My Story #21:

 Pastor Ronnie W. Wolfe

This story is not associated with Lexington Baptist College but with Ashland Avenue Baptist Church where I was a member in those day when I attended LBC. This story comes up in my preaching sometimes, and it is one that taught me a good lesson.

In Ashland Avenue's large church there were no weekday ministries held for youth. Being in the Southern Baptist Convention, there was available a program called Royal Ambassadors. I decided that I would start a group of boys to meet one evening per week to study the Bible and to give them the gospel.

The story that I tell here is one concerning one boy whose family were Roman Catholic. He came with some boys who were friends of his. We had some very good discussions about his beliefs, and I explained the gospel to him the best I knew how.

One evening, after he had told me he had trusted the Lord, I asked him to pray for us. I do not remember the exact words that he said, but I will never forget his prayer. He spoke to God as though God were right there in the room. He was not familiar with the prayers of Baptists in which prayers are begun with "Dear Lord" or "Our Father," so he began his prayer with "Well God . . . ." That put a small shock into each of our minds, but we knew that there was nothing wrong with that in itself. He talked to God for a moment or so, and then he closed his prayer. You see, neither did he know how Baptists end their prayers with "In Jesus' name. Amen." So, he just said, "Well, God, that's all," and he just stopped his prayer.

To me this was pleasantly simply and to the point, and I would not be surprised to know that God actually heard this young man's prayer.