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| Northway Church, Dallas, October 2019, Photo by Mike Keith |
My long time friend, Mike Keith, who grew up at Northway Baptist Church of Dallas, took this picture and others recently following a tornado that ripped across Dallas, Richardson and into Garland wreaking great havoc to property but, amazingly, taking no lives. Mike and I first met in the early 70s, while he was working as DJ at a radio station in Mexia Texas, the life-long home of my grandparents. My grandfather had introduced us, saying,
"I have a young man I want you to meet. I think you will like him." He was right. I did. And, as Mike and I talked that day, sharing stories of how two very hip young men might find themselves in the midst of the Mexia Texas culture, he spoke of his home church in Dallas and how, if
"ever I was there I needed to look the church and his father, Bill Keith, up" - "a church and people who loved helping young people interested in serving the purposes of God."
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| Northway Church, from Southeast to Northwest, Oct. 2019, Photo by Mike Keith |
Well, fast-forward a few years, by the long and amazing hand of a providential God, I found myself a member of that very church, as yet unaware of the fact that it was the church Mike had told me about some 4 years earlier. It was an exciting place. And the church's pastor, Billy Weber, was leading the congregation in unparalleled growth reaching hundreds of young single adults - like myself - moving to Dallas to work their first jobs. When Mike posted his pictures on Facebook, in particular this one to the right, I could not help but recall a memory from the summer of 1976, just after my 26th birthday. For right where those yellow curbs are painted, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a rented bus, one filled with children from a local neighborhood where I had gone to pick them up to bring them to the first day of Northway's Summer Vacation Bible School. The bus was packed. The kids were screaming. And, outside its door stood our leader, Children's Minister
Sondra Saunders, who had somehow cajoled me into this duty just hours before.
Like all the Northway staff,
Sondra Saunders - who later became the children's minister of Prestonwood Baptist Church, leading that church to reach literally thousands of children for Christ - was hard-pressed to take no for an answer if/when she believed in something. And, on that Sunday preceding VBS, Sondra believed she needed more volunteers to drive buses and pick up kids the next day. So, she came to me and to many others - placing that sweet hand and pointer finger into my chest to say, "
I need you to drive a bus" "
Tomorrow!" How could I say no! I was a musician, and my only commitment for the next morning was sleep. So, I said, "yes." To which she smiled then walked away adding one thing more -
"Oh - and, if you don't mind, bring your guitar! I may need that too."
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| Larry Pinion, Sam Dennis, summer of 1976, photo taken by Billy Weber |
From there, as they say, the real story begins. For, when I pulled up in front of the church that morning with my bus load full of kids, Sondra came to the open door of my bus to say -
"Sam, I'm sorry. But we don't have enough room for these kids, yet!" "What?" Was my reply, as I sat in the bus looking at her incredulously.
"Don't worry, I just need some time." Then added - '
did you bring your guitar?"And right then and there, on that memorable day, began my journey back. For not only did I sing and play for the children as they remained on my bus, I was asked to add a Bible lesson, too. And everyday thereafter, for VBS 1976, I did the same. For Sondra, like she has for so many others down through the years, became the instrument of God's calling on my life. I had served in churches before - using my 'talents' many times over. But, this time, things seemed different. The faces of the children, the press of the crowd, reminded me of what it must have been like when Jesus walked the earth. When people clamored to see Him, and 'His Followers' would try to 'protect' His time. But this would not be so for Christ, who seemed to always find time for those wanting to see
Him. For I learned that day, as broken as I was, Christ could still - and would - use even me. And that the key to His doing so was not
me at all, but
Him. That I would and could be used by Him when,
and only when, I would be faithful in bringing people to
Jesus. That was Sondra's way - and it was the way of Northway Baptist Church for as far back as then till now.
For I very strongly suspect that Northway church, which for now is meeting somewhere else, will return to this site one day soon. And, like all churches God chooses to use, she well knows that the
loving hand of God truly is... long!
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear." Isaiah 59:11
Indeed,
Pastor Sam
