Ministry – Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus tells His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples and teach those converts everything they have been taught by Him. Someone led you to Jesus. It may have been your parents, grandparents, pastor, friends, or others. A pastor friend of mine accepted Christ after watching a Billy Graham sermon on TV.

After this salvation experience, he was discipled by friends and family. When I met him, we were both in college as ministerial students. Others encouraged both of us to accept our calls to the ministry. After graduation, we went our separate ways. I cannot remember his name, but I know he has discipled many others as I have.

Consider your story. Identify the important people who have led your walk. My father was a licensed minister before I was born. We were raised in church and encouraged to accept Christ at an early age. My brothers and I remained at our home church after our parents and sisters began going to another.

This body was instrumental in my accepting my call to full-time gospel ministry. Sunday School teachers, pastors, friends, and family all discipled me for the next ten years until I graduated from college.

I worked with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board as a summer missionary while still in college and learned a great deal from that experience and the people I worked with for ten weeks. I have used many of the things I picked up that summer throughout my life.

The point I want to make in this column is that we all need help learning how to follow our Lord. Your job as a believer is to assist your brothers and sisters in Christ. Others are there for you. That is the idea of service that Jesus taught His disciples.

We all should think of the folks that we are familiar with and how we can guide them into a deeper relationship with our savior. Prayer, Bible study, and fellowship are all methods that can be utilized.

Jesus said, “As you go, make disciples, teaching them everything you know, immersing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Educate them in what Holy Spirit teaches you. I hope this column is a small help to you as you grow.

Land of the Yankees

July 26, 2025

Yes, I am referring to Pennsylvania as the home of the Yankees, not the Phillies. I am from southwest Missouri. Sometimes referred to as the Ozarks. We are hillbillies and definite southerners. Travel another hour or two north in our state, and that statement is not true.

When Marianne asked me for my favorite foods, I shared that they were brown beans and cornbread. The ladies of the churches had no problem with the beans. Cornbread threw them, though. This was before Paula Dean and other southern chefs were all over the cable networks.

There was a white bread that had whole kernel corn floating in the loaf at most dinners I was invited to attend. Apparently, only one woman in the church had a recipe called Corn Bread, and that was it. When I enquired about this dish, I was told this. I explained the recipe for our cornbread, and it was told to me that it was called Johnny Cake. That is a Yankee name for sure.

During the summer, a church from North Carolina came to help us with backyard Bible clubs and a revival. When they arrived on their bus, I found out that I would have to translate for the students. The girls had the same challenge. Fortunately, we were all schooled in both southern and northern dialects.

Bradford is five miles from the New York State line, and Buffalo, New York, is one hundred miles north. I was able to travel to Buffalo and Niagara Falls twice during the summer. In one of the museums, I read about the last person to survive going over the falls. He was a young boy at that time, and I realized that we were the same age.

When it was time to return home, I was taken to Bradford airport and boarded a plane for Pittsburgh. I chose to fly home because I wanted to return as soon as possible. From Pittsburgh, we went to St. Louis, and I was supposed to have a one-hour layover. Once inside the terminal, I looked at my watch and I had five minutes to go halfway across the facility.

When I arrived at the gate five minutes late, I saw a clock on the wall. My watch was set to Eastern Time, and I was now in the Central Time zone. I still had my hour. This was my first time flying, and I loved all three legs of the trip to Springfield.

We celebrated my birthday that first night back. I was twenty when I boarded the bus and twenty-one when I boarded the plane in Bradford. I opened my presents, and Cindy and I went out to a movie. Don’t ask me what we saw. All I saw was her.

I’ve spent the last fifty years enjoying looking at her every day. Those ten weeks apart from her made me push to plan our wedding after I had graduated the next spring. Two weeks after the wedding, my job moved us. I knew that it could happen, and that was why we had to get married. I never wanted to be away from her again.

This was my first and only opportunity to be a church pastor. My ministry has been working as a workplace minister. My congregation was the people I encountered at my job. This wasn’t always just fellow employees. It was customers, vendors, and management at all the companies I worked for and visited.

Today, you are the ones that I want to benefit from everything I have learned during my lifetime. Fifty years of business experience, church membership, and Bible study are at your disposal. Thanks for logging in.

