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Interview
The following is a transcript of my interview with Charles Alber, a retired Associate and
Senior Pastor of over fifty years, who currently attends Chapel Pointe in Hudsonville, MI, but
who served in churches all over Michigan and Iowa during his time of vocational ministry. (For
disclosure, Charles is my grandfather.)
1. Tell me about your call to pastoral ministry.
1 Timothy 3:1 says, “This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he
desires a good work.” The desire for pastoral ministry was evident all through my life. At ages 5-
7, I used to go into the orchard behind our farmhouse to a stump from a cherry tree and use that
as a pulpit. I would lead the singing and preach by the hour. As a young teenager, I would take
notes on all of the messages I heard and preach them over and over. In high school, I had the
opportunity to preach in our youth group and in some small churches in the area. I started
teaching a class of first-grade boys when I was a senior. I took some classes in theology and
Christian Education all through high school. When I graduated I started the Pastor course at
Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary and God immediately opened an opportunity to serve in a church
as Minister of Music and Youth. God continued to open opportunities to minister until I retired.
Sometime early in seminary I was reading I Timothy 3:1 and realized that it was God's work in
me to put that desire in my heart. That gave me the assurance of God's call, an assurance I would
need in some of the difficulties I would face in the ministry. In all of this, God was faithful!
2. Which pastoral responsibility do you enjoy the most, and why?
Preaching! Why? Just think, I got to study God's word, pray over my messages, and share the
message that God laid on my heart with the people - and get paid for it! Life cannot get any
better than that!
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3. Which pastoral duty do you enjoy the least, and why?
Counseling! Why? It was hard! I struggled to understand the need, search the Scripture for
answers, and share in a meaningful way. While God did bless this part of my ministry, I did not
like it at all.
4. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in sermon preparation.
I was preaching on Sunday morning and evening, and had a twenty minute message on
Wednesday evening, so I spent fifteen to twenty hours for each Sunday message and five hours
for Wednesday evening. So thirty-five to forty-five hours each week.
5. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in administrative
responsibilities.
I tried to limit my admin work with staff to ten hours a week. In addition, we would try to get
together for an all-day work retreat twice a year.
6. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in personal devotions
and prayer.
Every morning from six to seven, plus stopping to pray several times during the day as needed.
7. What is an area of pastoral ministry you wish you had been taught in school?
Administration! Vision for the church. Vision casting for the people. Recruiting, training, and
leading volunteers. I could, and did, do this in the education programs, but struggled with that in
the total church programs. Thinking through how to reach the community with the gospel with
something other than door-to-door visitation or bus ministry. When these types of ministry went
out of effectiveness, I struggled with what to do next.
8. Describe your ordination council.
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Twenty-five local pastors with the GARBC doctrine statement in their hands. I was not allowed
to write a paper. With only my Bible in my hand, I would make a brief oral statement on the next
doctrine and the men would fire away with their questions. I was determined to stick with what
the Bible says. I based my brief oral statements on passages of Scripture and for every question I
turned to a passage of Scripture on which to base my answers. If I could not think of a verse, I
would ask the questioner if he had one in mind, many times to the laughter of the council
members. I was commended by the council for my knowledge of and use of Scripture. The
questioning started at 1:00 and lasted until 6:30.
9. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone aspiring to become a pastor?
Know why! Be certain that your "aspiring" comes from God! If God calls you, He will do it! Be
certain of your call.
10. What character trait(s) do you think is/are the most important for a pastor to embody?
If God has called you, He has given you the character traits, skills, gifts, and abilities He wants
you to have for the work and people He will call you to serve. In those places of ministry, He
will want you to use these traits He has given you, not the traits He has given to someone else. It
is essential that you are a transformed follower of Jesus, that you keep growing in grace and in
the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and that you are faithful in Scripture reading for
yourself, not just message preparation, and prayer!
11. How did you guard yourself and your leadership against moral failure and leadership
abuse?
Daily staff worship and devotions with personal accountability. We had some very honest
discussions and prayer time!
12. What are you most proud of (in a healthy way) about your time in vocational ministry?
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It is amazing how God laid on my heart what needed to be done and helped me do it! “In the
next ten years, you need to develop the men who will be your deacons, trustees, bible teachers,
etc. You need to lay the Biblical foundations to lead the church out of the 1950s style of worship
into the 20th century. Teach what the Bible says about change and music! Your building is
getting more and more out of date and you do not have enough parking. The church needs to
start setting money aside to meet these needs.” I was always in way over my head! What was
accomplished was all of God!
13. Is there anything that you regret from your time as a pastor, or that you would change?
There is no time or space! I did so many things wrong, and made so many mistakes! I am
amazed how God used such a broken man like me! Two that stand out: One, I would spend much
more time encouraging our people! Two, I would move quickly and firmly in love to stop the
actions, attitudes, and words of people who were hindering the work of God in and through the
church. Even to the point of having them leave. Somewhere, somehow, I wish I understood that I
needed to keep studying Acts 6 and 20, Ephesians, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, I Peter 5,
Hebrews 13, and Revelation 1-3 to be saturated in the revealed truth about God's direction for
church leadership! I learned way too much tradition and nothing about what the Bible says!
Most, if not all, of what comes with this question could have been avoided. My seminary training
in this area was, for the most part, useless.
Observations
One of the things that struck me most about my interview with Charles is one of the
things that has always stood out to me about him over the twenty-six years that I have known
him, he is deeply and desperately in love with the Word of God. To Charles, the Bible is not just
a book filled with interesting stories and good life lessons, it is the living, powerful, and active
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Word of God himself, and the foundation on which all human life and thought ought to be built.
This is reflected in the fact that the very first thing that he did in his answers to me was quote
Scripture, and the very last things that he did were rattle off passage after passage that he wished
he studied more and admit the failure of his education to call him more fully into the words of
God, rather than the ideas of man. If there is anything that I want to take out of this interview and
have influence my life and ministry, it is my grandfather’s passion for hearing from God through
his Word. I believe firmly that the second we begin to depend on ourselves or man’s wisdom for
our success, we have already failed in the eyes of God. He calls us into sweet dependence on him
and him alone, and it is there that we find our greatest accomplishment.
Another major element of my interview with Charles that stood out to me was his
excitement and passion. Even now, in his mid-eighties, he demonstrates an infectious joy and
energy when talking about ministry and the things of God. As I was finalizing the transcript of
his answers to my questions, I found that I had to use more exclamation marks than periods in an
effort to capture even a portion of his intensity. It is my hope, that if God grants me the grace to
live as long as my grandfather, to maintain this same sense of excitement and joy that he has.
Anyone in ministry for any length of time has no doubt heard of the burnout and bitterness that
can often drive people out of ministry entirely. However, I believe that when one is as dependent
on the Lord and his Word as Charles is, that they can be continually empowered by the Holy
Spirit and remain faithful to the calling that God has given them, no matter the difficulty that
they may face. So more than any particular tidbit of advice, of which Charles had many, what I
want to learn from his life is a dependence on the Lord and a passion for the Lord’s work that
lasts.
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