reporting to the people.

Why are these things important? Our pastor and our people believed that if the work of God was as important as we said it was, everything about it should reflect that view. God help the lackadaisical, uncaring way some ministries are run today. It is a shame to visit and see dirty buildings, old signage, unpaid bills in the community, people standing around talking to their buddies and not greeting hurting hearts, lack of planning, organizing, and studying to bring good, solid messages, and a “just me and mine” attitude. If we are going to talk the talk, for God’s sake, and ours, walk the walk. If you are going to put God’s name and reputation on it, make certain, the work meets His standards and is a positive billboard for the advancement of His causes.

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788
or at [email protected].

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