CHAPTER 15

After our first few concerts—when the record tables were wiped clean and I was nearly trampled in the rush—Keith knew he needed to define his price policy a little more clearly. From the beginning, he was aware that there would be some people who would take advantage—but he still wanted to provide a way for those who really couldn’t afford to buy his records. Even though some of the responses were discouraging, Keith didn’t want to give up.

Eventually, at the end of his concerts Keith would make his an nouncements a little more specific. “Those that don’t have anything can get an album for nothing. And those that have little can get it for little. We believe the gospel’s been getting a little too commercial. So, we wanted to uncommercialize our part of it. We just ask that you don’t take more than one free album per household.”

Keith was also offering the Egypt album through The Last Days Newsletter for whatever anyone could afford. He was letting the bookstores help distribute the album without actually selling it in their stores. If a store wanted to help distribute the album, we would send them a pad of order blanks with a place to stamp their store’s name on them. Then, for every order that came in with the store’s stamp on it, we would send the store one dollar as a thank you—even if the person ordering asked for the album for free.

Keith figured most people knew the “going price” of recordings in the bookstores and understood that making records was very expensive. What he actually set up was an honor system of payment—trusting that if someone could afford to buy one they would.

In an interview with Contemporary Christian Music Magazine about this, Keith said, “My whole reason for giving the album away is that I love people! Of course I don’t want to see 50,000 people send in nothing. At the same time I don’t want people to feel that I’m doing this to get a donation, or that they have to send in a donation.”

In the same interview, they referred to a past comment of theirs that had a skeptical edge to it—if someone was too poor to buy an album, they were probably too poor to own something to play it on. The implied question being, just how committed was Keith to helping people receive ministry? Keith told them he would respond to a sincere request from someone who needed something to listen to ministry on.

That was just the beginning of misunderstandings over his new price policy. Keith was being viewed, skeptically, as a nontraditionalist. But Keith pressed on throughout the rest of 1980, doing what he felt the Lord was telling him to do —continually clarifying his position.

Keith also started taking some rather nontraditional steps with his concerts that summer too. Concerts were usually sponsored by a local church in a given area, but Keith started running into some boundaries that concerned him. Sometimes he’d receive a phone call from the church he was about to go to and he’d be questioned about where he stood on certain doctrinal issues. And quite often, before a concert, Keith would be approached by someone in authority who would tell him things like, “We invited you in to sing, but we don’t want you to preach,” or “Don’t give an altar call,” or “Don’t talk about the Holy Spirit, or speaking in tongues, or healing.” Keith wanted to respect their wishes, yet he found it difficult to limit what he felt God had sent him there to accomplish.

And when Keith went into a city he wanted to reach the “church at large” there. But if his concert was at one church, the other denominations in town usually would not get the word out to their congregations. There didn’t seem to be much cooperation between the different bodies of believers. If different churches did get together, there was this problem: If Keith gave an altar call, who got the new converts? Keith wanted everyone to come—but there seemed to be several different “camps” of believers, and they didn’t fellowship together much.

In fact, the way the churches were separated by doctrinal issues was very difficult to deal with, since Keith might be in seven different churches in the same number of days. It was mind boggling really. It wasn’t just fulfilling an itinerary of concerts, it was having to go out and face a whole nation full of Christians who emphasized different things in their teachings. Sometimes he didn’t know which “camp” he was walking into—the faith camp, the evangelicals, or the charismatics—just to name a few. Every Christian should be full of faith and charismatically evangelistic —but it wasn’t that simple. It could wear you out just trying to figure out where people were at, so you didn’t offend them. Keith did try—but diplomacy did not always come easy for him.

All of these things started adding up—the limitations on what to say and do, the tone of the meetings, and the frustration of trying to get several denominations together at any one church. Keith was remembering his unhindered time of ministry at the Caravan Ballroom in Tulsa. We’d just rented a hall and invited the city. Keith began to get the idea to use what he called “neutral auditoriums”—a place every church in town could feel comfortable sending their people to, where no one would feel they had their “toes stepped on”.

From then on, whenever it seemed right, we paid our own way into different cities. There, we’d rent an arena and take an offering to cover our expenses. However, there was still one thing that kept bothering Keith about his ministry—his growing celebrity status.

