Prayer is the Heart of the Ministry

From the Archives: Summer 2011

Written by Buddy Price

I was reared in Raleigh, N.C. and became a Christian at the age of 16. I studied at N.C. State and received a degree in Civil Engineering and then taught in the Civil Engineering Department at N.C. State for three and one half years.

God’s Call Changes My Plans

During this time of teaching, I became active in Christian work. Friends began to say that they thought God was calling me to be a preacher. My reply was always “I believe God had called me to engineering”. I struggled with this decision for months.

Finally I said that I was going to decide this question once for all, “Am I to be a preacher or a college professor”. I went to my bedroom, got down on my knees and prayed for direction. Twenty minutes later, I got up, went down stairs and told my wife that I believed God had called me to preach. I did not hear any voices or see any visions but I knew in my heart that God had called me to be a pastor.

Life-long Ministry

In 1945 at age of 25, I resigned my position at N.C. State, was ordained to the Baptist ministry at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where I spent the next five years learning to be a preacher at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

After completing my doctoral studies, I was called to the Weldon Baptist Church in Weldon, N.C. I then moved on to the First Baptist Church in Asheboro, N.C., and from there to the Green St. Baptist in High Point N.C. I served that vibrant congregation for 22 years. The Lord brought many to salvation during my ministry there. When I resigned my pastorate there, we had 2,700 members.

I led in the organization of the Grace Baptist Church in High Point, N. C. This fellowship was open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. After eight delightful years of ministry there, I retired from the active pastorate in l987. I had spent 42 years pastoring churches.

For the last few years I have done some supply preaching in various churches and have written five books. Last year I celebrated my 90th birthday by preaching at the Banner Elk Christian Fellowship. Carl Clawson is the pastor there, and he is my son-in-law.

Bev, my wife of 67 years, has been a faithful co-laborer with me in all my services. She has had a wonderful ministry of teaching and working with the women of our churches and leading Bible conferences. Besides that, she has been a super wife, homemaker, and mother to our three children.

Prayer Is the Heart of My Life and Ministry

Prayer has been the heart of my life and ministry. For example, I would go down to the Green St. Church early in the morning, go to a special room on the 4th floor and spend a good while in personal reading of the Bible and praying for myself, the needs of the church family, our community, and world.

Bev and I still spend time every morning reading the Bible, praying, and observing the Lord’s Supper. I believe God still has a lot of truth yet to be revealed. We want to be open to that truth and seek to apply it to our lives and share it with others. We believe the best is yet to come and that God’s Kingdom is going to come on earth as it is in heaven.