When I was called to serve as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman, one of the very first persons to call and congratulate me was Tom Goodman. Tom served as Senior Pastor of FBC prior to my arrival. His reaching out with warm words about the church and the call was an indication of his grace and class.
One of the things pastors should take the opportunity to do when they come to a new church is talk with members about the previous pastors. It’s a bit like examining rings on a tree. Pastors leave rings in the church, sometimes wide, sometimes narrow. The church absorbs those periods as part of her growth. The incoming pastor may learn many helpful and endearing things by learning about the men who came before. In the case of Tom Goodman, I learn and continue to learn how much he loves the church, the gospel, evangelism, and people. It’s been fun getting to know Tom a bit. He’s been down to preach for us, and many from his church led our VBS a couple years back. He’s a brother and a fellow laborer in the gospel. So, I want to take a moment to introduce him to some of you.
1. Tom, where are you from originally?
I hail from Montgomery, Alabama, but at 11 my father’s federal position moved us to the Philippines, then Virginia, and then Maine, before settling in Houston, Texas. Since Diane and I met in Houston and our parents are still there, we call Houston “home.”
2. Were you raised in a Christian home? If so, what was your early church experience like? Tell us how you became a Christian?
I was blessed to be raised by Christian parents. In fact, I remember that several of our summer family vacations revolved around trips to Ridgecrest (a Southern Baptist conference center near Asheville, NC) so my parents could develop their skills as Sunday School leaders. My dad still teaches Sunday School (in the class where my in-laws attend, in fact).
I was convinced of my need for Christ at the age of 8 and was baptized at Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
3. When and how did you decide to enter pastoral ministry? How long have you been in pastoral ministry?
I felt a call to the preaching ministry at the age of 12 while my family lived in the Philippines. It had a wonderful clarifying effect on my adolescence to know what I should prepare for. I began to preach at 19, as a Baylor University sophomore (and newlywed). I am now 49, and I’ve been at the gospel plow for 30 years.
4. How long have you been at your current church? Tell us about the church? About Austin? And how has the labor gone so far? What fruit is the Lord bearing in the people of the church so far?
I just passed my seventh anniversary at Hillcrest Baptist Church. Though in Texas, Austin has more in common with, say, Seattle, than with Dallas or Houston. It’s a magnet for the young, single, educated, and secular. That said, our congregation has been here for 85 years, and is generationally-diverse. As a very typical example, on Tuesday this week I will visit a young couple in their 20s whose baby has just arrived and on Wednesday I will lead the memorial service for a saint who died in his 90s. The diversity in age is our congregation’s greatest strength and greatest challenge–from what to spend money on to what style of music “connects” to what sermon topics spark attention. Recently I started my third multi-generational men’s breakfast group: For each group I enlist 2 young men, 2 middle-aged men, and 2 senior men whose only assignment is to meet together for breakfast once a month. I plan to keep forming the groups until every man is connected. I was touched the other day to see a man in his 90s enrapture a group of younger men in his breakfast group with his memory of watching the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima during WW2. There are certainly “hipper” churches in town attracting many younger adults, and thank God for them. But the younger men we’ve pulled in to our congregation seem to be looking for the wisdom and “rootedness” from men old enough to be their dads and grandpas.
5. Before going to Hillcrest, you served as senior pastor here at FBC. I’ve been helped by your encouragements and conversation from time to time. Any words of counsel you might offer to pastors considering leaving a charge, and those who have opportunity to encourage a pastor that’s followed after them? Things to do? Things to avoid?
My season of ministry where you currently serve was a dear time for me and I look back on it fondly. As for things to do and things to avoid when a pastor leaves, I’d say the most important thing is to get out of the way of the incoming pastor. Of course, that’s easy for me to say, considering that I largely agreed with the decisions the FBC elders made during the long interim and the decisions you made with them after your arrival. But when we pastors move from a place and a people we loved, its often a great temptation to be “helpful” with advice on how to handle the ongoing work. Avoid that kind of “help”! I have followed pastors who left well and others who couldn’t quite “leave.” Believe me, it’s easier to follow a pastor who leaves when he leaves.
6. Having been in pastoral ministry for a while, what things would you want to pass along to younger pastors that you wish you knew when you were starting out?
What is “the lay of the land” in your place of service? That’s not a reference to geographical terrain and it’s not about driving without need of Google Maps. A “lay” is an old English term for a song, particularly a tale set to music. “The lay of the land” revealed what a people regarded as heroic, or tragic, or comic, about their region. Until we really hear–and sing–the lay of the land to which God has called us, we won’t be as effective as we need to be. It’s such a waste trying to impress our peers, trying to emulate the success of other pastors in other settings, or wishing we were hearing another “lay” from another “land.” Learn the lay of your land. And start singing it yourself.
7. What aspect of ministry is particularly dear to you as a pastor? What gets your juices flowing?
What I love most about ministry is seeing what an educator once called “The Aha! Moment”–that moment when the light bulb comes on, conviction settles in, and changes start taking place. And I’m referring to “Aha! Moments” at every stage of spiritual life. I love it when lay leaders reach it when they’ve been resisting a needed change in the church and they finally “get” what I’ve been trying to say. Likewise, I love it when a long-time believer has an “Aha! Moment” when she or he finally “gets” some aspect of spiritual truth that leads them to the next stage of spiritual maturity. But I admit that my favorite “Aha! Moments” come when the puzzle pieces finally fall in place for a spiritual seeker and they finally “get” the gospel–or I guess its better to say they finally begin what is really a lifelong process of “getting” the implications of the gospel. I know that referring to someone as a “seeker” has fallen out of fashion like an old tie (well, like any tie at all!). But on the authority of Acts 17:27, I want to retain that good biblical word. More than that, I want to make sure we consciously, deliberately expect spiritual seekers to be part of our pastoral ministries. If we have no inquirers attending our sermons and our small-group Bible studies, we’re doing it wrong. Tim Keller has said so much about this in his advice to pastors.
Tomorrow, Lord willing, we’ll talk more with Tom about his book, The Anchor Course, evangelism, and a way you may be able to encourage and help Tom in both.