Prestonwood Baptist pastor Jack Graham calls pastoring the world’s worst profession but the greatest calling

Jack Graham never set out to build a megachurch and does not like the term, according to a profile by Sam Hailes. Under his leadership as senior pastor, which began more than three decades ago, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, has grown to a membership of 45,000, making it one of the largest congregations in America. The interviewer described the campus as sprawling, with an auditorium that seats 8,000, and said the building has more in common with a sports stadium than a traditional church.

Graham, who is 72, leads the church’s radio studio and a teaching ministry called PowerPoint, which the article notes has no connection to Microsoft. His sermons are broadcast in 113 nations. The interviewer noted that Graham received considerable criticism for serving on the former president’s religious advisory council, and said Graham responded to questions about Donald Trump only mildly. Graham told the interviewer that he begins each morning in prayer and Bible study. The interviewer also reported Graham’s view that being a pastor is “the world’s worst profession” but “the greatest calling in life,” and Graham attributed the church’s growth to a “can do” spirit and to a belief that God can do more than the congregation imagines.

The interview turned to Graham’s personal history. He said his father, who ran a hardware store, was bludgeoned in 1970 by a shoplifter who entered the store, and that he died ten days later. Graham, then a 20-year-old college student and young preacher, said he went to a chapel inside the hospital and prayed, and that he left the room changed. He said he did not experience visions or hear angels, but believed God used that experience of brokenness. He also said his mother, widowed in her forties, developed chest pains soon afterward, and that he believed she died of a broken heart.

Graham described the man convicted of the killing as 24 years old at the time and sentenced to life in prison. He said his family was told the man would not be eligible for parole for 40 years. Graham said the family initially chose not to follow the case. About four or five years before the interview, he said, he looked into what had happened and learned that the man had been released after a short sentence. Graham said the family does not know why the release occurred. He estimated the man served about 17 years and said that within a year of release the man died of leukaemia. Graham said he did not know God’s purpose in those events, but that the family chose not to become embittered and to bring both their grief and their anger to God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Asked whether this experience helps when he counsels people to forgive, Graham said it does. He cited the scriptures describing God as the source of comfort and said his experience with grief, loss and forgiveness gives him credibility when he preaches on those passages. “Had I chosen to be bitter and angry the rest of my days, God could not have used me as he has,” he said.

Source: Read the original report