It Is Over!

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 8/13/2007

It was my privilege to serve as the Master of Ceremonies at a special service held by South Park Baptist Church in Fort Worth to recognize our pastor, Gaylan Henry for serving fifty years as senior pastor of the church. Considering many pastors move from church to church rather frequently, reaching the fifty-year milestone is a very rare event. It took several months and many people to prepare for the event. The culmination was on August 12, 2007. Now that we are on the other side of the event and looking back at it, I am rather glad that it is over. I am sure that Gaylan Henry is as well.

While I do not know how many people were in attendance, I know that the building was full and there were probably a few people who had less space than they might have liked. Several of those in attendance have had or currently hold positions of leadership within the Baptist Missionary Association of America or the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas, but I think that their attendance had much more to do with the friendship that they have developed with Gaylan Henry over the years than what it had to do with the positions they have reached within our association. While I would like to see the BMA grow, there are some benefits to its current size. It is a much closer knit family than what a larger association might be. A photojournalist from Channel 8 also showed up for the morning service. I am glad that our church made it on the news for something good rather than something bad like so many churches do.

I will say that while I am glad the event it over, Gordon Paulowsky has already said that if Gaylan Henry makes it to seventy-five years as pastor he wants to be on the program. So, someone remind me, twenty-five years from now, when Gaylan Henry is ninety-five, Gordon Paulowsky wants to be on the program.