Doug Snow

Doug Snow tells about how God has been leading his life to be engaged in ministry to senior adults. 

Chapters

• 0:00 - 3:00 Chapter 1: Returning to Maiden Lane Church
  The speaker shares their journey of returning to Maiden Lane Church after a long absence.
• 3:00 - 6:00 Chapter 2: Growing in Faith and Leadership3:00 - 6:00
  The speaker discusses their spiritual growth and involvement in church leadership.
• 6:00 - 9:00 Chapter 3: Embracing God's Call and Mission
  The speaker shares their experiences in answering God's call and participating in mission work.
• 9:00 - 15:25 Chapter 4: Encouragement for Pursuing God's Call
  The speaker offers advice and encouragement for those feeling called to ministry.

Transcript

Well, hello, friends.

Welcome to the ML podcast.

We're so glad that you are taking a listen today.

Welcome to those of you who maybe are listening to the ML podcast for the first time.

And for those who have listened before, hey, welcome back.

We're so glad to have you with us.

Hey, listen, the purpose of the Maiden Lane or the ML podcast is to highlight how people discover, connect, grow, and share through the story of their journey with Jesus.

And really, it's our hope that these stories will provide encouragement and inspiration to you to live a Christ-centered life.

So we are so glad that you're able to join us today on the podcast.

This episode around, is Doug Snow.

Doug is a good friend of the church, and if you see Ray and Margie Starr on a Sunday morning, you're pretty much going to see Doug sitting right next to them because he sits right next to them every week.

Isn't that right, Doug?

That's correct.

Yeah, so I was telling Doug before we hit play or hit record on this that we had to talk into the microphone, and he did a good job.

Good job, man.

I appreciate that.

Well done.

Way to eat the microphone, as we say in the podcast business.

Yes.

I don't really know if that's something that people say in the podcast business, but I just said it, so I guess it's a new term.

Okay.

Whatever.

Anyway, Doug, so glad to have you on the podcast today.

And have you ever listened to the podcast before?

I have.

All right, good.

So the first question we ask every person that comes on the podcast is basically this.

Tell us a little bit about how you came to become involved here at Maiden Lane Church.

All right.

How I became involved was I was carried in as a baby.

Carried in as a baby.

And I was here for most of my life until 1995.

I left and I was gone for about 23 years.

I attended another church.

During my divorce, I needed a place to go.

So I told my mom, I'll come back.

And it was kind of like the prodigal son returning home.

Okay.

So that's the short of it.

That's the short end of the story?

Yeah.

All right.

Well, obviously, since... What was that?

About 2000-ish?

A little bit longer?

I came back to Maiden Lane in 2018.

Okay.

So 2018, lots of life, lots of story in between those two years, or two ends of the spectrum.

But since then, tell us a little bit about how you have become more, how you have made Maiden Lane more about your home.

When I came back to church, I got involved with Lisa Jones' class.

And my mom at the time was downstairs in Faith Pencil's class.

And I told mom, I said, hey, since I'm back at church why don't you join me upstairs in Lisa's class?

So up until COVID hit, her and I both was in Lisa's class.

And it was good.

It gave me a lot of time to heal through my divorce.

It was a good time.

Good, good.

So Doug, just a question.

I know that you are I know you're a person that studies God's word.

So as you've been like looking at scripture, what has God been teaching you about his faithfulness as you've been following Jesus?

Um, I find it very important to stay in the Word of God and to stay on your knees.

I have a life verse.

I know that we haven't got to this question yet, but this is my life verse that I kind of lean on.

It's out of Psalms.

It's 16.9.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. 

My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. 

Nor will you nor will you let your faithful one decay.

You make known to me the path of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasure at your right hand.

So I kind of lean on that scripture with Leadership Focus and with some other, you know, just trying to stay rooted to the Lord.

Yeah, so Leadership Focus.

I don't know that a lot of people who listen to this particular podcast know what Leadership Focus is.

For those of you who don't, and Doug, you can obviously correct me where I'm wrong, because it's way past my time of ordination.

It's the ordination process, basically, for the Church of God.

And so there's six different modules, is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Six different modules, that's a three-year process.

Yeah.

You go through multiple modules, multiple studies, work on your theological statements.

Your lamp.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about that process for you.

Was it easy?

Was it difficult?

Did it give you lots of headaches?

Did it make you stay up late at night?

Did you have to drink lots of coffee to get your work done?

I will say this.

When I started with Leadership Focus, Pastor Jeanette was here at the church at the time, and I had gone to her and told her that I felt like I had a call in my life.

And we sat down, we did some praying, we did a lot of talking, and she actually um recommended me with Leadership Focus and got the ball rolling.

When I was originally talking to Pastor Jeanette um I felt the Lord wanting me to, I felt kind of like leaning towards being a chaplain.

Okay. 

But the more I got into the studies of Leadership Focus and the more I let God um tear tear some things back that needed tore back and kind of kind of being guided by spirit, I feel more led to be an associate pastor over the seniors.

Oh okay.

So that's kind of like where I'm, where I fear the lord taking me.

Gotcha so let's talk a little bit about that call to ministry a little bit.

So tell us a little bit about that call like tell us when you received it what you felt like you know God was saying to you in that moment share with us a little bit about that

All right.

Well, you know, in the mornings, I get up real early in the morning.

I typically start my workday at, I have to be at work.

I work at Walmart, and I've been there almost—it'll be 30 years in September.

That's a long time.

Very long time.

And when I get up in the mornings, I'll pray.

And it was during my prayer time that I just, and with some of my, it might have been, I think it was in modular four that things started to kind of come into focus, but it really came into focus in five.

But I just felt a shift that I needed to make some adjustments, right?