Most nights, after pouring his heart out—almost begging people to get right with God—there would be long lines of people waiting to meet him at the foot of the stage. Some wanted counsel and prayer. But the majority just wanted to get close to him. Some wanted to talk about sound equipment, how they could break into the music ministry, or get a record deal. Keith saw the same shine he used to have in his eyes—the hunger to be popular and be up in front of people.

For a long time Keith just disappeared after his concerts and didn’t talk to anyone, because he was so upset by the hero-worship he saw in people’s eyes. And not wanting to encourage anyone in idolatry, or be stumbled himself, Keith simply slipped backstage. Keith was so concerned over this issue that a few years earlier he’d even written an article called, “Music or Missions”. It talked about churches full of “star-struck” Christians—what it did to the Lord and the ministers themselves:

Can’t you see that you are hurting these ministers? They try desperately to tell you that they don’t deserve to be praised, and because of this, you squeal with delight and praise them all the more.

How come no one idolizes or praises the missionaries who give up everything and live in poverty, endangering their lives and their families with every danger that the American dream has almost completely eliminated? How come no one lifts up and exalts the ghetto and prison ministers and preachers? Because we are taught early on 1) that comfort is our goal and security and 2) that we should always seek for a lot of people to like us. . . .

There had just been a terrible slaughter of some women missionaries in Africa and Keith made the comparison between the lives they lived and the life the average music minister lives.

Who lives more comfortably and has more “fans” than the latest bright and shining gospel star? Who lived less comfortably, and had less friends and supporters than the selfless missionaries who were raped, mutilated, and butchered to the glory of God recently in Africa?

Quit trying to make gods out of music ministers, and quit trying to become like those gods. The Lord commands you to “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.” My piano is not my cross. It is my tool. I’d never play the thing again if God would show me a more effective tool for proclaiming His totally-demanding gospel.

One big area Keith felt he needed to focus on was the Christian music industry itself Now that he had made a break from the usual way of doing things, he felt he could speak to those involved in every aspect of Christian music.

Sometime before this, Keith had gone to a meeting of the Fellowship of Contemporary Christian Ministries (FCCM), which consisted of artists, promoters, producers, and record company people. At one point, Keith stood up and, with a broken heart, told everyone that they were making too many demands on each other and on the concert-goers—demands that were not holy and not blameless. Keith said they all looked too much like the world and not enough like Jesus—himself included. Keith ended up on his knees before them all, weeping and saying, “From now on, I will not come into any of your communities unless I come as a servant.” He stayed on his knees pledging himself to be a servant to the body of Christ and repenting for wrong attitudes that he’d held. There was a very powerful move of God and everyone ended up taking communion together.

The next time Keith went to an FCCM meeting, it was with something different in mind—ticket sales. Keith felt like selling tickets to a night of ministry was equal to a pastor who would only come pray for the sick if you promised to pay him in advance. This FCCM meeting didn’t end as sweetly as the last one.

Keith had been pressing Buck Herring pretty hard about the fact that the Second Chapter of Acts was selling tickets to their concerts. Buck felt they had clear direction from the Lord to ask people to pay $3 to help with the expenses. Keith kept challenging him, and they went ‘round on this issue a lot. Buck ended up going back to God to ask him if there was a better way to do it, and after a long process he felt the Lord did show him another way.

Keith felt the Lord wanted him to go the FCCM and confront the whole Christian music industry with the concept of accepting offerings instead of selling tickets. And he wanted Buck to tell everyone what the Lord had shown him. So at the next FCCM meeting, Keith presented a clear challenge to everyone present and told them he felt it was wrong to sell tickets.

“The ticket prices for concerts are a nail in Jesus’ hand. Unbelievers aren’t going to pay to hear about Jesus because deep in their hearts they know they shouldn’t have to. The gospel is free!”

Keith knew they could well ask, “What’s the difference between a Christian plumber charging for his services, and a singer or speaker charging for theirs? Didn’t the Apostle Paul charge for his tents?” Keith said, “There’s a difference between a man’s vocation or skill and his ministry gift. If I was just an entertainer, I’d have no problem charging for concerts—but ministry is different.”

“In fact, Paul made tents for a living so he wouldn’t have to charge for the gospel. After all, tents are tents and ministry is ministry!”

Then Keith quoted from Paul out of First Corinthians, “What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.”

Buck stood up at that point and told how the Lord had led him. He said he’d finally made a list of all the reasons to sell tickets at a concert—and a list of all the reasons to do offering concerts.

