My Call to Preach

First: Get some cookies and milk and take a seat.

For years I was told by the elders in my home church, Brown Memorial CME, that I would be a preacher some day. I was always very active in my local church and I believe I’d held every leadership role as a youth in my church. I never gave preaching much of a thought. I just liked church. My family was pretty religious and everyone in my family knew how to pray...lol.

Heck, my first true encounter with God came when I was about 12 years old and I prayed to God, not the usual bed time prayer, but I prayed to God to keep me from stealing. Yeahhhhhh, that’s right. I was a pretty good theft when I was in my youth, besides…my mom found all this stuff hidden under my bed, in my closet, and STUFFED UNDER THE MATTRESS!!!, and after several, (unsuccessful attempts) TO RELOCATE MY BUTT!!! with a belt one evening, I thought it was time to pray! I prayed a simple prayer and asked God to keep me from stealing. He answered and the desire to steal was gone. Wow! Awesome! I continued in church, and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior in my early teens.

I have REDICATED MY LIFE BACK TO GOD MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT (thank God for second (plus) chances)...whew! My love for the Lord was growing and in my late teens (16 - 18 years old) and a local DJ called me a Jesus Freak, and you know, I hadn't thought about it, but he was right, I was and still am a Jesus Freak. I've never dranked, smoked, done any drugs, or even cursed, but I did commit fornication when I was 19 and a sophomore in college, (just keeping it real). If my friends back home were reading this, they would be rolling.lol. Well, I went to Jefferson Community College after high school, which was located in the same town as my church, and I was able to continue to participate as a young adult at my home church. I was always a delegate to all our local, regional, and national church conferences and young people throughout the area knew me. In June 1977, at 24 years old, I was elected to attend a Leadership Training School at Purdue University in Indiana.

One night at one of our evening worship services, with several young people on stage, one of the teenagers started crying, and all of a sudden a minister on stage took the mike and said, “this young man just accepted his call to preach”.

Well, one of the elders from my church ran up to me from the audience and said "DeWayne, tell them you accept your call to preach too", for cryin out loud, (I thought to myself), I wanted to know what this kid was crying about, So I politely told the lady that I couldn't do that because God had not called me to preach. A couple of months ago I recalled another friend at a worship service, just started crying and the next thing I knew, they were announcing he had accepted his call to preach. Well, I wasn't about to lie about something that appeared to be a major personal event. When the conference ended, I returned home and prepared for my Church’s Annual Conference just two weeks away. Unknown to me, God had something instored for me at the conference.

A few days after I got back I asked one of the oldest Preachers in my conference, Rev. Moses Sutton, how he knew he was called to preach. He told me he accepted his call when he was 7 or 8 years old. He said he saw a star move in the shape of a triangle one night and he went in the house and told his grandmother, and he said she sent him back out and told him to look at the star again. Again, the star moved in the shape of a triangle and he went back in and told his grandmother. Again she told him to go back outside and look at the star again and if it moves in a triangle again, God was calling him to preach. Well, once again he went outside and looked up and the same star moved in the shape of a triangle, and he told me he has been preaching ever since. Hmm, well, my annual conference was only a few days away, and on Saturday I stopped by Mr. Stith's Cleaners to pick up some dry cleaning for my mom.

While I was waiting, the owner proceeded to tell me the story of the switch blade and the cross. He said that there was a gang leader in the story who felt the call to preach and prayed to God and asked him to answer his prayer and he would stop gang bangin and start preaching. Well, Mr. Stith said he told God he was going to put a handkerchief in the back yard and when he woke up in the morning, he wanted to find the yard filled with dew, but the handkerchief dry as a leaf, and if it was he would preach. According to Mr. Stith, he said when the young man woke up the next morning the back yard was filled with dew and when he walked to the spot in the yard where he dropped the handkerchief, he picked it up and it was dry as a leaf. God answered his prayer and he started preaching. Well, my conference began the following Monday and again I’m a delegate.

Tuesday was youth day, and all the choirs are coming to Louisville, KY for the annual youth choir competition at seven o’clock that night. My church was hosting the conference and my choir was ready to go. All the choirs were assembled in the church, many of my friends from all over the state were there, and my choir was placed right behind the youth speaker for the evening. His name was Maurice Stone and I had met him earlier in the week while my youth department was having a car wash. As Maurice was speaking, he stopped and said that he had met a young man at the church name DeWayne GoLightly and said, he told me when you believe in God you don’t have any thing to worry about, and then he went back into his speech, and then he paused again and said “You know every time you see DeWayne, he always has a smile on his face”, and then he went back into his speech. Well my little sister Deanna was sitting next to me and I told sis, I wished Maurice would just hurry up and finish talking so we could sing. Well, I don’t know why, but I just started to pray a silent prayer to God while I was sitting there.

I said, “Father, for much of my life people have been telling that I’m gonna be a preacher some day, I’m gonna be a preacher, well, I honestly don’t know much about this calling thing, maybe you’ve already called me and I just didn’t know it. Well, I tell you what, if you ever call me, I don’t want to be in the bathroom reading the funny papers or anything like that, I would love to have all my friends around me. I was in the cleaners the other day, and Mr. Stith was telling me the story of the switch blade and the cross, and according to the story, this gang leader felt you were calling him to preach and said if you wanted him to preach, fill the backyard with dew and if the handkerchief he placed in the back yard was dry as a leaf the next day he would preach your gospel. Well dad, he woke up, the yard was filled with dew, and the handkerchief was dry as a leaf and he started preaching.

Well, I’m gonna cast my fleece before you, and I don’t really deserve an answer, but I’m gonna try this because you said to try you. So…if you want me to preach…here’s what I want you to do…that guy speaking, Maurice Stone, has already called my name a few times, but I tell you what, if you want me to preach your gospel… I want to hear him call my name again, but not once, but twice, and not just my first name but my whole name, and with no if, ands, or buts in between my name, and if he does that, then I’ll preach your gospel".

Well, I stopped praying, and opened my eyes and sat there with my youth choir waiting to sing and I continued to listen. About 5 minutes later, Maurice stopped right in the middle of his message, he turned around and pointed up into the choir stand right at me and said (I still get chills) he said “DeWayne GoLightly… Dewayne, stand up. This is a Christian young man”. Then he turned back around and started speaking again, and I was just left standing there, and as I slowly sat back down, tears began to stream down my face, and now I knew why all the others were crying, and I also knew in my heart...God had just called me to preach!.

I told my little sister Deanna sitting next to me, and then I got up out of the choir and found my pastor and told him. Rev. Larkin told me I had two choices, he said I could answer the call and start preaching the gospel right now, or I could wait. I’ll never forget my answer, I told Rev. Larkin if God... with all He has to do... could take the time to call me to preach... then I will answer the call right now.

Rev. Larkin lead me into the sanctuary and found my Bishop, Bishop Murchinson, and told him I had accepted my call to preach and my Bishop, took the mike and told everyone that DeWayne GoLightly has just accepted his call to preach and everyone in the building just got up, and started coming towards the front, three aisles of people, I’ll never forget it as long as I live, and one shook my right hand and another shook my left and someone was hugging me, and... all my friends were there, and I just smiled and thanked God I wasn’t in the bathroom reading the funny paper.