PART 2: THE PASTOR’S LIFE AND MINISTRY

His Motivation
1)   The Word

       
Every part of the Bible was important to my father and his teaching. He was compelled by this passage, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
       
He read the Bible daily and always completed reading it through each year. He not only read it for himself, but He taught his people to read it daily. He believed in the continuity of the Word—that is, that the Bible all fit together to make one complete and beautiful picture of the finished world of Jesus Christ. He saw and preached Christ in every book from Genesis to Revelation.
       
I particularly remember when he preached through the Book of Leviticus and in his message gave the picture of the two birds. One bird was sacrificed and the blood spilt. The other bird was dipped in that that blood and allowed to go free. They provided a picture of the blood of Christ shed on Calvary for us. We were washed in the blood and set free to walk in newness of life (see Lev. 14:51-53; 17:11; Heb. 10:8-18). 

2)   Winning sinners to Christ
       
My father always gave an invitation following each sermon he preached. His motto was that you never knew whose heart the Holy Spirit had been working in that week. For this reason, he never failed to give them an opportunity to come to Christ. His messages were not long or repetitious, nor were his invitations long, but many came to Christ through them.

3)   Missions
       
My father’s heart also had a passion for missions, to send missionaries to all parts of the world. Africa was especially heavy on his heart.

His Plan
1) Organization

       
Pastor Hawkins was an extremely organized man. Keep in mind that at this time there were few assistant pastors, your directors, paid music directors, secretaries, or salaried Christian education workers.  This was a church ranging in attendance from 500 to over 1000 on special occasions. So his time and work were al organized. He began in his about 8:30 a.m. His first appointment was kneeling beside his office chair and talking to God. There was no telephone or secretary in the church to interfere. Then he began to study. His preaching covered every book in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
       
One morning of the week he prepared and typed (seek and peck method) his message for the following Sunday morning. Another day he spent his study time preparing his message for the Sunday evening service. The third day was preparing His Sunday school notes and outlines for all Sunday school teachers to use. These studies were also book-by-book through the Bible. This he taught to the teachers in the Tuesday night Bible study.
       
About 11:30 a.m. he closed the office and often drove to pick up a few groceries before going home for lunch at noon. Sometimes he helped to get the lunch. Following lunch, he made calls to the sick—often to the hospitals. He never called on just the people who attended his church, but he made himself known to every person in the hospital room and always asked permission to pray for each one. Many times he led strangers to Christ in the sick rooms.
       
After his calling time in homes (about 3:00 or 3:30 p.m.), he would often pick us up at high school for a ride home (about a two-miles distance). Then he would sit down in his plain old rocking chair before the radio with his Bible in hand to go over his notes for his evening appointment and to read the Scriptures. The radio, incidentally, was always tuned to the Chicago Cubs baseball gave.
       
After dinner there were the evening services or seminary classes which closed out the day.

2) Weekly Schedule
       
Sunday prefaced Sunday morning and evening. Monday night he taught at the Mishawaka Missionary Seminary. Tuesday night was general Bible study, especially for teachers of the Sunday school. The whole Sunday school was teaching the same Scripture prepared for them in the Whole Bible Lesson Helps which he prepared himself each week.
       
Wednesday night he preached at the mission for the needy, especially for the homeless men (whom we used to call “hobos” in those days). Thursday night was prayer and praise service. Friday night was a class in the Mishawaka Missionary Seminary again. I can never remember my father lying down to take a nap during the time of his active ministry.       

3) Ministries
       
He conducted many funerals. Hardly a week went by without at least one funeral. We used to vacation at my grandparents, the same Porters in North Chester, Michigan. I remember during one vacation period of three weeks, he was called home six times for funerals.
       
Prayer meetings were times to remember. Everyone who was a Christian was supposed to give some word of testimony. My dad used to say, “It’s easier to testify before the world if you testify before your fellow Christians. So if someone didn’t testify and Dad knew the person was a Christian, he didn’t hesitate to call on them. It didn’t have to be a long testimony.
       
Then there were the prayer sessions when several prayed. Long prayers were not encouraged. Dad had graduated from Moody bible Institute where D.L. Moody told the story of the man who prayed so long that Moody said, “While our brother is finishing his prayer, we will sing #201.” Incidentally, there were about ten times or more people in prayers meeting in those days than I see in many churches today.
       
I remember the Easter Sunday when we had over 1,000 in Sunday school. That Sunday thirteen came forward to receive Christ as Savior.
       
There were no youth workers. Our youth group walled B.Y.P.U., which stood for Baptist Young Peoples Union. The young people elected their own officers—president, vice-president, etc., and met together to plan their own programs. They made their own schedules of who was to speak, lead the singing, thus planning their own meetings as well as parties and recreation activities. It was excellent training in leadership.
       
My dad founded and for many years operated the Mishawaka Missionary Seminary, which was an abbreviated study of subjects taught at Moody Bible Institute. This was a local evening school which was started to prepare preachers and missionaries for future service.
       
Many young people were dedicating their lives to Christ, and Dad felt it was necessary for them (both the young and middle aged) to have further study of the Word of God and how to present it to others. Those were the days of the Great Depression, and going away to study as a place such as Moody Bible Institute was often not possible. That’s why he started the evening seminary. At one time, there were fourteen who were going out to various field of appointment, either to overseas missionary work or to a pastorate.