Bruce Ball

Church/Ministry Name

1st Christian Church

www.rogersvillefirstchristian.net

Church/Ministry Description

Independent Christian Church. Leans toward the tradition in worship style.

Experience

I began preaching part-time in 1997. Became full time pastor and planted our first church in 2000. While in Arizona, recuperating from medical issues, I have been invited to teach and occasionally preach for the pastor at a local Nazarene church.

Education

B.S. Physics/Meteorology, Univ. of Tokyo Japan 1967. B.A. Divinity, Pastors Training Center 1999

Family

I have one son and one daughter, both adults and both profess Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. They have parents who are very proud of them and who love them and their children very much. My wife is an excellent teacher of Scriptures.

Hobbies

Oil painting, model cars, and reading.

Best advice given to me about preaching

Pray before, during, and after for guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Sermon or series that made a difference

I saw Billy Graham in Tokyo in the 1960's and that turned out to be a very important spiritual marker in my life.

One of my favorite illustrations

We are like the ducks in Duckville, USA. We line up single-file every Sunday morning and waddle all the way down the street, one behind the other, to go to church. In church, we get excited by what we hear, and flap our wings and peck our beaks. And after church, we tend to go outside, line up one behind the other, and waddle all the way back home just like we came to church a couple hours earlier . . . unaffected and unchanged by what we heard - all to do it again next week.

Books that have had an impact

Of course, the Bible is the #1 impact in my life.

Something funny that happened while preaching

As a new preacher, I was a guest speaker at a church that expressed itself through yelling, rolling on the floor, barking, etc. (Not saying that is wrong ... just different from anything I had experienced before.) I was flustered as the congregation continually yelled out praises during my sermon. At closing prayer, I meant to say, "Bless us until we come back for the next service ..." but what I said in my broken concentration was ... "Bless us until we come back for the next circus."

What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons

She is my second main source of strength as I pursue hard after Jesus. (Jesus is my first .... Phil. 4:13)

If I could Preach one more time, I would say...

Jesus loves you with a love that is so great that we cannot comprehend. And through that love for us, we are offered all of the glory of God. But we must go through Jesus to get it. There is no other way. If we want what He wants to give, we must do it His way and not our own.

What I want on my tombstone

I am most thankful that Jesus loved me so much, He waited on me until I loved Him back.

Comment to those looking at my sermons

God has called each of us to do the same thing, but in different ways. I was not called to teach to those who are already highly educated in the Word, but to those who have little or no understanding of the Word - those who need Jesus in their hearts.