So I came off the security team here at the church.

I was very involved with the security team.

And I left, I needed to align myself with the seniors.

So I joined the Love in Action class.

And Ray Starr became my accountability partner.

We meet every Tuesday.

We'll either do coffee, breakfast, this week we're working on a project on my shed.

So we're always together, and he's always pouring into me, into my life.

And often, Margi will let me teach the Sunday school class.

Okay.

So it's given me opportunity.

Then on Wednesday night, Caitlin and I, we kind of oversee the prayer meeting.

Last week was pretty powerful.

We had all of our pastors come in, and we were able to let them speak freely about things that they were dealing with, and then we came around and prayed for them.

It was an awesome time.

And then here recently, you know, I just want to be open to whatever God wants me to do.

So I signed up for the mission trip and had an awesome time in Pine Ridge.

And I will say this, that anybody that has thought about, maybe kind of went back and forth on, it's something that will change your life.

The mission trip will change your life.

It was a good time.

So I'm going to throw one at you.

I know you weren't ready for this one, but how did the Missions Trip influence your call?

And when I mean by call, I mean, you know, sometimes we're called to do things that we didn't expect to do.

So, how did that missions experience in Pine Ridge, how did that influence your call to ministry?

When I was there, we had a community day, and when Maiden Lane goes to Pine Ridge, their main focus is Bible School for the kids.

But with my heart, with seniors, I just gravitated towards the seniors of the tribe that came into church.

And I began to talk to them and kind of get to know them.

And, you know, it's funny, one of the ladies, her name was Hazel.

She grabbed my arm or my hand.

She would not let go of my hand.

She looked into my eyes and she said, you are coming back next year, right?

And so I'm excited to see what the Lord's going to do there.

That kind of puts your feet to the carpet, yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially when you're on experience like that and somebody who's met you or known you for a very short period of time, they speak into something like that.

Whenever I have experiences like that, it's like, okay, God, what are you trying to say to me in that moment?

So, okay.

So tell us a little bit like how... There we go.

Okay.

So what are you doing actively in pursuit of your call, in terms of how God has set you apart for ministry?

What are you doing to kind of cultivate that as a disciple of Jesus?

Well, like I explained, I got involved with Love in Action.

Yeah, good class.

Awesome class.

Margi's an awesome teacher.

I'm learning a lot.

I told her, I said, I'm kind of like a sponge.

I'm here to learn, and I want you to teach me to teach.

So I do that, and then like I said, I got into Leadership Focus because I knew I had a call in my life.

And Pastor Jeanette told me that that would be probably the best road for me to take.

Yeah.

So that's what I'm doing.

And I'm just trying to align myself and I'm open to whatever the Lord wants me to do.

Gotcha.

All right.

And living in step with the Holy Spirit is important.

Yes, very much.

Sometimes those steps are big and scary.

Uh, sometimes those steps are small, but when we live in obedience to that, some really cool things happen.

Yes.

All right.

So for those people who are listening to the podcast, they heard a little bit about your story, a little bit about what God's doing in you in terms of refining some call.

So what word of wisdom would you like to share to those who are pursuing Jesus who might be listening today?

Don't do what I did.

When I had a call and after my divorce, I ran even harder away from the Lord because I knew when you accept a call from the Lord, you're giving up a lot because when you stand before the Father, pastors are going to be judged a lot harder than the ones that are not called to be pastors.

And my encouragement to anybody is if you're sitting in the pew, say you're sitting in our Maiden Lane church pew, and we've been talking about we need Sunday school teachers, we need teachers in general.

If you feel that call, I don't care how old you are, as long as you have breath in your lungs, you can serve the Lord.

A lot of people will say, well, you're a pastor, when are you going to retire?

You kind of never retire when you're in this call.

So I would just encourage anybody that feels... even if it's the smallest thing, it may be something that we need.

I would never...

I would never run from the Lord.

I would always answer the call.

That is my greatest encouragement I can give anybody.

That's a good word of wisdom.

You know, Doug, we're called to be children of God.

That's our first calling.

When Jesus calls us into his fellowship, if you want to say it that way.

And then some of us are called to step out and be set apart for vocational ministry.

But all of us are called to be ministers of the gospel.

Yes.

And so honestly, you know, your point on when you feel like God is directing you into an area where,

You know, it's so important for us to be in step with him obediently.

Yes.

And so, as you said a little bit ago, you know, whether you're changing diapers in the nursery, whether you're chasing teenagers away from whatever or down the street or whatever, or you're serving at the outreach house, you know, the more that we get engaged in what we are called to do to serve others, it's important to do that.

Right.

And I can remember back when Pastor Jeanette was here, she said this in one of her sermons.

She said, imagine a child in a baby carrier in the center of North Street.

What would you do?

Well, your common reaction is get out in the middle of the street as quick as you can to get that child.

Well, it's the same way with an unsaved loved one.

We can't just wait around and think somebody else is going to do it.

You may be the only Bible, you may be the only prayer warrior around that will touch the throne to bring that child or that brother, sister, father, mother, neighbor home.

That's good.

That's good.

Well, friend, Doug, thank you so much for sharing your story.

Appreciate that very much.

Friends, if you have questions about Leadership Focus, you can talk to Pastor Matt.

You can talk to me.

You can talk to Doug.

He's been through the experience.

We can certainly kind of like have some conversation with you about following a call and getting involved in Leadership Focus.

But honestly, if God is just nudging you to be involved in service in some way, like there is a place for you.

So don't hesitate to come to any of the staff members and say, how can I best be involved?

Doug, thank you so much for your time.

Appreciate it.

Friends, until the next time we drop the next episode of the ML podcast, we'll talk to you soon.

See you later.