Buck told the group, which was pretty somber by now, “All the reasons to do ticketed concerts were logistical. There wasn’t one spiritual reason there. But all the reasons to do offering concerts were spiritual. The Lord told me if we would take this step of faith, we’d be able to minister to the body in deeper ways because they’d trust us. They’d know ministry was our only motive for being there.”

When Buck sat down, the atmosphere heated up immediately. There was quite a bit of open and rather animated discussion. Some people seemed receptive to Keith and Buck. Others were wondering who Keith thought he was to come and challenge them in such an absolute way. A few of the sponsors were worried, too. Second Chapter and Keith were doing some of the largest Christian concerts in America at that time.

One sponsor said, “If the high-profile artists start doing concerts for free it will make everybody else look bad.”

The meeting ended with sharply divided positions. But Keith came away feeling that he’d poured out his heart, and that was all he could do.

Besides the selling of Christian music, Keith was also grieved by all the Christian merchandising going on. Everyday items like clocks, coasters, drinking mugs, and wallets were selling for twice their usual price just because some enterprising Christian—or non-Christian—stamped a dove or a fish on them. We’d actually seen ads for Christian doggie sweaters—and even Christian ashtrays!

Then one day, we saw what we felt was the ultimate slap in the face to Jesus. Browsing in a large Christian bookstore, we came across a hand-made ceramic piggy bank. Engraved on the side of this plump little pig were the words, “Jesus Saves”. We felt sick at heart.

It seemed that selling Christian products was very big business—not only in Christian bookstores, but at festivals as well. I was with Keith the day someone told us that at one Jesus festival they sold over $98,000 worth of “Jesus junk” in just a few days! Keith nearly fell over from hearing those two words casually linked together.

“Jesus—and junk?” He said angrily. “Those must be the two most opposite words in the English language!”

On one hand, Keith saw Christian ashtrays, doggie sweaters and piggy banks. And on the other hand he saw Jesus—like a pure, white, rose—crushed beneath tons of garbage and debris, his sacrifice and his heart cry sinking from view.

Keith decided to write an article for The Last Days Newsletter, called, “The Selling of Jesus”. In it, he wrote about his feelings when he saw the “Jesus Saves” piggy bank, quoting The Book of Revelation:

I could hear the echoes of “ . . . those who had been slain because of the Word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, Oh Lord, holy and true, will thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’”

How do you think the Lord feels, after giving His life for the sins of the world, to be reduced to something that helps sell merchandise? I’m certain He would make a whip and cleanse the Church of such garbage if He were on the earth today, but a more permanent remedy is planned. It’s called judgment Day. . . .

It seemed that Keith had an unending and, for some, an unnerving jealousy for God to be honored. Maybe it was because of all the years he’d spent lost in a spiritual maze that he couldn’t bear to see the truth taken for granted or compromised in any way.

As Keith kept studying the Bible, he continually examined every doctrine he came across against the Word of God. He was also avidly reading many Christian books on a broad range of topics—some issues that he felt needed to be addressed in the body of Christ. In Keith’s zeal, both the Protestant Church and the Catholic Church got caught in his line of fire.

One day, Keith was reading a book about the Catholic Church. He came flying into the kitchen looking very upset. “Mel, can you imagine this? Catholics are really devoted to Jesus—right? They build big churches, with beautiful statues and everything. But this book claims that some of them don’t realize they can really know Jesus. Imagine—loving Jesus, but having no assurance of heaven.”

Keith read more books about Catholic doctrines, and as he did he started to feel that he should write something about it. He prayed for a long time—and got counsel from Christian leaders. But the counsel was divided.

Some of the leaders Keith talked to said, “Yes, the Lord is leading you to do this.” But others counseled Keith not to write anything, saying, “It’s not the Lord. What you’re reading in those books isn’t totally accurate.” Keith was torn, but in the end he believed the Lord wanted him to go ahead and write something. When Keith launched into the series he called “The Catholic Chronicles”, he wrote a forward to clarify what he was trying to accomplish:

I want to make it completely understood that neither I nor anyone else at Last Days Ministries have anything at all personally against Catholics. We know of many loving, committed and sincere believers among their ranks. In fact, there are quite a few who receive our newsletter, even a priest in New England who corresponds with me regularly (and if you’re reading this now—I love you!)

