Continuing with the Passing The Torch series, I want to talk about another minister who had a profound impact on my life. Interesting thing is, he’s no longer a minister and no longer attending a Church of Christ.

When I was a sophomore in college, my roommate convinced me to go on a Spring Break campaign to Long Beach, California. Randy Mayeux was the minister there. In one of our daily devotionals, he made a statement that stayed with me: “Go as far as you can go.” Admittedly, he was trying to convince some of the students to move out to Long Beach, but his point was that some would be able to go to China, others to Brazil, others to California, but each should go as far as they could.

I eventually returned to Long Beach to work with Randy for two summers. Randy taught me to love digging into the text to find truth. He also taught me about sharing the gospel with others and making evangelism a priority.

Randy was an avid reader, continually reading from a wide variety of sources. He particularly loved to read about preaching. He also studied long and hard, presenting deep, challenging sermons.

I got to see Randy last year when his mother-in-law passed away. His father-in-law attends church where I do, and Randy’s wife is frequently there with her dad. I know that the Mayeuxs went through some difficult trials in the church, and I’m sorry for what they went through. I’ll always be thankful to Randy for all the things he taught me.