Patrick Adair: Watching spiritual seeds bear fruit

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Patrick Adair joined the staff at Central Baptist Church in Marshall three years ago and has been the congregation’s pastor for “two years and some change.” From deep in the heart of one Texan, he shares his background and thoughts on church and ministry. To suggest a Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated minister to be featured in this column, or to apply to be featured yourself, click here.

Background

Where else have you served in ministry, and what were your positions there?

Youth minister at First Baptist Church in Waco from 2005 to 2011

Pastor at First Baptist Church in Matador from 2011 to 2014

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Lufkin but consider Palestine my hometown.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I was raised in Denman Avenue Baptist Church in Lufkin, and I responded one Sunday at the age of 7 to the preaching of Dr. Charles Roberts. He encouraged me to speak with my dad, and later that night, my father and I prayed, and I became a follower of Christ.


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 Where were you educated, and what degrees did you receive?

I received a bachelor of arts degree in religion from East Texas Baptist University and a master of divinity degree from Truett Seminary. I currently am working on a doctor of ministry degree from Truett.

Ministry/church

Why do you feel called into ministry?

I was called to ministry at Student Week at Glorieta, N.M., the summer after my freshman year of college. I remember distinctly I was hesitant, because I felt the conviction if I committed to a life of ministry, it would be something I was committing to for life. In that moment, the Spirit reminded me this is also true of committing to follow Christ as Lord, and I made that commitment.    

What is your favorite aspect of ministry? Why?

When seeds that were planted and watered continue to bear fruit. Third John 4 is absolutely true: “I have no greater joy than to hear of my children walking in truth.” To see youth that I taught continue to walk in faith, and to teach others the faith is a tremendous blessing.

In ministry, you often have to wait to see if you are making a difference, and sometimes I long for the kind of work you can evaluate at the end of a day and say, “There, it’s done!” But seeing the results of time and love you have invested pay off—even in youth I was convinced were not listening!—is worth the effort.

What one aspect of congregational life gives you the greatest joy?

Each part of being a minister is a privilege, but the most joyful are baptizing new believers, dedicating babies and children, and officiating weddings. It is a tremendous privilege to be able to speak words of blessing over new life, whether new life in Christ, the promise to raise a child in the faith, or the beginning of a new family.

In a similar way, each time I can open the Bible and tell God’s story is an opportunity for the Spirit to bring new life, a new dimension of Christ-likeness, into people’s lives.  

What one aspect of congregational life would you like to change?

I would like to see more collaboration and less isolation. We should be confident enough in the Spirit who desires us to be unified to see our fellow believers and fellow churches as partners in ministry and not as competitors. This especially is important across racial boundaries.

How has your ministry or your perspective on ministry changed?

I think this quote from Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership sums it up well: “Not too many of us have a vast repertoire of skills to be proud of, but most of us still feel that, if we have anything at all to show, it is something we have to do solo. You could say that many of us feel like failed tightrope walkers who discovered that we did not have the power to draw thousands of people, that we could not make many conversions, that we did not have the talents to create beautiful liturgies, that we were not as popular with the youth, the young adults, or the elderly as we had hoped, and that we were not able to respond to the needs of our people as we had expected. But most of us still feel that, ideally, we should have been able to do it all and do it successfully.”

I still am in the process of laying down expectations for ministry that spring from a worldly definition of “success” and/or my own pride, and learning instead to measure success by being faithful to do what God has called me to do in the place he has called me, with the people he has blessed me to minister to and with.  

How do you expect congregational life to change in the next 10 to 20 years?

My hope is we learn to have a broader vision of congregational health. David Bolin, the minister of music at First Baptist Church in Waco, made a statement once that I never will forget: “Churches are like children. If your child is not growing (or is shrinking!) you know your child is not healthy. But no parent has the goal that their child should be the biggest child in town, or the biggest child they can possibly be. Growing in a healthy way means growing in all ways.”

