Ordination Testimony of Dwight Parker (6/8/08)

"I learned through this experience

not to be afraid to minister.

People rarely want your words;

they need your presence."

Born a Baptist, baptized a Baptist, ordained a Baptist minister and now being ordained a Baptist deacon. I must start this testimony by saying what an interesting, tragic, blessed life I have. 

Born to Leslie and Cordelia Parker in a small town in Owen County, Ky., called Monterey, I was a child who was not a stranger to our Baptist church. We were the family that, when the church doors opened, the Parkers were there, or someone was calling on our 8-party phone line asking what was wrong. The church was as much our home as the house in which we resided. 

I grew up in Sunday school, long sermons by country preachers, dinner on the ground (which was always on tables) and those wonderful summer Vacation Bible Schools where we were fed homemade cookies and red Kool-Aid served in a blue granite canner that was half Kool-Aid/water and the other half sugar. Thus, not a single child was ever diagnosed as hyperactive; we were all hyperactive. I was a child who simply loved church. I loved the smell in the auditorium that consisted of scents of songbooks and the fresh bouquets brought in by our ladies’ reception committee. Every event was celebrated in a grand fashion in this little river town. I was a Sunbeam, an R.A. and attended Training Union regularly, and I remember standing on the riverbank singing He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands in a white robe – indicating we were little angels. Far from it!

I also grew up in a family of social workers. I was taught that the best way of getting over life’s problems was by helping others, whether they were like us or not. I had strong grandparents of great faith who were ever-present in my young life who demonstrated the same committed walk of faith. When I was baptized on August 8, 1965 in a running creek, the chariot did not fly down, nor did the earth shake; I just simply knew that it felt right and my task was to grow a deep, committed life in Christ.

A few years later, I realized why God had blessed me with such a surround of faith. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and died when I was a senior in high school.  The faith gave me some ground on which to stand. I went to nurse’s school at age 14 across from the Old Louisville Baptist Hospital and learned to give shots and administer other medications to my mom so she could stay at home. I did question why such adult things were being plunged upon me at such an early age. I realized that I was in some sort of training, but had no idea what it was. When she died, her Southern Seminary chaplain said, “I was the student and she was the teacher. By her death, she taught me how to live.” This applied to me as well. And in some way, I learned through this experience not to be afraid to minister. People rarely want your words; they need your presence.

I went to college and met a lovely young lady named DeAnna. It seemed all of the people knew my calling before I did. That has been my relationship with God; I seem to be the last to see the things he is doing in my life. After our marriage, I admitted the stir in my heart, and she said, “Well, it’s about time!” I immediately left my curriculum of accounting and went to Georgetown College with a double major in religion and social work, and graduated with a B.A. I was fortunate that I was also able to get seminary work through seminary extension afforded by Southern Seminary to the Kentucky Baptist colleges. I began pastoral duties in my first church in Cynthiana, Ky., while attending Georgetown. Dr. Joe Lewis, my advisor, mentor, religion professor and friend, said this would be the church to break in a minister. Thirteen years later, when I resigned to go to Northern Kentucky, I was broken in. I served 12 years as senior pastor of a full-time church with a full-time staff that allowed me to be bi-vocational. When I resigned from Knoxville Baptist Church in Pendleton County, I had 25 years in the preaching/pastoral ministry.

During the 1990s, I furthered my education at the University of Cincinnati to be a family counselor. This accomplished, I served in the Northern Kentucky area as a counselor, minister and social worker. The winds of change in our Southern Baptist Convention began to deeply disturb me. And it was painfully obvious I needed to move on. Dee and I moved to Lexington in 2001. I retired from state government social work and began to teach at the Academy of Social Work with the Eastern Kentucky University Justice Department. I am currently the assistant director of this program at EKU.

The changes in the convention and not ministering in a church capacity plunged me into a deep, dark place from which I have just recently emerged. The healing balm was indeed God’s faithfulness and his bringing us to Central Baptist Church in 2006. Our first Sunday made it obvious we were among kindred spirits. We knew God had given us back a church that was home and a place to serve. We were invited into the Barnabas class and immediately took up residence where, upon occasion, I teach. Thus, being home when the opportunity to serve as deacon was presented the second time, I knew it was time to say “yes.” I will do my best to serve the pastor and folks at Central Baptist Church.

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DeAnna and I have been married 34 years; we have an adult son, Jody, who resides with us along with his daughter, Sydney. 

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