When there is trouble, he enters into the situation, ready to help.
When there’s a party, a ring of laughter surrounds him.
When there is failure, he brings clarity and hope.

He preaches with passion.
He lives to tell stories.
He sings from his toes.

He used to be a long-haired surfer dude,
the delinquent son of the math teacher,
a doubtful outcome.

Then God snatched him from the waves,
set him on dry ground,
and redirected his life.

He teaches Logic and other subjects,
but mainly he is a docent of humanity,
explaining how life works.

It’s funny: his recap of a movie
is invariably better
than the movie itself.

If Pastor Terry and Yente the Matchmaker
lived in the same town,
Yente would go out of business.

His kids talk to him. Often.
He finds any excuse to visit them,
constructs play kitchens for his granddaughters.

He can read Greek and Hebrew;
but he’s even better at reading people.
Approachable. Winsome. Accessible.

He pastors pastors,
near and far,
giving a lift with encouraging words.

We know other churches would love to have him.
But right now—and for the last two decades—he belongs to us.
The Shire is his home.

 

 

He likes to talk. He’s very good at it.
Sometimes the stuff comes out funny.
Sometimes it comes out clear.
Sometimes it comes like a freight train.
But it is always good.

 

•Show up to life everyday!

• Get off your attitude.

• Life is so daily.

• God hit me like a plunger between the eyes.

• Does the glove get muddy or the mud get glovey?

• Raising children is like pouring concrete: you only get one shot.

• You never know what can happen in a day.

• Don’t be old and alone.

• A litnis test

• Our goal is generational fruit:
to see our children’s children walking with the Lord.

• Never despise the day of small beginnings.

•We know there is a balance somewhere…
we see it every time we pass by,
swinging from one extreme to the other.

• Idle hands are the devil of a workshop.

• Repent as loudly as you sin.

• Take off the uniform and stop playing church.

• God isn’t up in heaven, wringing His hands,
wondering what to do next.

• Grab him by his circumcision. [He meant to say baptism.]

• Is your marriage dead?
God does dead.
He loves resurrections.

• When God redeemed me, He was pursuing you. [said to his children]

 

 

 • Unity, order, progress.

• If you really love her, you wouldn’t marry her!
[tongue in cheek advice in courtship]

• God’s story includes you.

• If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

• Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

•When someone criticizes you and calls you a blockhead,
respond with “You don’t even know the half of it!”

 Thank you, Pastor Terry, for your work and your words on our behalf.