The summer of 1975

January 26, 2025

In 1975 I traveled farther than I had ever gone. I rode a Continental Trail Ways Bus from Springfield, MO to Harrisburg, PA. I left Missouri on a bright morning and by the next afternoon had checked into a hotel with over a hundred college and high school students from all over the United States. We were there for orientation to the Student Summer Mission Program of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Leaving home wasn’t that hard. I spent the last semester of school in a dormitory on campus in Bolivar. That is about thirty miles north of my home. Ron, my roommate, and I got along well, and we both went home every weekend. He went to Waynesville and I to Springfield. He had transferred to Southwest Baptist College that year as a junior from the University of Missouri, Rolla campus. I did the same thing from Southwest Missouri State University. He was a mechanical engineering student, and my major was creative writing. I was going to go to the University of Missouri at Columbia before God called me to the ministry. Ron’s plans were changed by God, also, before we met.

During the first week of my first semester, I saw signs around campus promoting the Summer Missionary Program. I filled out the paperwork and applied. We would find out if we had been accepted after the new year.

That year, I met many new people, not all of them at college. I went to church one Wednesday evening for dinner and joined a youth excursion to a haunted house. At church, I met a cute little high school girl. As we waited in line at the haunted house, we began holding hands, and I made myself available to comfort her when she was frightened.

I failed to ask for her phone number that night. I later asked the girl she had attended with for her number, and we began dating. When I received my acceptance for the summer and learned I would be going to PA I wondered about leaving her for ten weeks.

When I left in June 1975, we were engaged. We wrote letters—yes, I know that is old-fashioned—and spoke on the phone. I missed her terribly. I returned in August; I had decided that by next summer, we would be married. I was graduating in the spring and did not know if I would be going to seminary or where God would take me.

I took a part-time job in February of 1976 and was offered a full-time management trainee position two weeks before graduation. Two weeks after our wedding I was told they needed me to move to Joplin, Missouri. Cindy was still in high school. I left for Joplin on a Sunday evening and stayed in a hotel. She joined me on Friday after she quit her summer job.

I was so glad to have her in my arms again. She graduated in December, and we returned to Springfield in August of 1977. Over the years I have been asked why we did not wait until she finished school to be married. My answer is simple. I did not want to be away from her like I had been the previous summer.

I did not know that God intended me to move so close to home. I thought I might be going hundreds of miles away again. I had considered Dallas, TX, Kansas City, or even California for Seminary. That was not God’s plan. I did not need a master’s or doctorate. I needed to learn to be a workplace minister.

The question is sometimes asked by teenagers, “How do you know when you are in love?” For me, I knew that summer. I never wanted to be away from her again. I’ve gone on short mission trips of about a week. I’ve traveled for training and my job. Ten days was the longest we have been apart in fifty years.

Shortly after I accepted the call to full-time Christian service, my pastor told me to carefully select the woman I would marry. When I transferred to SWBC (Southwest Bridal College), I dated several girls. I prayed for each one. Was she the one I should marry? I do not believe I ever asked God about Cindy. I knew I had to spend my life with her.

If you are looking at major changes in your life this year, graduating, moving, or changing jobs, be sure that you are seeking the Lord’s will. Nineteen Seventy-Four was a pivotal year for me. God told me He wanted my life, and I gave it to Hum. Is this the year you should do the same?

50 years ago

July 9, 2024

Do you like nostalgia? I do. I like to think about everything I have experienced in the almost seventy years I have lived. This is not a column on the events of those decades I have lived through. I want to talk about where I was fifty short years ago.

I was a sophomore at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. It was called Southwest Missouri State University at that time. I was a creative writing major because they had no journalism program. In May I received my acceptance letter from Missouri University in Columbia.

My parents were surprised at my reaction to receiving that letter. I opened it and laid it down without saying any more than, “I’ve been accepted.” For over six years I had been talking about getting my degree and becoming a reporter. My love of writing grew through those years.

What happened? Why did I transfer to Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri? God called me to become a minister of the Gospel. In March my youth pastor had asked me to serve as our pastor for youth week. I preached my first two sermons on Sunday morning and evening. I had never considered the ministry before this.

As I recovered from my week following our pastor around Springfield I began to wonder if my desire to become a reporter was what God wanted me to do with my life. Was it possible that Jesus was calling me to become a preacher? As I prayed about that, I asked if I should continue to plan for transferring to Columbia.

My decision was made early in the spring, and I transferred to SWBC to study for the ministry. I thought I was supposed to become a pastor. After graduation, I continued working at secular jobs. I realized that my calling was to be a workplace minister. That is a Christian who works inside businesses with a calling to serve his fellow employees.

My careers in purchasing, sales, and management allowed me to have contact with numerous businesses and their staff. Becoming a confidant and advisor to those around you is not always easy. My training as an interviewer and observer helped me in this regard.