While Keith was concerned about the Catholic Church making God too mysterious, distant, and unknowable—it seemed like the Protestant Church had almost the opposite problem. Many Protestants seemed to be too familiar with God—taking him for granted. If it seemed “too hard” for Catholics to get saved, it seemed “too easy” for Protestants. So, in the same issue of the newsletter that Keith concluded writing “The Catholic Chronicles”, he began another series called, “What’s Wrong With The Gospel?” At home, Keith called this series “The Protestant Chronicles”.

From what we’d seen while traveling in born-again circles for six years now, many things were all coming to a head in Keith’s thinking. Some of the writings of A.W. Tozer were having a strong influence on Keith, as well. At one of our Bible studies, Keith picked up Tozer’s book and read us a quote:

“The cross of Roman times knew no compromise, it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest . . . With perfect knowledge of all this, Christ said, ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.’ So the cross not only brought Christ’s life to an end, it also ends the first life, the old life of every one of His true followers. . . . this and nothing less is true Christianity. We must do something about the cross, and there’s only one of two things we can do—flee it or die upon it!”

In his introduction to the two-part series “What’s Wrong With The Gospel?” Keith said:

What’s wrong with the Gospel? Absolutely nothing! That is, of course, if you’re talking about the gospel of the Bible—the very message that Jesus preached. . . . But what about the stuff that’s being preached today? Is it truly “gospel-preaching? “ . . . I believe with all my heart that Jesus would be ashamed of most of the “gospel” messages that are being preached today, mainly because they lack almost every major point He Himself preached on. How dare we try to change the gospel! We remove most of its vital parts, and replace them with artificial limbs of our own. Isn’t Jesus the master evangelist? Shouldn’t we judge our evangelism by His example?

Keith’s two-part article ran in the same issue of The Last Days Newsletter. Section One was called, “The Missing Parts,” or the parts that have been “surgically removed in most of today’s preaching”. The first thing Keith talked about was how Jesus shed his blood so we could have the power to be set free:

It’s a fact that the very word blood scares people. It’s also a fact that the blood of Christ scares the devil, because it is the only cleansing agent for a sin-sick soul. What we have now is a bloodless gospel! . . . Remove the blood from the preaching of the gospel, and you remove the power to conquer the devil for the souls of men!

Next, Keith talked about removing the cross from the gospel:

Paul said, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Nowadays it’s “Jesus Christ and what He can do for you!” You cannot have more exact opposites than the Bible’s Christ -centered gospel and our modern, cross-less, centered gospel.”. . . Today the Lord is presented as a sort of “ice-cream man/Santa Claus.” And the Church is the “candy store” where you can get “every goodie your heart desires.”

Keith summed up this first section by saying:

First and foremost, today’s gospel appeals to the selfish. If people come to Jesus mainly to get a blessing, or only to get forgiveness, they will ultimately be disappointed. But if they come to give Him their lives in honor and worship, then they will truly have forgiveness and joy—more than they could ever imagine!

In Section Two, Keith talked about what he called “The Added Parts”. This time he talked about the dangers of the traditions of men.

Then Keith listed some of the tools, methods, and concepts that have become so much a part of presenting the modern gospel, that they have become almost inseparable from it. Sometimes those practices even distort the gospel. Among those things, Keith felt, were the altar call and the easy assurance of salvation just because someone “came forward”. He also examined the idea of the “sinner’s prayer”:

It is obvious that there is no “set” sinner’s prayer. The words are not important, its the state of heart of the one saying it. I believe that a true “sinner’s prayer” will gush out of anyone who truly is seeking God, and being enslaved to sin.

Then Keith took a risky look at the term and concept of Jesus being our “personal Savior”:

I find it very disturbing, when something unnecessary is added to the gospel. The term “personal Savior” isn’t very harmful in itself, but it shows a kind of mind-set that is willing to “invent” terms, and then allow these terms to be preached as if they were actually found in the Bible. Would you ever introduce your sister like this, “This is Sheila, my personal sister?” Ridiculous! But nevertheless, people solemnly speak of Christ as their personal Savior, as if when He returns He will not have two, but three titles written across His thigh, “King of Kings! Lord of Lords! and Personal Savior!”

One of the things that really bothered Keith was seeing bumper stickers with what he called, “cheap cliches and ‘Christian’ slogans”. He wanted to call attention to what some of these slogans were really projecting.

“Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet.” This can really be a horrible replacement for “I’m sorry!” . . . It puts the blame on the wrong person—“The reason I’m such a creep is because God isn’t finished with me yet!”

Then there is that other fabulous excuse that absolutely ends all quests or expectations for holiness: “Christians aren’t perfect . . . just forgiven!  What we’re saying by this fabulous piece of prose is, “Madam, you cannot trust your teenage daughter with my Christian son, you’d better keep your eye on him . . . he’s not safe . . . he’s just forgiven!”

In summary, Keith pleaded with Christians to examine what they were doing:

Don’t you see what fools we are! We preach a man-made, plastic gospel. We get people to “come forward” to the altar by bringing psychological pressures that have nothing to do with God. We “lead them” in a prayer that they are not yet convinced they need to say. And then to top it all off, we give them “counseling” . . . telling them it is a sin to doubt that they’re saved!

Beloved family, the world around us is going to hell. Not because of communism, television, drugs, sex, alcohol, or the devil himself. It is because of the Church! We are to blame! We alone have the commission, the power, and the truth of God at our constant disposal to deliver sinner after sinner from eternal death. And even though some are willing to go . . . they are taking a watered-down, distorted version of God’s message which God has not promised to anoint. Thats why we are failing.

When Keith wrote all of these articles, it was with an overwhelming desire to see the Church free of compromise and counterfeit conversions. He knew he said some strong things, but he hoped the body of Christ would be all the stronger for it. As these articles appeared in the newsletter over a period of months, Keith had no idea how strong a storm of controversy his writings would cause.

Meanwhile . . . “back at the ranch” . . . Keith and I had made some big changes in our living arrangements. Every available space had been seized by one “department” or another. One of my biggest concerns while living at the Ranch House had been finding Josiah a safe place to play. Almost two years old now, he was curious and into everything. One day, I’d noticed his little mouth “working” on something, and when I got him to spit it out, my heart almost stopped. He’d been sucking on a push-pin that must have fallen off one of the bulletin boards! I was afraid to think of what would have happened if he’d swallowed it.

Also, living in a “fishbowl” did have its challenges. You have to develop certain techniques within a marriage when you’re surrounded with people all the time. When Keith and I had differing opinions, we learned to have “soft disagreements”. Keith and I had learned how to flash each other those “let’s go talk in the other room” looks without anyone else noticing.

Living with so many people was also taking a toll on me— especially because things always moved so fast. Sometimes it seemed like I was the last one to know about important decisions, and I felt like I was often lost in the shuffle. Maybe the hardest times were when I needed to talk to Keith, but he was so worn out from counseling or from being in a long meeting, and he just didn’t have enough energy left to give me “equal time”.

At those times, I’d count my blessings, which were many. Still, it seemed like the “grace” was starting to lift.

The long and short of it was, we’d begun to feel like we needed our own place. Because we lived out in the country, there wasn’t much housing available without building it yourself. There was, however, one small, white house right across the road from our ranch. Keith had even thought of making them an offer—but it wasn’t for sale.

Then one day, while we were cooking dinner in the kitchen of the Ranch House, one of the girls casually said, “Oh, guess what? I was over looking at that house across the road today. It’s for sale.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “The white house?”

“Yes. They just put the sign out.”

Keith and I lost no time.

We walked right across the road to ask if we could look at the place. The owners told us the house was over one hundred years old and, needless to say, it needed a lot of work! It had three bedrooms and one bathroom, but not one level floor—a can placed at one side of the kitchen linoleum rolled across to the other wall. The rooms were covered in dark paneling and the rug was matted and—well, everything was old. But it was available and fixable—and it looked like a palace to us!

Keith bought it on the spot as a parsonage and we moved right in. Within weeks I’d discovered I was pregnant with our third child. So it was perfect timing.

So we spent the winter building fires in the fireplace of our new little home, and then watching the wildflowers start to pop up in our fields at the beginning of spring. By summer Josiah was almost three, running around the yard in his shorts, grabbing grasshoppers and playing with his dump trucks. We’d taken him on his first missionary trip to Mexico and he came home praying for the children who “don’t have a house over their bed”. While Josiah was like a blond lightning-flash, Bethany was like a deep well of serene waters—peaceful, pensive, and starting to take her first steps. Dawn had turned sixteen and was growing into a beautiful young woman with a real servant’s heart—helping with the children at home and on the road. For us as a family things were starting to settle down a little bit—just before the storm hit.

