McPheron returns as pastor at Bethel Baptist

Asking Randy McPheron to share John 3:16 is like asking a bird to sing. It comes naturally.

McPheron was preaching in view of a call to Bethel Baptist on Sunday – the day that the North American Mission Board and Kentucky Baptist Convention encouraged pastors to talk about one of the best-known verses in the Bible.

The calendar said March 16, which translated to 3/16.

Hundreds of Kentucky Baptists used the opportunity to share John 3:16 with their congregations. More than 130 responded to a KBC survey but McPheron said he was certain there were many who did not respond to survey who used the message.

“It’s a favorite verse because it really summarizes the gospel,” McPheron said. “If it could be condensed into one verse, it would have to be John 3:16. It has some real significance to me.”

McPheron had resigned as pastor of Bethel Baptist after nine years because he said the Lord was pulling him into the mission of evangelism.

“I resigned the church on a Sunday and Monday morning got up and thought, ‘I’m jobless. What have I done?’ I was scared to death.”

He drove to the University of Cumberlands to fill out admissions paperwork for his son on a dark and dreary morning. On the drive from Corbin, he said he was “feeling a weight on my shoulders.”

When he began signing the papers, there was a spot for the date. It was 3/16. “It gave me a peace that I can’t explain,” McPheron said. “It wasn’t planned. Here I am, years later, and this thing (becoming Bethel’s pastor again) happened on 3/16.”

In his Touch of Hope ministries, an emphasis was placed on John 3:16, including a gospel tract that McPheron penned about how one verse can change your life.

“I had these weekends when my son was traveling with me and we preached John 3:16 with it,” he said. “I once heard D.L. Moody preached John 3:16 every service and it changed Moody’s life. I don’t think you could ever get to the depths of it. I think it’s the greatest verse in the Bible.”

McPheron’s message was well received and the vote for him to become pastor again was an overwhelming 91-4. Yet, Mcpherson said  it was “the worst vote I’ve ever received.” Those four no votes humbled him, he said. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

McPheron, who last year served as president of the KBC, had placed some conditions on returning to the church. They had fallen away from being a member of the KBC and Southern Baptist Convention and that needed to change, he said.

“I told the committee I’ll come and serve and help you and feel God’s affirmation,” he said. 

“We are taking steps for them to join the Rockcastle Association and to come back into the KBC and figure out how to build a relationship with the SBC. Yesterday morning, in my sermon, I got up and told them the reasons why I wasn’t leaving the SBC. I preached on John 3:16 and said if we are going to be a God so loved the world church, we needed to be part of the Cooperative Program, which I believe in fully.”

He also will keep his position as the associational mission strategist of the Rockcastle Baptist Association and his membership at First Baptist Mt. Vernon until Bethel reconnects with the KBC.

McPheron, 57, has been the interim at Bethel since August and he knows many of the congregation from his first run as pastor when he was 23.

The church was booming during his time (1991 to 1999) with more than 200 baptized in eight years, he said. That included some future pastors – brothers William and Adam Dooley and Chad Fugate to name a few.

“It’s a little intimidating going back to being a pastor again,” he said. “I never lost my pastor’s heart. Lisa (his wife) is excited too. We know the majority of people there and it gives her the consistency she has not had in evangelism and the associational work we do. We love all the churches and all feel like family, but the local church life is different.”

McPheron, who has already baptized about a dozen, said his daughter lives in the area. She and her husband and three grandsons are coming to church. He was able to baptize his son-in-law Sunday night.

“I want this church to have the best opportunity to reach the world for Christ and I believe that is through the Cooperative Program We have to get this generation ready. I want to see this church come back to life. I want them to realize their dreams again.”