After fifty years, I continue to train other Christians to be workplace ministers. You could be one of those. We are all called to be there for each other and to proclaim the gospel to everyone we can. The best way to do this is through a personal one-on-one relationship. That is how Jesus taught His followers. That’s good enough for me.

HIGHWAY & HEDGES MINISTRY

November 7, 2023

In forty years of ministry, it has often been asked, “You’re a minister? Which church do you pastor?” The explanation is often difficult. Not all ministers are pastors of churches. When the calling came, it was to full-time gospel ministry. That was a term that had a lot of possibilities.

At the time, the pastorate was the assumption. Music ministry is not this Christian’s gift. My passion was for the written word. God could not use that. Or could he? Lesson plans have been conceived, drawn up, and used. They were not published, yet. Plays, skits, monologues, etc. have been created and performed. Once again they have not been published as yet. Articles have been written and published, but just in the past fifteen years.

Full-time does not necessarily mean that you make your living by it. As the road has taken a salesman to different locations, ministry has been accomplished. As others came to a purchasing agent or manager, the same has happened. Stories about these encounters are numerous. Some are shared in “Doulos”, others have yet to be written down. You may see these in later pieces.

Ministry by definition is difficult to pin down. A cup of cold water is a ministry. A kind word or listening ear may be another. A bowl of stew or other nourishment may be another way to serve some. A listening ear and shoulder to cry on is another way to help.

Another thing I have learned is that every believer is a minister. Accepting this call may seem difficult for many people. I remember the days when I could not speak to people without having my knees knock together. When I accepted the call to serve, I struggled with being the kind of person Jesus could use.

Because I expected to be bivocational, after college I went into secular business. Christians in the workplace can be good employees. They can also be available for prayer and listening to difficulties. Training is not needed for most of us to be friends.

Jesus told a parable about those invited to a wedding feast. When the servants returned to the groom’s father and said that none of the invited guests would come to the dinner, they were instructed to go into the highways and hedges and bring in anyone who would come. That may be your ministry. People from work or school need comfort or help. Those standing in line at Wal-Mart may need a smile or a “good” joke. Ministry is not hard, but it can be challenging. What is your challenge?

It’s beginning to look a lot like marketing

December 30, 2022

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9yeWK97Hyv4

This is a time of year that we often hear the statement that Jesus is the reason for the season. Originally, December 25^th was the date for a celebration of a pagan winter holiday. When the emperor of the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, he allowed the change of holidays to keep the people happy and alter the focus from debauchery to a form of holiness.

Yes, I said a form. Many of our traditions have been taken from other cultures and nations. The evergreen tree, ornaments, lights, the nativity scene, and gift-giving. According to our current culture, gifts began with wise men. Gold, myrrh, and frankincense are what they brought.

Today, the candy, toy, floral, electronics, and clothing industries use this concept of sharing with others to make a profit. They are not the only people who use the holidays to earn money. Christmas and New Year are not the only times of year to sell these products as well as food, alcoholic beverages, and decorations.

After graduating from college with a degree in Religious Education I was looking for a job that would support my wife and I. She began a position in direct marketing with a man from our church. He sold funeral supplies.

Yea, I had not realized that there was a market for clothing, flowers, and sundries for this field of endeavor. He was creating a catalog with new products and a unique line of items he was importing from Europe. They were not easily marketable to his current clientele. He needed photographs and a marketing strategy that was different from what he did at that time.

My experience as a photographer aided me in acquiring the position of marketing director. It lasted as long as it took me to create the new marketing materials and a ten-year plan. While my job ended after six months, my knowledge of marketing that I had gained for the effectiveness of this program has remained.

I wish I had written this commercial.

I have added to it with over forty years of sales and purchasing experience. I know that July is when you must order Christmas products. Spring brings its own marketing strategy for clothing, vacation plans, and outdoor supplies.

Christmas has been expanded to a time to market not just products but the not-for-profit industry. I am talking about what was once called charities. For 19 dollars a month you can help children with medical problems, the homeless, disabled veterans, animals, and countless other organizations that survive on the American market’s pension for helping others.

Be careful how you help these well-deserving people and creatures. If you want to help abused animals, donate to a local shelter. Do not agree to send money to an organization you have not researched or vetted thoroughly. Help a family that you know is struggling. Do it with kindness and anonymity.

Walk the streets and ask the homeless what they need. It is easy to give money. Can you contribute the time to help one person get back on the track they were following? Do not focus on what you think they should do. Help them make the decisions themselves. Start with your family and friends and let the love spread.

Time is more valuable than cash. Give it liberally to anyone who needs some of yours. If I had a dime for every minute I have given away, I would not just be wealthy. I would be able to help those that I am now reaching.

