Longtime friends and Tennessee Baptist pastors Larry Robertson, left, and Steve Freeman share a passion for mentoring younger pastors.
CLARKSVILLE — Mentoring young ministers is a passion for longtime friends and former Tennessee Baptist Convention presidents Larry Robertson and Steve Freeman.
Robertson and Freeman recently shared in an interview with the Baptist and Reflector how their ministries were impacted through mentoring. Freeman, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, acknowledges that Robertson has been one of his primary mentors throughout his ministry.
Robertson, pastor of Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville, felt God calling him into ministry in 1982 while he was attending the Tennessee Baptist Youth Evangelism Conference in Nashville. Though he already had accepted Christ, Robertson admitted, “I was not walking with the Lord.”
On the opening night of the YEC Robertson recalled that “God got my attention.” The following morning former Tennessee pastor and Southern Baptist Convention president Jim Henry challenged those who might be considering God’s call into some form of ministry to stand up.
“I found myself standing up,” Robertson said. “I sensed very strongly that God was calling me into ministry.”
Following YEC Robertson continued to feel an overwhelming desire to study God’s Word and to preach the Bible. At the time, he didn’t know that teenagers could preach. In a casual conversation with his pastor, Randy Isbell, then with Hopewell Baptist Church in Savannah, Robertson asked when he had begun preaching. Isbell told the then 15-year-old Robertson that he began preaching at age 16.
Robertson is convinced that God used that moment with Isbell to confirm his call into ministry. Robertson met with Isbell for counsel several times and later walked down the aisle of Hopewell Baptist and told the congregation that God was calling him to preach.
A few weeks later on Oct. 17, 1982, Robertson preached his first sermon at Hopewell. “It was the worst sermon ever preached,” he laughed. “But God was very gracious,” he recalled.
Isbell, now pastor of Sante Fe Baptist Church, Sante Fe, soon became more than Robertson’s pastor. He became his mentor in the ministry.
Tennessee pastors Larry Robertson, left, and Steve Freeman engage in a conversation. The two men have helped each other walk through the challenges and the victories of their respective ministries.
Robertson said Isbell’s mentoring was “very informal,” primarily while visiting Isbell and his family on Sunday nights and sharing pizza and discussing Bible verses Robertson had been reading. Isbell also gave Robertson a book — Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson — “that still shapes my preaching ministry today,” he said.
Isbell “spoke into my life,” Robertson affirmed. “When I went off to college I stayed in touch with him and he stayed in touch with me. And for many years to come, I very intentionally made a point that we stay connected,” he said.
Robertson observed that he knows pastors who have no connection with their home church or relationship with their home pastor. “That’s so sad because I have both. Though Bro. Randy is no longer at Hopewell, I still have a great relationship with Hopewell and with him.”
Fast forward to 2002.
After serving as evangelism director for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, Robertson accepted the pastorate of Hilldale after serving several months as interim pastor following the retirement of Hilldale’s longtime pastor Verlon Moore.
At the time, Freeman, then 28 years old, was a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Hilldale. He had a good corporate job. On Sept. 22, 2002 Robertson had just started a series of sermons on Jonah.
After the invitation, Freeman came forward and was broken, saying that he believed God wanted him to preach, Robertson recalled.
Freeman noted, however, that he felt God calling him to ministry six months earlier during a revival. “He didn’t call me to surrender to ministry. He called me to preach.”
Freeman said he accepted the call that night but “didn’t have the guts” to tell his wife, Leigh Ann, on the way home. He kept his decision to himself for six months but it “haunted me.”
He recalled that when Robertson began preaching on Jonah, his heart was broken at the introduction, not the invitation. “When I got to Bro. Larry, he looked at me and said, “The Lord has called you into the ministry” and I said, “yes.”
The mentoring process soon began, but it was much more different than Robertson’s because Freeman and Robertson were closer in age and both had young families. Their wives (Leigh Ann and Beth Robertson were good friends).
“This wasn’t a situation like Bro. Larry and Randy when he was a 15 years old. “I was 28 years old with a corporate job and a wife and kids.”
The two couples met at a local restaurant and talked. Freeman said Robertson asked him two “profound” statements. The first was a question, “If you could do anything else or had the desire to do anything else, would you do it and not become a preacher?” When Freeman said no, Robertson then told him, “A call to preach is a call to prepare.”
Freeman began taking seminary courses through New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and continued his job. He later took early retirement and accepted the call to become pastor of Slayden Baptist Church in nearby Cumberland Furnace.
After 18 months, Freeman knew he was not ready to be a pastor. Though he was taking seminary classes, he realized they were not teaching him how to make every day decisions that pastors face. “I realized I didn’t know how to do anything,” he said.
At the age of 31, Freeman returned to Hilldale as a pastoral intern. The position soon transitioned into young adult pastor, but the process helped Freeman learn how to be a staff member, he said.
“In the corporate world, I had been the boss. I didn’t know how to not be the boss,” he confessed.
Looking back, Freeman is convinced his three years on staff at Hilldale helped him grow as a minister. “I was on staff under my mentor, who’s my friend, and is probably the greatest pastor and smartest man I know,” he said.
Robertson acknowledged that they “clashed heads” a few times when he had to tell Freeman that there were some things “we’re not going to do. It was hard for him.”
He recalled that after Freeman left Hilldale again to become pastor at Grace Baptist, he received a call from his friend. “He apologized for not being a better staff member when he was here.”
Robertson knew immediately Freeman was probably having trouble with a staff member. He also knew Freeman’s experience had prepared him to deal with it. “You’re not ready to be a pastor until you learn how to serve. Steve had learned that valuable lesson.”
Though 17 years has gone by since Freeman accepted the pastorate at Grace, he still finds “an excuse” to call Robertson, whether it be for advice or a reason to celebrate something that has happened. “That is the thing about a mentor. No matter how old they are, when you have somebody that God fuses into your life, our ministry is built on pleasing the Lord and sharing those good things with your friend and mentor.”
Robertson and Freeman’s experience of having been both mentees and mentors is why they are staunch supporters of veteran pastors finding younger ministers and pouring into their lives.
“We’re all products” of a chain of mentoring whether directly or indirectly, Robertson affirmed.
“While I think there is value in curriculum and structured processes (related to mentoring), there is something to be said about the informal role of ministering and just helping to be that voice, that mind, that heart, that advisor, that counsel, in whatever happens,” he said.
Freeman agreed. “Mentorship is a culture created by God that is developed through the willingness of a pastor to invest himself in younger generations.” B&R
