Every year in Mount Vernon, Illinois, new “Senior Saints” are nominated. I am delighted that our community honors their service and citizenship. I’m also for recognizing saints as the Bible defines them.
Sainthood is not about good deeds, church status, or performing miracles — it’s about being made right with God. Whenever someone, young or old, truly places their faith in Jesus Christ, the angels rejoice and their names are written in heaven. As one preacher put it, “I’m saved by works — His.”
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Let’s be all about celebrating what the saints have done over the years.
Carl’s story
Let’s be all about drawing inspiration from those who have gone on before us. This biblical teaching on saints really hits home for me, as my dear friend Carl Watkins recently went home to be with the Lord. He lived to be 99-years-old. (Read his obituary here.)
With his dear wife Betty beside him, Carl pastored several churches in Illinois during his long ministry, including First, Second, and Third Baptist Churches in Granite City, and Walnut Street in Carbondale. He served interim pastorates in his “retirement” years, and enjoyed serving as an assistant at Irwin Chapel in Granite City. He was director of missions for the Madison Baptist Association. And most recently he was a member of First Baptist Church of Maryville.
Carl faithfully pastored Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Mount Vernon in the late 1980s and 1990s. During that time, I had the privilege to serve with him as his associate pastor and we’ve been fast friends ever since. I learned so much from my father in the ministry.
When I heard the news of his homegoing, my heart was filled with sadness for our loss, but at the same time with joy of knowing that he is with Jesus.
He was a true believer and a senior saint.
In this season, I wholeheartedly honor, celebrate and find inspiration from Carl’s life and witness for Jesus. Carl’s death was precious in God’s sight, as Psalm 116:15 says, because his faith became sight when his eyes closed in death.
‘Called to be saints’
Carl was a saint — not one of a select few among believers, but a saint with all Christians who have put their trust in Jesus. Not everyone is given as many years as Carl enjoyed, but all believers have the opportunity to thank a Christian friend and mentor, as Carl was to me. And we all can do the work of saints, influencing young believers as friends and mentors.
God’s Word affirms, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Cor. 1:2). That’s our calling.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Bob Burton, associational mission strategist for Salem South Baptist Association. This essay first appeared in The Sentinel at All Saints’ Day and also in the Illinois Baptist.
