Throughout church history, the Lord has raised up special leaders for various generations. Two from this generation recently passed away within a month and a half of each other: Peter Lord, 91, on March 4, 2021 and Jack Taylor, 88, on April 25, 2021. Only eternity will reveal the impact they had on the church and countless individual lives for the final three decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
Peter Lord, a native of Jamaica, was the founding pastor of the Park Avenue Baptist Church in Titusville, FL, the home of many NASA employees drawn to the Space Coast because of the Apollo space program. He served as pastor there for thirty years. Even though he did speak at various conferences on a limited basis, the church was set up with an in house training program for church leaders to come there for spiritual enrichment.
I heard him for the first time at the Youth Evangelism Leadership Conference sponsored by the Home Mission Board’s Youth Evangelism Department held annually for a number of years at Ridgecrest Conference Center near Ashville, NC. To say that I was impacted would be an understatement. I was young in the ministry then, and I was eager to learn from the older guys. It was obvious the Lord’s hand was upon him in a special way.
He often spoke of his friendship with Adrian Rogers, another spiritual giant of this generation. I was somewhat surprised to learn that they were friends. Their approach to ministry was quite different, yet the Lord used them both in their respective ways. Rogers was more of a traditionalist as an expository preacher, whereas Lord was closely akin to being charismatic and spoke more from the heart. I enjoyed hearing both of them equally.
One of Peter Lord’s daughters and her husband were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for part of the time they we were there. It was fun to get briefly acquainted with them.
In the various churches I served in the subsequent years, I used some of his resources, including but not limited to video and audio recordings of his messages. I recall one such occasion when we took our youth leaders for an overnight retreat. We actually listened to some of his messages on audio cassette. In the high tech world of today, that may not fly, but those messages were so powerful our leaders hung on to every word even with audio only.
The most used of his resources for me and other churches was the 2959 plan, which sold more than a half million copies. That title was based on the concept of spending 29 minutes and 59 seconds in a daily Quiet Time. It was a burgundy three ring binder with 2959 printed in gold ink. I have no way of knowing how many I have given out over the years to new and mature Christians. There were tabs for daily prayer requests and tabs for one day of the week requests. Mingled among the pages were numerous Scriptures to use for the various aspects of prayer-praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and petition.
One of the themes of Peter Lord’s teaching was that of hearing and knowing God. Of the handful of books he wrote, Hearing God was one of those. Another theme I recall was that God created us to please him. I will never forget the illustration he would use about Henry Ford and a parking lot of Fords. He would ask, “ Which would please Mr. Ford more-a parking lot full of Fords that would crank and run smoothly or those that would not crank?” I have used that illustration numerous times.
When Peter Lord was no longer able to travel, he would teach a Bible study in their home two to three times a week.
Jack Taylor served as pastor at Castle Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio, TX for 17 years before becoming a conference speaker and a prolific author-13 books to be exact. In a six month period in the early 1970’s, there was a move of God at the church and 3000 people were saved in a six month period.
His book The Key to Triumphant Living may have been his most influential book, with over a million copies in print. Another of his books was entitled Prayer: Life’s Limitless Reach. The first book of his I read was Victory over the Devil. He spoke at a conference hosted at the First Baptist Church of Roanoke, VA, where I was interning. It was there that I was introduced to some of his teachings and books.
The major theme of Taylor’s teaching was that of the Spirit-filled life. He was blessed to have been a part of a powerful movement of God in the early 1970’s. Even as I write this, I recall the pastor of the church where I interned once told me that he and Taylor were in a group at SWBTS that experienced an outpouring of the Spirit. Both of these men were powerful in the pulpit.
In his conferences and books, Jack Taylor taught principles that if followed transformed many lives.
My knowledge and connections with Jack Taylor were limited, so I reached out to Rod Minor, a pastor friend in Austin, TX who attended the same YELC conference I mentioned above. I asked what impact Jack Taylor had on his life and ministry. It turns out that Jack Taylor and his wife had introduced his future wife to him while in seminary in Ft. Worth. Minor, a native of Birmingham, had this to say,
“His commitment to seeing and living the truths of God’s Word was always
evident. His commitment to prayer was also one of the most profound impacts
on my life. Jack talked with the Lord in a conversation that was not filled with
theological or pastoral jargon, but in a way that was evident that he knew the Lord in a deep way. Jack once told me that Bertha Smith had such a communication line in prayer with the Lord that she might be talking with you and then you realize that she had just started talking with the Lord. She walked in prayer. I saw that in Jack as well. I have known few men in my life that loved Jesus as deeply loved Jesus as he did.”
Neither of these two men had any interest in “climbing a denominational ladder.” They were called to shepherd the local church and then to building the body of Christ as an extension of that.
There will never be another Peter Lord or Jack Taylor. Neither of them would have thought of themselves as spiritual giants. They were simply doing what the Lord called them to do. Perhaps in due time, the Lord will raise up other spiritual giants for our time.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16