Do not take this the wrong way. I believe that we all should be in the business of serving others. My ministry has been one of doing what I can for the health and wisdom of others. You are now experiencing the latest incarnation of what Jehovah called me to do. Follow this page and see where He takes me in 2023.

TGIM, Thank God it’s Monday

November 1, 2022

Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Sunday, we had a guest speaker. Our pastor has been sharing the book of Matthew. He began with the upside-down kingdom that Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount.

Our guest minister told us that we should not be focusing on Friday when our work week ends. We should wait for Monday when we get to work and be with our co-workers for the week. That is topsy-turvy at its best.

I remember when I began a new job after twenty-five years with one company. It was my dream job. I was called to be a workplace minister while in college. I told everyone how happy I was to be at work even on a Monday. I had reached burnout at my last employer.

I did not know what that was. All I knew was that God wanted me to be a full-time gospel minister.

I knew I wasn’t to be a music minister. I can’t sing. I have trouble playing the radio. I love to talk. One-on-one is my favorite crowd. In high school, I forced myself to take speech. My first talk almost killed me. I thought that five minutes of talking about myself would never end. In three years, I learned to be extroverted and speak to any crowd.

My listeners may not enjoy it as much as I do. I had to experience public speaking to allow me to be more comfortable when I was called to be a minister. All I knew was preaching and singing. If I was not willing to be a preacher, I would not have viewed myself as a minister.

Now, I can proclaim a call to every Christian to be a minister in the workplace. My friend Jim told me years ago that he had asked God to call him to youth ministry. He was told no. He has spent over fifty years owning his own business. He shows his customers, vendors, and employees what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Where is your place of ministry? We all need to find our calling and where we are expected to serve others. Those will be both believers and unbelievers. Servants must find their pace to be of use. I have heard this for years.

It sounds strange to thank God for Mondays. We should be excited to share our faith. Not just in certain circles or at church. Our jobs are where we spend a third or more of our time. We should also be witnessing, serving, and ministering in this arena.

Time is considered precious by all of us. We must work while we have light. The darkness can be overpowering. When we do our part, the world will be a better place. Enjoy your Monday.

I’m in marketing, you want management

July 30, 2022

I began my career as a full-time gospel minister in the 1970s. I have been studying and learning my trade for over four decades. When I think about where I was then, I am amazed at how little I knew. As I ponder my entry into the presence of God, at the time of my death, in another forty or fifty years, I consider how small my grasp of who God really is. At that time, I will be introduced to Him by those same people who taught me about him sixty years ago.

When I started my journey through God’s word, I was in my teens. My life of service and ministry has taught me a great deal. Years ago, a friend asked me why God did certain things. The question was about why bad things happen to good people. I did not know the answer. I still do not understand everything about Jehovah. My answer to these inquiries is the same as on that day. “I’m in marketing, you want management.”

The ones who are in the upper echelon of every Christian denomination should use the same response. Even the Pope is a representative of Jesus Christ and not the head of the church. We forget that. We try to defend Yahweh and His actions. That is not our job. Our job is to explain what we find in the Bible. I do need to explain to you why things happen the way they do in our world today.

Those are the things that I am still learning from the scriptures. He tells us who He is and why He must work the way He does. My job is to listen to what He says and share those thoughts with you. My ideas are not original. Many others can tell you exactly what I am saying. I may express it differently from others.

Your job is to take what I and other ministers or scholars tell you and check the Bible to be sure we know the Lord the way He reveals himself in the Word. You do not want to believe in Him because of incorrect information. One of the first things I must tell you are some of the things that He will not do when you become a born-again believer.

As a salesman in the secular world, my job was to promote the products I sold. My employer was wrong if he or she wanted me to lie about the advantages of those items. To be able to tell them what it would do and what it would not do I had to study the information that was provided about it. I read specification sheets, technical data sheets, and catalogs. I even looked at them being used by customers and in some cases used them myself to understand how they performed. I have done exactly that for over fifty years with God.

You will not become perfect. That means you will continue to sin. Jesus tells us He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I have learned that if you do not believe this, you are in trouble. If you miss the straight and narrow way He spoke of, you miss Heaven which is where He lives. Not following the Truth means you are following lies. Missing Life will end in eternal death.

This death is a complete separation from Jehovah. Have you felt an emptiness in your soul? Do you ever feel like you are spiritually dead? Our Lord said that we must be born again. That is because the human spirit died in the garden when the original people disobeyed God. You want a life with Him not death without Him.

Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Walk With a Servant

Tag: Ministry

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Who made you a disciple?