Dan Summerlin, who pastored four churches of different sizes in five decades, shared insights of what he learned from each decade during the Shepherding Conference in Lexington, Kentucky.
Summerlin, who retired after 21 years as the senior pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church in Paducah, was called into ministry while in high school. The day after announcing his call to ministry he was in a Christian bookstore looking for books to help him pursue that calling. “Everything I’ve done is geared to this (pastoring),” he said. He pastored a church in Mississippi, two in Alabama and then at Lone Oak in western Kentucky.
“God gave me experience in a small church, medium-size church, large church and extra-large church,” he said, and told pastors and their wives one word that would describe his life lesson from each decade, explaining that “everyone goes through these same lessons.”
In his 20s, he said “arrogance” was the key word. “I don’t think anyone thought of me as arrogant, but I thought I knew what I was doing — that I had all the answers,” Summerlin observed. “There are two types of intelligence — fluid and crystallized. Fluid is when you know facts and have information. A lot of young people know a lot, but to crystalize is the ability to use that knowledge and combine it for solutions. We call that wisdom.
“I had the fluid — I knew how to grow a church and preach, but I was arrogant to think I didn’t need to learn anything. The bottom line is pride. I thought I should go to a bigger church — but I learned so many lessons there. I was a hard worker but really didn’t trust God. It was there I realized I really didn’t know much. I learned how to spend time with widows, how to listen to people, how to say I’m sorry. I examined my preaching and my conversations. God did the work. It wasn’t about me.”
Aspiration
In his 30s, the key word was “aspiration.”
Summerlin said he earned his doctorate just before his 31st birthday, and he wanted to make a difference for Christ.
“I carried a key chain that said, ‘Make a Difference,'” he recalled. “I was focused on that local church and God started opening up other doors.”
Samford University asked him to teach a course and he was invited to speak at Alabama Baptist events. He was the youngest moderator at that time in Tuscaloosa and became involved in Southern Baptist Convention life.
“But the dark side is envy,” Summerlin noted. “God took pride away — but I kept looking at other people and asking why are they getting the breaks? Our church was growing, but others were growing faster. I was doing conferences but had friends who were doing national conferences. The church down the street had three times the number of our salvations. I felt like a failure, but my wife reminded me that ‘God is blessing you.’ It’s the striver’s curse — sometimes excellence doesn’t satisfy, it terrifies. And when you do get excellence, you are not satisfied.”
Summerlin alluded to F.D. Meyer, a famous London preacher who was jealous of Charles Spurgeon in the 1800s.
Also, people were flocking to hear G. Campbell Morgan, and Meyer began to pray for Morgan’s success. He prayed that Morgan’s church would be overflowing and that he would just get the overflow. After making a list of everything and everyone he was envious of, Summerlin said he prayed they’d be more successful than him and his church.
“I began to help pastors. I decided I was going to help everybody,” he said. “The more I started shepherding people, the envy went away. I wanted other people to be more successful.
“I also realized I didn’t have a definition of success. Pastors don’t. If a lawyer wins a case, he is successful.” He said a doctor, police officer or athlete know success.
“But we ministers never have a definition of success,” he said. “You have to be careful — success is not the size of your church and it’s not about how many people are won to the Lord.”
Summerlin pointed to missionary William Carey, who went seven years before there was a single convert to Christianity. “My definition of success is being obedient to the calling. Was I obedient to God today?”
Mid-life crises
In his 40s, he said “assessment” was the key word.
“We go through many mid-life crises, and men really do in their 40s,” he said. “It’s called the World Series Syndrome, where you realize you are not going to pitch in the World Series. For a preacher, you realize you are not going to be pastor of First Baptist Dallas.
“You start assessing life. Do I like my job? What am I going to do the next 20 years,” he noted. “I started focusing on strengths and weaknesses and started delegating my weaknesses. I began to assess my health with annual physicals, my finances with retirement coming, my family relations — with my children when they leave home and my wife when we are empty-nesters.”
Accomplishment
In his 50s, “accomplishment” was the key word.
“It’s been said that most men accomplish most in their 50s,” he said. “It is when God really uses us the most — we have spent 25–30 years developing our talents. It was when I was KBC president, when I started serving on the national level and mentoring other guys.”
He talked about author Bob Buford who wrote “Moving from Success to Significance.”
“Success is about me; significance is about adding value to others,” Summerlin said. “Success never brings satisfaction because there is always more, but significance does because we made a difference. Success is about titles and awards — significance doesn’t care about those things. I realized I needed to start encouraging people and help lay leaders develop. There is no success without a successor.”
Accountability
In his 60s, he said he is “accountable” for everything God has shown him.
“Most of what you learn is by making mistakes,” he said. “I am accountable to pass the knowledge I have to help other guys.”
He noted he wouldn’t want to die knowing that what God taught him was not passed along to others. “One of the reasons I mentor young pastors is to help them learn things that unfortunately I learned the hard way.
“I want to pass the torch to another generation — to help them to continue in ministry.”
He recalled the lessons learned in running relays in high school.
Passing the baton
“The coach told us the race is not about you, it’s the baton, and no matter how fast or talented you are, if you don’t pass the baton, you are a failure. We spent our time passing the baton. You cannot pass the baton if you are slowing down, and the other runner has to start running before you get there. You can’t pass the baton if you don’t let go. If you let it go too soon, you’ll drop it. If you are too late, you lose momentum. If you don’t pass it at all, you are disqualified.”
Summerlin added, “You’ve got to learn how to let go. And when you pass the baton, you become the loudest cheerleader. I ran across the field to see the next runner finish the race. We’re constantly cheering people on. We need to cheer on the younger generation.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chip Hutcheson and originally published by Kentucky Today.