‘Ask big things of God,’ says ARP pastor and missionary candidate
The Rev. Lee Shelnutt, pastor of Huntersville ARP Church in Huntersville, North Carolina, spoke at an Erskine Chapel gathering Tuesday, Feb. 22. Shelnutt was recently approved by World Witness (an agency of the ARP Church) as a full-time missionary candidate in a new field of service known as the Barnabas Ministry.
Shelnutt took as his text a portion of the third chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, a letter in which the apostle celebrates the gospel’s inclusion of both Gentiles and Jews as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Focusing on two verses of the text which acclaim the power and glory of God, he read the verses aloud several times to impress them on the minds of his chapel audience: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Urging students to keep praying for their fellow students and suggesting that they consider the verses he emphasized when praying about their next step in life, Shelnutt said, “Your responsibility is to ask big things of God, to think big things of God,” and added, “He’s doing far more in your life than you can even fathom.”
A former Moderator of the General Synod, Lee Shelnutt has served in various capacities throughout the ARP denomination. He is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta School of Biblical Studies, and Georgia Tech, and has worked in the engineering field. He and his wife Joni are the parents of a daughter, Neidin.
