Often I am asked about Olive and how the church is doing. Some then ask about keys, secrets and such to having a growing church that is healthy. My response always includes two things. First, is the favor of God. A church does nothing significant without the smile of heaven on it. Quickly I add that Olive has always had a strong core of male leadership. If a church is going to touch a community some godly men must step up and join the pastor in leading.

In 1990 I took a call in my Garland, TX office. The voice on the other end of the line was Bob Davis, chairman of the pastor search team for Olive Baptist Church. This was my first contact with a godly leader at Olive. He would soon become a dear friend and partner in ministry. Later we would learn that Liz had been in the wedding of his son Bruce. During college days my wife and Bob’s daughter-in-law were dear friends. It is a small world.

After my arrival at Olive we quickly went to three morning worship services. A committee was formed to look at expansion and the building of a new worship facility. Bob Davis was asked to lead the planning and then be the construction sight manager for the church on the project. He looked after the building of the worship center like a mother caring for a newborn. When we moved into the building Bob prayed the prayer of dedication. It was a ten minute prayer! I later timed it on the video tape. He was full of the joy of Jesus that we had completed the journey. Later he wanted to get a back door entrance to the church property. He pushed for land acquisition that gave us an out to Whitmire Road. I still call the bumpy road that gives us back access and egress “the real Davis Highway!”

Word came to me the night before Christmas Eve that Bob had a heart attack and went home to be with Jesus and his beloved wife, Betty. We will have his funeral later this week. He was my friend, deacon chairman several times, construction overseer, prayer partner and more. Men like Bob Davis are the reason Olive is what it is today. My prayer is, “God give us more men like him.”

Pastor Ted Traylor 

Posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 11:10 am.
You can leave a response, or you can follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed.