Pastor Randy Weeaks

andy Weeaks is pastor of Walnut Ridge Baptist Church, Mansfield, Texas, in the southern portion of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Chuckling, he says he’s “a little bit of a redneck and about as sharp as a butter knife.” But that sharpness is a significant aspect of the church’s rapid growth during his 16 years as its pastor. Visitors and members alike are drawn to the way he uses his sense of humor, speech mannerisms and life experiences to powerfully deliver biblical insights. He sums up his life in ministry as, “I never dreamed I’d be here. I’m just an old country boy who said 'yes' to God years ago, and I’m still doing that.”

ATTL: Did you grow up in Texas?
RW: I grew up in Comanche, Okla. around a cattle sale barn. I grew up thinking I’d probably end up coaching. I played football in high school and college and got my degree in coaching. I moved to Texas to attend seminary.

ATTL: What influences eventually led you to consider going into ministry for the Lord? 
RW: My father passed away when I was 18. I began to understand, out of a tremendous amount of pain in a lot of different situations, that Jesus wanted to be the Lord of my life. I gave him my total life at that time. God began to work, and I got involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and also with the Baptist Student Ministries. And God began to develop and work in me. And then he called me to preach.

ATTL: Were you raised in a church-going family?
RW: I grew up in a little country church, Countryside Baptist Church, in Comanche. We didn’t even have running water or an indoor toilet. I was saved as an 8-year-old boy through Vacation Bible School. But age 18 is really when I began to understand that God wanted all my life. I made him my Savior at 8 and my Lord at 18. And by that, I mean I made obedience to him my life’s top priority. I still occasionally go up to that Oklahoma church and preach for them; they think that’s real cool when I come back home. Most of the people I grew up with are still there, and I love getting to preach there.

ATTL: How did you understand that the Lord was calling you to be a preacher?
RW: Scripture talks about followers of Jesus being set apart. As a seminary student, I had to write a 20-page paper on my life. And what I saw was God’s thread running through my life. I really believe he called me to preach at probably age 12, but I didn’t have a clue what to do with that. I didn’t come from a line of pastors or really a line of strong Christians. So I didn’t know what to do with that calling. And when you’re in junior high, who in the world wants to be a preacher? But you’ve got to give your life to something. For me, the cause of Christ was worth giving my life to.

ATTL: Is there someone who was a Christian role model for you while you grew up?
RW: Yes, a guy named Sonny Tims. He was an old professional baseball player I met through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Sonny paid my way through seminary. He bought me my first suit. He gave me my first set of luggage. He’s the kind of guy who chewed me out and then hugged my neck and stuck a $100 bill in my pocket. His goal was to die broke because he decided he was going to spend his money on people. He was like a second father to me; he believed in me when nobody else would, and he loved me. And I needed that. He not only made a great impact on my life but he also led a lot of people to Christ.

ATTL: You have a wife and children. Were you married when you attended seminary and when you decided to become a preacher?
RW: No, I wasn’t married then. After seminary, I traveled all over the country for a while in youth evangelism. And I did a lot of stuff with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

I was 32 before I got married. I found a woman with bad eyes; I’m not real pretty, and she’s drop-dead gorgeous. She attended a church in another part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex when we met. I was already out of seminary and was the singles minister at Tate Springs Baptist Church here in the metroplex. I met her at a singles retreat March 10, 1989, and we got married March 10, 1990. We’ll be married 19 years this month. She had been married before and she had a child; I adopted him. He’s now 21. And then we had a child together. He’s 17, a senior in high school. So we’re about to be empty-nesters.

ATTL: Does that seem exciting?
RW: Yes, it really does. We had empty-nester practice the other day. We just went off by ourselves and had a good time.

But we have kids coming and hanging out at our house all the time, and I enjoy that. I love to go fishing and catch big catfish, and have fish fries. And we play dominoes and cut up and go to ball games.

ATTL: Pastors don’t often get to do those kinds of personal activities because the congregation makes so many demands on their time. How do you handle that challenge?
RW: I delegate a lot. I’ve got a great staff. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the work our deacon body does. And, to tell you the truth, I am a big fan of finding people’s strengths, putting them in a place and empowering them, and letting them excel.

I always take time out for my family. My wife and my children can get to me at any time. I don’t have a meeting they can’t interrupt, and everybody knows that. When I’m off duty from church, I’m at home. I enjoy home.

ATTL: How did you progress from singles minister at Tate Springs to pastor at Walnut Ridge?
RW: Walnut Ridge was started 16 years ago as a mission from Tate Springs and South Oaks Baptist Church. I’m the only pastor this church has had. We constituted and started out with 30 members and have about 3.000 now. In the last 16 years, we’ve built $20 million worth of buildings. We started two missions from this church. And we just spent $13 million to relocate to new property on 55 acres.

ATTL: How did your first pastorate compare to the expectations of pastoring that you formed while in seminary?
RW: Everything was different from what I’d expected. Here’s some essentials that they can’t teach you in seminary. You better know about people and better understand what makes them tick. And you’d better understand that church members can be the sweetest people and the meanest people in the world.

The second essential is that you’ve got to constantly be a leader. I love the fact that there is a new emphasis on teaching and training leadership these days. You don’t get fired because you can’t preach or because you don’t know the Bible. You get fired because you can’t lead.

Seminary does a good job of teaching some of the things from Scripture; but as far as ministry goes … it’s not just about the Bible. It’s about people. And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. He didn’t ask, “Do you love sheep?” It was: do you love him? And if you love him, you’re going to take care of his sheep. And sheep get a little unruly at times.”

That’s the thing that caught me offguard. Seminary doesn’t give you a lot of practical stuff. It gives you a lot of theory and a lot of theology, and that’s what it’s supposed to do. They get you there, and then you just have to go out and learn.

Charles Clary, pastor at Tate Springs, absolutely took me under this wing. If it hadn’t been for Charles, I wouldn’t have made it as a pastor. He was my mentor, and I owe him so much. He had an amazing vision and, under his leadership, Tate Springs started four churches here in the metroplex plus one in Ruidoso, N.M. after he retired. He trained all of us as pastors – we’re all his “kids.”

ATTL: Speaking of leadership, tell me about the book you’ve authored.
RW: I wrote a book on leadership called “Believable Leadership.” It’s at a publishing house now, but I don’t yet know the outcome of publishing decisions. The concept or premise is: how do you get believable leadership? People won’t follow you unless they believe in you. They don’t believe in positions or degrees, but they will believe in someone’s heart.

ATTL: Do you have a favorite Bible verse or passage?
RW: A bunch of them. But especially 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s the heart of the gospel.

ATTL: Do you have a favorite song or hymn?
RW: There’s so many. I love: “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains.” I like the old hymns, and I like the new things too; but I love songs about the Cross and the blood of Christ.

ATTL: How do you and your family manage through the pressures of "living in a fish bowl," so to speak?
RW: First of all, I don’t let people put pressure on my kids. I won’t let people call my kids “preacher’s kids” because I’ve never heard that connotation used in a good way. I’m not going to let anyone run over my family.

In earlier decades, image was everything. I’m so glad it isn’t that big a deal anymore. There’s a lot of adults who were damaged years ago as preachers’ kids because their parents let church people run over them and their kids; you’ll find that very few of those preachers’ kids are in church today. And to tell you truth, that’s why I didn’t want to go into the pastorate at first. I grew up seeing that.

In those earlier years, preachers’ kids had to be perfect. I’m not perfect and don’t pretend to be; and my kids aren’t perfect. My kids mess up. My family and I are who we are. I don’t live a double life. And when I make hard decisions, I get them together, look them in the eye, and say, “You’re going to hear that Daddy’s this and this and this, but here’s the truth.” I commend my boys. They’ve hung in there, and both of them love me.

ATTL: Where did you get your sense of humor?
RW:  You gotta’ have that. And my family laughed a lot. Have you ever done one of those temperament studies? I’m an otter – the life of the party. I hate to be bored. Around here, I sometimes get my guitar and go sing blues songs to the secretaries.

That’s also why I don’t preach that long – so people won’t get bored. Bottom line is most adults have an 18-minute attention span. And I’d rather somebody listen to me for 18 minutes than 25 so they’ll get it. They’ll still talk about it come Thursday if they get it; if they don’t get it, they’ll forget about it while walking out to the car.

ATTL: Is there something you always wanted to do but haven’t done yet?
RW: On my bucket list – if you saw that movie – I want to catch a 100-pound catfish. I caught an 80-pounder a couple of months ago.

ATTL: What will you do with it?
RW: Cut him up. We’re going to have a fish fry and eat him. Other than that, well, my wife and I travel a little bit. I wouldn’t mind going to Hawaii sometime.

ATTL: Other than Jesus, who is your favorite Bible character, and why?
RW: I love Joseph. What I like about him is that he was faithful to the Lord in the down times, and he hung onto his integrity. And then God raised him up. If you read his story in Genesis, by the end of the chapter telling of the down times, the world was coming to him for food. Here’s the truth: do you know who gets the big jobs? It’s those who have a character that’s been tried and proven. Joseph held on to his character in the bad times as well as the good times. A lot of people let that go if they feel like they’re getting cheated or robbed or not being treated fairly.

I also like Gideon; that’s a fascinating study. He had insurmountable odds, and he led an army. I also like Job. He had life’s philosophy down to its best: the Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

ATTL: Your church has three worship services on Sunday morning. Are they all different worship styles?
RW: Yes, we’ve got such a wide variety of people and worship-style preferences. Most churches today are scoping. Basically they’re going after people in particular age groups.  We don’t do that – we go after people. Period. The problem is, people are so vast with what they want out of church. It is exceptionally hard to become all things to all people.

One thing I love about preaching the gospel is that it never changes. That stands firm.

We’re looking to add a Saturday-night service probably in August. I believe there’s a large portion of the metroplex that can’t go to church on Sunday morning because of their jobs. We need to provide for them. We’re still in the planning stages, but we’re excited about that.

Church growth will take place as long as people are willing to adjust and work. We’re not perfect at Walnut Ridge, but we have people who love God and their families, and one another; and they work and serve others. 

ATTL: Other than preaching the gospel and leading people to become believers in Jesus Christ as their Savior, what is your greatest objective as a pastor?
RW: I believe that everybody who claims the name of Christ ought to be developed into Christ-likeness. The Bible says we’re ambassadors; we’re his representatives in a foreign country. I believe that he has called us all to be like him, to be holy, to be devoted followers of Christ.

I feel very, very unworthy. There’s nothing in my background that says I ought to be doing what I’m doing. But that’s what God does. I am absolutely blown away by all the things that God has done, and I’m so very grateful to be involved in serving him.