I started a wallpapering business immediately while attending a seminary, and in June of ‘89 was assigned two United Methodist Churches about 125 miles south west of the seminary on KY Hwy 31. This is exactly 20 miles SW of Abraham Lincoln's birth place which is also on Hwy 31.

The Churches put us up in a local motel on weekends in Horse Cave, KY which was next to Mammoth Caves.

Horse Cave at that time had about 8 major tobacco warehouses which made it one of the most popular tobacco counties in Kentucky. The motel was about 11 miles away from one of the churches. We would go down to the churches on weekends and then drive Please return Home Tobacco and Fat Free on Sunday night after church.

Most all my church people raised tobacco or worked with it in some capacity. My life was so busy that I decided to start walking the 11-mile distant every other Sunday in order to try to listen to God. During this walk I discovered notices in business windows about Horse Cave celebrating it's traditional annual "Tobacco Day Festival."

On this ad I read where the kids were involved in different tobacco contests like processing and handling but also the split contest for kids.

Every other Sunday, while walking past this sign, I would think how wrong this was and how I should consider this concern in a preaching message but I would think how risky it would be, and probably alienate me from some of the members. While walking through this small town and onto the country roads, I began to build relationships with people. This tobacco message continued to burn in my heart but it seem like I was running from it.
 

Personal fear influenced me to keep this sermon in confidence as much as possible.

The early Sunday morning lack of traffic was of some comfort to me. No doubt I wanted to meet the traffic face to face, so about half way on my journey, a big 4X4 truck came up on the other lane behind me and passed by but a 1/4 mile it made a dramatic fast turn around. This truck sped up as it was getting closer to me and I was easy further from the shoulder of the road as it got closer.

My chicken blood was pumping as my body hit the ditch as the truck was about six feet off the road toward me. I immediately got up and started walking on the shoulder of the highway as I could hear this raging truck turn around again. By some act of God, I had decided to not look back and in just a second the big dirty truck was sliding in the lane next to me.

The big necked man with his window down asked me, "Are you sure about that?" I answered, "Yes it killed my dad when I was 11." He growled out, "Yall take care of the Marijuana and dope and we'll take care of this." He last words before speeding off, "That sign will get you killed around here." All I could think of was how much I felt a Divine Presence around me. ( possible martyr as a Christian against tobacco)
 

I shared with them that I couldn't remember a Father's Day but I could vividly remember the painful screams of pain and the grasp of breath my dad would experience as a result of using that product that they would about to carry to market tomorrow.

My family and I ducked out until Sunday evening church time. A young school teacher entered the church for Sunday evening services so I went over to greet her and shared,

Seven days later and I was at the second church which was out in the country facing the largest tobacco field in the county. With no mentioned of what had transpired in the community and between the two churches, I preaching a message from the old wooden pulpit.

One of the ladies that had fed my family and me the best Sunday home cooked meal ever was in her car weeping. She was crying saying, "This is wrong, this is not right." But the process continued with the following comments coming out. (Remember the older man that had given me the two $20.00 bills well he had driven up to join the group that was casting us out.)

"Mike, you need to go somewhere tobacco is not raised and preach against it, this is our income," said one young man as we walked out of the church. (This is the same one that just a few Sundays prior passed out a petition to protest against a lady that was trying to remove Christian services off the television.)

"Mike, you must realize that tobacco money pays your salary," said the young man.

"Mike, I understand it killed your father, it also killed mine, but I still raise," said another faithful and sincere member.

"Mike, there is one family that said they would never come back because of your sermon and stand," said another member.

"Mike, your sermon and stand have got the whole community upset," said another.

"Mike, tobacco is not as harmful as riding in a vehicle," said another member.

"Mike, I don't raise tobacco but everyone is stopping by my business upset at your sermon," said another older member.

And finally a member said, "You must realize that even those that don't directly produce tobacco are dependent upon those that do."

My wife, and two sons left the church and made the drive Please return Home Tobacco and Fat Free immediately. God had granted me peace about what I had just experienced.

That evening Rev. Sam Clark, District Superintendent of the Bowling Green District of the United Methodist Church called me apologizing for what had happened and asked me not to accept what these two sanctioned UMC had done to us. He wanted us to wait until he could visit with us and then our Bishop Robert Spain. He drove about three hours Tuesday, November 28, to meet with Becky and me.

We told him that we could accept what the two churches had done and that he didn't need to continue the process in order to meet and satisfy the Discipline of the UMC. After meeting with us he made the other 2nd part of the triangle trip an 80-mile drive to Louisville, KY to meet with the same Bishop Spain that had preached his masterpiece four point sermon on Love. (Remember his 3rd point R-I-S-K.)

Rev. Clark called us after his meeting and said that Bishop Spain stated that I should have waited about three years so I would have known the people better.

Rev. Clark leaves Bishop Spain office to complete the long triangle trip where he meets with the same church leadership that had tossed us out.

Rev. Clark got the Church Board to officially vote on our coming back to the church. Rev. Clark calls us after meeting to tell us the vote was five for us coming back and two against us returning, b-u-t censorship of my sermons would be a part of our coming back. We decided to not return.

Amazingly, in less than a month a church less than a mile from the one where we were ousted sent us more than $1,000.00 for my seminary expenses and asked me to join their staff. What a blessing but we decided to not join them.

I have been invited back in 1993 and 1996 to conduct funerals. The funeral's services were conducted at the funeral chapel.

These tobacco people are some of the greatest and warmest you will ever meet. Yes, I had preconceived fears that the tobacco sermon was going to cause severe damage. I did not really realize that it was going to cause the immediate damage that it did.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Please return Home Tobacco and Fat Free