In the beginning of 1981—even with our moving out—the Ranch House continued to stretch at the seams. The garage had become the print shop, the living room became the office and literature distribution department, the laundry room (besides housing the washer and dryer) was crammed with artists and drafting tables, and the kitchen and dining room were used for album packing and mailing, as well as eating. The ministry also needed more space—and quickly!

Keith decided we needed a real office building and, just before the slab was poured, he made it twice as big as he originally intended. At first we wondered what we would do with all the space. But before the building was even completed, we not only knew we could fill it, we knew it would not be our last. We now had real offices, a print shop, and a guys’ dorm in one large, two-story metal building.

We were excited about some of our new neighbors, too. Buck and Annie, Steve and Nelly, and Matt had bought some land right next to us! And my mom, who’d become a Christian a few years before, moved a mobile home about one hundred yards away from our back door to be a hands-on grandma to our growing family.

The one sad note was that Michelle, our longtime friend and secretary, had abruptly left us by this time. Tension had built between Keith and Michelle for a little while. There were some disagreements on how to do things. Michelle was burned-out from the long hours of endless work and the intensity of everyday life at Last Days. And Keith wasn’t always the easiest person to serve, either. Besides, Michelle felt her experiences as a Christian were very limited—the only thing she’d known was being with me and Keith. She felt she needed more room to grow and that it might be best if she left.

Both Keith and I tried to talk Michelle out of leaving. We felt really miserable and let our feelings get the best of us. Toward the end it got very emotional and, in a room full of people, Keith said some things that wounded Michelle. When she left she was extremely hurt. And Michelle wasn’t the last one to leave. Over time, probably a dozen people left feeling like some of our old rules weren’t changing quickly enough, or that Keith wasn’t hearing their viewpoint as well as he should have. For the most part they were probably right.

Summer of 1981 brought the birth of our beautiful third child, Rebekah Joy—on July 17th. The summer also brought something not so pleasant.

In response to Keith’s controversial series of articles, an avalanche of mail hit Last Days. It came from all quarters—bookstore owners and patrons, recording artists and record companies, Protestants and Catholics, pastors and priests. Some of it was positive, some negative. In sheer numbers, however, nothing topped the negative response Keith received from “What’s Wrong With The Gospel?” Some of it was really fiery. We always liked to get mail—the pros and the cons—and did our best to answer everyone who had a question. And there were a lot of questions.

One seemingly insignificant event that summer was to have an impact we had no way of anticipating.

Since Keith was gearing up to spend a lot more time out on the road, he was very interested in some news he’d picked up. The YWAM base down the road was thinking about putting in an airstrip. Not too long after we’d moved here, YWAM had bought Twin Oaks Ranch from David Wilkerson. Keith jumped on the airstrip idea and he went right over to see YWAM’s National Director, Leland Paris.

When Keith returned, he said excitedly, “Boy, an airstrip would save a lot of time and hassle. Maybe I can even get a pilot’s license!”

To his dismay, that idea wasn’t well received by anyone. Least of all me.

“I don’t think you should even consider becoming a pilot.”

“Come on, Mel, you know I could do it.”

“Of course you could—I just don’t think you should.”

A short time later, Keith talked to Wayne about it and he had a very strong reaction too.

“Keith, I don’t feel good about it,” Wayne was saying.

Keith got irritated. “Oh, come on. What’s the big deal?”

“I don’t want any part of it. Don’t do it.”

Everyone who knew Keith seemed to “see red” when the subject came up. We all knew the stress and intense pressures he faced every day. Flying an airplane seemed like the last thing he needed to be doing.

While we were on the road just at the end of summer Keith brought the subject up with the pastor who had invited us in.

“It’s too dangerous,” the pastor replied immediately. “A pastor friend of mine just died because he took off in bad weather. He said he was going to ‘trust God’ to get him to his destination safely.”

He made some other strong points, too.

“Keith, do you know why ministers have the highest rate of pilot’s insurance?”

“Why?” he asked, a bit impatiently.

“Because they take the most risks. They think they’re indestructible. They have the most accidents.”

I could tell Keith was getting upset. Why wouldn’t anyone get excited about his idea to be a pilot? He just stood up and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I don’t know what everybody’s so worried about. I’m not gonna take any risks.”