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By Teena Myers

I first heard the name Pastor Wayne when I wrote a story about one of his congregation members. She had great respect for her pastor and told me about the positive influence he had on her family. That was the first, but not the last time I heard the name “Pastor Wayne” in a positive light. I concluded he is a man of excellent reputation and googled his name to learn more about him. 

Pastor Wayne accepted my friend request on Facebook. Occasionally, a title to a blog post he wrote would grab my attention, and I’d click through to read the article. One day, I noticed an invitation to share his blog articles with friends. I emailed requesting to repost his articles to my blog. During the exchange of emails with Pastor Wayne, he not only consented to speak to the Southern Christian Writers Guild about blogging, but also agreed to tell me his story. 

During the writers meeting he shared intriguing information about social media. Seventy-two percent of Americans use social media. The percentage of eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds is higher. In the past four years, the usage of those sixty-five and older has increased four times. Facebook has become America’s front porch. He then addressed how blogging opened a door for shy people in their church to communicate with him. People uncomfortable speaking to him willingly shared their thoughts through comments on his blogs.  

This information resonated with me. In recent months, I’d heard several ministers criticize the use of social media as though it were a demon destroying relationships. I even received a phone call chiding me for using Facebook. If I was limited to face-to-face encounters or even phone calls, it would have been impossible for me to connect with some of the people I have written about.  

“I’m not a writer,” said Pastor Wayne. “I am a pastor who writes.” The pastor who would not call himself a writer has written and co-written seven books. Marlaine, the Chairman of the Southern Christian Writers Guild that met on the Northshore set them on the table before he arrived. She also informed me that Pastor Wayne is her pastor and the President of the Southern Baptist Convention for the state of Louisiana. 

Pastor Wayne taught us how to discern the will of God for our writing, we must take the next step. Throughout his ministry, he usually knew the next step to take but never knew the second step before he took the first. Following God one step at a time had served him well. He oversees a large church, which is currently expanding its facilities to accommodate the growing congregation. 

After the meeting, Pastor Wayne and his wife met with me privately to share their story. Pastor Wayne laughed, “I had the shortest confession of faith on record.” He made that confession in an automobile at a young age. His questions about a revival led to a discussion about baptism and faith with his mother. During the conversation, she quoted Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, …” He slid his slender nine-year-old body back into the car seat, closed his eyes and said, “Lord, I believe.” Wayne had taken the first step in his walk with God, but he did not know where the next step would take him.  

As far as he was concerned, ministry was not in his future. Until he was a senior in high school, and his pastor asked, “What are you going to do when you graduate?” 

“I might go into business. I might be a lawyer. I might even be a preacher…,” nervous laughter followed. He had no idea why he included a profession he had no desire to enter. But his perceptive Pastor recognized a calling. The following week, he invited Wayne to come to his office and talk. 

Wayne took the second step toward God’s will in his pastor’s office on a crisp January afternoon. Pastor Brown asked Wayne why he included preacher in his list of options after graduation. He didn’t have an answer. 

“This is what you need to do,” said Pastor Brown. “Tell God that you are willing to do what he tells you to do.” 

Wayne made his second shortest confession of faith on record. “Lord, I will do what you want me to do.” 

God took Wayne at his word. Easter Sunday night, Wayne sat on the back row of the church with his friends when his heart and mind were arrested by the Spirit of God. He felt overwhelmed by God’s presence and a sense of the reverential fear of God engulfed him. When the invitation was given to come to the altar for prayer, he walked forward knowing exactly what had happened. God had set him apart to preach the gospel. 

Pastor Wayne paused to collect his thoughts and said to me, “My call to preach came violently. When you asked me a moment ago about my salvation, whether something dramatic happened, or if I just knew. Well, I just knew. But when I was called to preach it was a violent call, an astounding call. It was I know this is what God wants me to do. Not only do I know this is what God wants me to do. This is what I want to do. My passion to preach the gospel was immediate and that passion has only grown stronger through the years.” 

Pastor Brown took Wayne under his wing. He accompanied his pastor to funerals, visited the sick, and delivered his first sermon at a small country church. He preached everything he knew about the call of Abraham from Genesis Chapter 12 in eight minutes. Then the pastor put Wayne’s picture in the weekly Baptist Magazine announcing Wayne had been called to preach. A church twelve miles from his hometown invited Wayne to be their pastor.  His parents bought him a set of commentaries to use when preparing his sermons, which helped him increase his sermons from eight minutes to ten. 

Circumstances and the peace of God led him to pastor several different churches. Each pastorate taught him valuable lessons.  He learned the importance of relationships. In the smaller pastorates, he knew every congregation member by name and their struggles. His current church is too large to build intimate relationships with everyone, but he still strives to know as many people as possible. 

He learned how to conduct business meetings. Voting whether or not to pay the light bill seemed trivial to Pastor Wayne, but he learned it was important to the people who wanted to vote. At times, he sat through business meetings that left him confused regarding what was accomplished. But he learned to be patient and gentle. 

Another pastorate taught him the importance of evangelism. He invited a former college roommate to preach a revival at his church. The revival started a good relationship with a nearby school, which allowed them to share their faith with its students. Ultimately, the revival produced thirty professions of faith. In another church, the deacons requested permission to worship “with him” instead of asking him to “try out” for the office of pastor. Their humility left a mark on Waynes’s life and ministry. 

Pastor had a strong foundation to tread upon as he began seventeen years of service at a theological Seminary, which undergirded that foundation with a thorough understanding of the Bible.  

“Four years before God planted me in south Louisiana, I felt like Jeremiah,” said Pastor Wayne. “There was a fire in my bones to be a pastor again. Every time my wife and I found a place we thought we fit the door was closed. Every time we didn’t think we fit and were not inclined to go, the door was opened.” 

When he was invited to serve as the interim Pastor at a local church, an impromptu revival started. People were walking in off the street and getting saved. Pastor Wayne asked the associate ministers on staff what they were doing that produced the revival. They didn’t have a clue. A new pastor was elected, and Pastor Wayne continued to help other churches when and where needed as he taught at the seminary. 

Five years later, the same church once again needed a pastor, and remembered Pastor Wayne. They asked him to return as a candidate for pastor. But he was already serving as an interim pastor. He made it a practice to stay in an interim position until the church found a suitable pastor and turned down their invitation. They replied, “We will wait.” 

A comparison of Isaiah 64:4 and 1 Corinthians 2:9 reveals that the Apostle Paul interpreted to wait is to love. When the church chose to wait while Pastor Wayne walked in integrity, they chose to love. They chose wisely. After a long vetting process, Wayne became their Senior Pastor, where he learned another valuable lesson. How to successfully guide a church through change. He led his flock of three hundred to a new location where the congregation blossomed to several thousand and continues to grow.  

©Teena Myers 2023