I was honored last Thursday, March 31, 2011, to serve as one of the speakers at the funeral service for Dr. William Greathouse. The Greathouse family told me stories that I attempted to weave together and present. I want to take a personal freedom here and tell you some of my experience with Dr. Greathouse. When I was a young pastor in North Carolina, I asked Dr. Greathouse and his first wife, Ruth, to come home with me from District Assembly. I wanted him to preach in the morning worship service and to dedicate our new baby boy, Brady Justin. It was September of 1978 and Plymouth had never had a general superintendent visit before. Dr. G spent the Sunday School hour in my office and wrote notes on index cards and stuck them into books. He told me how much he admired my breadth of reading and encouraged me to continue. I still have the cards. He performed the dedication ceremony for Brady and sent us a New Testament later with Brady’s name. He came to our house for lunch and sat in the living room while the meal was put on the table. He took his shoes off, put his feet up in the recliner, and conversed with everyone from living room to kitchen. It was the beginning of my thinking he was one of the greatest men I knew. I never considered that I would have the opportunity to be his pastor someday. However, he and Ruth followed Mark and Jan here and joined HCN in the year 2000 with Ted and Becky. When Ruth died in 2002, Dr. Greathouse was sad. He ate breakfast with me one morning at Cracker Barrel in Mt. Juliet and a young waitress by the name of Connie waited on us. I had performed the ceremony to marry Connie and her husband and when she came up to our table, she kissed me on the forehead. Dr. Greathouse looked at her and asked if he could have one of those too. So, she kissed him on the forehead. Not too many years later, he married Judy so she could do the kissing. In the last ten years, Dr. G has become a great friend and mentor and coach. He has taught me theology and influenced everything I believe about worship. He was a constant encourager. On most Sundays, he would embarrass me with praise. He never corrected me. He was a constant learner, reader and generally when he got a book, he got me one. He has given me more books than any other person in my life. He talked to me on the phone at least three times per week. He would call and apologize for taking my time and I would think of all the Nazarene preachers I knew who would have given their right hand to have him call them once. He prayed for me every day. He told me he did. He was humbly accountable. A man of his age and credentials did not need to report to me. But he did. When he was out-of-town, he told me where he had gone and how he had missed being at his church. He was the first person with a checkbook out to support whatever the church was doing. His love for people and friendships cast a wide net in first service. He loved Arch Dobson, a seasoned military veteran. He called Arch on the phone the last week of his life and told him goodbye. He loved Rhea McCoy, a single mom of three teenage sons. He and Judy took her out to eat lunch weeks ago. I think I speak for all of us when I say, we trusted him. He trusted us. And we loved each other. We will look forward to meeting again at God’s house. I bet he already has his shoes off.
The United States Military Academy Prep School held its end of the year football banquet in Ft. Monmouth, NJ, on February 17, 2011. Coach Tom Semi presented Brady Earnhardt with three awards: Team Captain, Special Teams Captain, and Screaming Eagle (heart award). Coach describes Brady as “an outstanding leader.” Brady played six different positions this past season on offense and defense and special teams. Their season ended with a 7-3 record. Congratulations to Brady.
Logan Dalton is enjoying an outstanding season playing outfield for the Volunteer State Community College Baseball Team. Vol State competes in the TCCAA and NJCAA playing teams across Tennessee and Kentucky. In recent games, Logan batted 3 for 5 with two RBIs and a run scored in the victory; a walk-off hit in a game he went 3 for 3; hit a homerun after the team brought in a lefty pitcher to face him. See his photo on the glass board outside the Center.
Hannah Garrett raced in the Quarter Midgets this weekend at Carthage for the Tennessee Valley Quarter Midget Association. She set a track record in Heavy Honda. It is the first track record for this class. She won Heavy Honda and came in second in Heavy 160. Hannah runs a decal in memory of Bobby Shankle on each car. Congratulations to Hannah.
Brian Brinkman returned to Tennessee in the middle of a storm after a week of mission in Honduras. Brian traveled there with a team from DCA. We looked forward to hearing his stories. We are glad he is home safely.
For most of my life in the Church of the Nazarene, special mission offerings were received at Thanksgiving and Easter. I know it sounds extreme, but it is the truth. As a young pastor, I went to the bank to borrow the amount of money I wanted to give in an Easter offering. Supporting world missions is a major piece of what we do at HCN. Would you begin to think of sharing a significant offering on Easter Sunday for missions? We have goals to meet by the end of May but it would be freeing to see what we could do without a hoop to shoot.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Howard
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