Too many churches are fixated on size as the only marker of health. We should be focused on growing in maturity, in grace and in love as well as numerically. I hope we can learn that in our congregational life—what I hope and what I expect varies on whether I see evidence such a thing is happening!

If you could launch any new ministry—individually, through your congregation or through another organization—what would it be? Why?

In Marshall, the population has been static for nearly 50 years. The demographics have shifted, however. The Anglo population has declined through moving out of the city limits. The African-American population has stayed relatively stable. The Hispanic population has doubled. There is very little outreach among Baptists to our Hispanic community here relative to the size of the population.

This has been a burden on the heart of Randy Babbin, our Soda Lake Baptist Association director of missions, for a while. I want to see at least one vibrant Hispanic Baptist congregation in Marshall, and all the Baptist congregations of Marshall, whatever their racial makeup, to support it.  

What do you wish more laypeople knew about ministry or, specifically, your ministry?

It is possible there may have been pastors who were over-encouraged. But if so, I have not met any. The Apostle Paul, at the conclusion of his list of trials and troubles in 2 Corinthians 11, which included whippings, beatings and shipwrecks, adds in verse 28: “Apart from such external things, there is daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.” That is no joke.

And even if there have been pastors who were over-encouraged, I am certain there has never been a pastor’s spouse or family who were over-encouraged. Their burden, I believe, is greater than the pastor’s.

Pray for and encourage your pastor’s family, and you will bless your pastor.

About Baptists

What are the key issues facing Baptists—denominationally and/or congregationally?

Oh boy, here we go.

In general, we as Baptists have become committed to drawing “our circle” ever smaller. We dis-fellowship and splinter with our fellow believers, not because we abandon fundamentals of the faith, but because we interpret Scripture on ancillary issues differently.

As one example, I have been blessed to know many excellent women who were called and gifted to ministry, trained and taught in Texas Baptist institutions. But with very, very few exceptions, they have to go outside of Texas, or outside of Baptist life entirely, to use their gifts in the churches.

We are fighting a battle with one hand tied behind our backs. Orthodoxy is, in general, big enough to accommodate churches with different stances on this and other issues. What is required is a spirit of generosity among churches and leaders to validate, fellowship with and serve alongside those who practice church differently, while faithfully following the same Lord.  

What would you change about the Baptist denomination—state, nation or local?

My wish for Baptists applies to evangelicals in general. We have bought into a false dichotomy that has made it possible for us to be easily politically manipulated, rather than insisting our political standards approach the standards of the kingdom of God.

We have one political party that has planted its flag and said: “We have a handle on righteousness. We believe in morals and strong faith.” We have another that has planted its flag and said: “We have a handle on justice. We believe in compassion for the poor, the immigrant and the outcast.”

The kingdom of God does not separate righteousness and justice. It simply cannot imagine one without the other. It cannot imagine a nation insists on personal morality without also being willing to lay down one’s own “rights” for the sake of the poorest among us. It cannot imagine a nation in which social justice exists, but there is little insistence on a personal commitment to living a life of faithful purity. You cannot find a biblical prophet willing to make that trade, in either direction.

The evangelical church has flocked mostly to the party that claims the flag of righteousness, but which has, lately, abandoned even the pretense of a commitment to personal righteousness or strong Christian faith. What is left, then, except blind party loyalty?

The church of God is made of sterner stuff than to be led around by the nose by vain and vulgar political opportunists. We have good news to share and to live out. The word of God is two-edged sword, and it cuts to the left, and it most assuredly cuts to the right.

I would have us evaluate public policy and public figures by the standards of justice and righteousness, and stop being massive hypocrites who pretend we do either. We should celebrate people with the willingness to speak prophetically from a place of moral courage.

Well, you asked!

About Patrick

Who were/are your mentors, and how did/do they influence you?

My father and mother, Tim and Delores Adair, led me to Christ and showed me what faithful Christianity looks like in church, in the workplace and in the home. Doug Washburn was my youth minister for most of my adolescence and demonstrated a commitment to authentic faith and sharing the gospel. Dr. Bob Utley taught me the skill and joy of biblical interpretation.

