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Page 33 text:
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youns mabd.. have to make some decisions upon graduation. “All of a sudden it became a struggle be- cause I had thought about going into broadcast engineering, thought about going into law, and then I thought about going into teaching also,” he said. “T realized that I was a senior in high school and was going to be in college next year and it was time to start finding out what I was going to do with myself.” Gentry was convinced by several friends and his minister to stay in the church. He became a supp ly preacher for Trigg County, which meant he would preach wherever he was need- ed. He had also begun taking classes at Murray State, but after one semester, he transferred to Western. He took a job during that summer as the youth minister at Edgewood Baptist Church in Hopkinsville. “For the first time, I had gotten my feet wet as a minister,” he said. “‘I knew what it was like -by myself. I didn’t have anybody to run to. It was just me.”’ When he returned to school in Bowling Green he was approached by Dr. Rollin Bur- hans, pastor of the Bowling Green First Baptist Church, and Di ck Bridges, associate pastor, several times in reference to a ministry avail- able at the Emmanuel Baptist Chapel, a First Baptist mission church. In November 1976, he accepted the job. “I knew the situation was not good there, and I really got scared,” Gentry said. “It had 38 members and it was split 38 ways and I made it split 39 ways.” At his first sermon he was confronted with about 40 faces, half of which belonged to some of his college friends who had come to encour- age him. HOUSECALLS to 91-year-old Era Johnson are one of Gentry’s favorite times, he said. He prays with her at home because she can’t get to the church. “It was depressing that first Sunday. I won- dered if I could do it,”’ Gentry said. “Some of them wondered if they could trust a 20-year- old pastor.” For the first four months, Gentry was consis. tently getting about 15 people. Twice he got 11, and he was at the point of quitting. He cried when he told Dr. Burhans about it, but the older pastor gave him a pep talk that bolstered Gentry’s confidence. The church’s atmosphere improved. There were still small numbers, but his work became more enjoyable and the numbers no longer bothered him. “Preaching gives me a sense of personal satisfaction, but during the two years as a pas- tor I have discovered there are two things you’ve just got to do — prepare two sermons a week — and sometimes it becomes a burden. I just don’t have time to write the sermons being a full-time student,” he said. But he gets help from volunteers, including two students: Tommy Katzman, the music min- ister and a Bowling Green senior; and organist Sherry Gardner, a Louisville junior and Gen- try’s girlfriend. “Youth is what Emmanuel needs,” he said. “They need somebody who’s excited, some- body who’s fired up, somebody who really believes in what they’re doing and I believe in what I’m doing. “Some of the things that I do with those people make them think that I am just a little bitty kid, but then there are times that they look at me as a respectable adult.” “Jimmy is awful good, but I think years will do him better,” admitted Sidney Gregory, a member of Emmanuel since its establishment in 1955. “He’s an awfully good minister, never sees a stranger.” Gentry prides himself with visiting people who can’t get to church, and he hopes his congregation will pick up his ways. DURING A PRAYER meeting at Gentry’s house, Gentry and Richard Smith go over a section of the Bible which was being discussed that evening. “The goal I want to see is for Emmanuel people to walk up to somebody in a tactful way — and I don’t mean just come out and say, ‘Are ye saved? Are ye going to hell?’ — but in a genuine, tactful way, be able to say to someone ‘What’s the Lord doing in your life? I want to share with you what he’s doing in my | life.’ I really think that Christ expects Chris- | tians to witness, but I believe he expects us to use tact in doing it.” Gentry said in November that he expected to graduate in May and enroll in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. But he said he hopes to preach at Emmanuel on the weekends. “Things are just now happening at Em- manuel,”’ he said. “‘I don’t feel I need to leave yet.” LJ NOAH and the flood are discussed by Gentry and his Sunday School class. The students in his class range from 12 to 20 years old. FIVE-YEAR-OLD Ear! Smith gets a handshake and a few words from Gentry after a Sunday morning service. Gentry said one of his primary goals is getting to know the people at Emmanuel. 29 Bro. Jimmy Gentry
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