I have been greatly shaped by the wonderful faculty of Truett Seminary, including Drs. Todd Still, Roger Olson, Angela Reed, Hulitt Gloer, Terry York, Ron Cook, Levi Price and Lai Ling Ngan, and others who have gone on to glory—Drs. Ruth Ann Foster, Bill Treadwell, A.J. Conyers and Frank Pollard. All of these—and others I have inadvertently left out—grew and continue grow in me a love of learning, teaching and leading for the sake of the body of Christ.

Dr. Wallace Watkins has been a wonderful friend and mentor, and the kind of pastor I aspire to be. There have been many others who have encouraged and blessed me generously in so many ways! I have been richly blessed with colleagues who are only a little older than I am, but I look up to as models of courageous and faithful ministry—Drs. Ryan Berryhill at First Baptist Church in Marshall, Taylor Sandlin at Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, Matt Snowden at First Baptist Church in Waco, and Jennifer Garcia Bashaw at East Texas Baptist University. I want to be like them when I grow up.  

What did you learn on the job you wish you learned in seminary?

You can do a lot of pastoral things—preach, teach, counsel, etc.—but each person in the congregation must choose whether they will see you as their pastor. For some, that will happen automatically when you stand in the pulpit. For others, it will be when you stand in their hospital room, and for others, it will be when the Spirit works on them do so.

My part in that dynamic is to keep showing up to do the work of pastor—even in my flawed and haphazard way—and be patient.

The other thing was given to me by Bill Manney, who was the Methodist minister in Matador. He told me: “If you preach less than 20 minutes, people will think you don’t know what you’re talking about. But if you preach more than 45 minutes, people will know you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

What is the impact of ministry on your wife and children?

I prefer for people to meet my wife, Jeni, first, before they meet me. This always helps people have a much higher opinion of me, as they think, “Well he can’t be all bad if she married him.” Fortunately, my daughters, Sheridan and Meagan, take after her. I have been blessed by being a part of churches that have understood and honored that my first commitment is to be a husband and father and then a pastor. That said, I repeat that there never has been a pastor’s spouse or family who was over-encouraged.

Name some of your favorite books (other than the Bible) or authors, and explain why.

There are several books that I keep returning to in my preaching and teaching in order to communicate what the gospel means and how we are supposed to live it out: Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together and C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. N.T. Wright’s Christian Origins and the Question of God series, beginning with The New Testament and the People of God and through to the latest, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, is altogether a robust defense of the historicity of the New Testament, a powerful portrayal of the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and an incredible example of how to present an intellectually sound Christian worldview to the watching world. A shorter work that accomplishes the same things in a very different way is G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, a wonderful book with a terrible title. It should be called The Romance of Orthodoxy, and it is a one-of-a-kind kaleidoscope of an apologetic, philosophical, worshipful defense of the faith encased in an armor of razor-sharp wit.  

 What is your favorite Bible verse or passage? Why?

Romans 8 begins with “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ” and ends with the fact that absolutely nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In between, we discover the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead gives us life, lets us cry out “Abba, Father!” that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of comparison with our future glory as part of new creation, and that the Spirit and the Son intercede for us. That is a whole lot of good news.

Who is your favorite Bible character (other than Jesus)? Why?

I am going to cheat on this question and give a character from Christian history. Saint Patrick was kidnapped from Britain at 16 by Irish pirates, escaped slavery there, became a Christian and a priest, and was then called by Christ to return to the people who had once owned him and preach the gospel to them. He went to an island of bloodthirsty barbarians who literally drank wine out of the skulls of their enemies, and within a generation, the slave trade there was ended and Ireland’s main export to Europe was monks. That guy was something else.

Name something about you that would surprise your church.

If I were not a pastor, I think I really would enjoy being a zookeeper. You can make up your own joke about the similarities and differences here.

To read other “Deep in the Hearts of Texans” columns, click here.


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