Acts 20:32

The Disciplemaker:
What Matters Most to Jesus
by
Gary W. Derickson, M.S., Ph.D.; Professor of Biblical Studies, Western Baptist College
Earl D. Radmacher, M.A., Th.D.; President Emeritus, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary

About the Authors

Gary Wayne Derickson was born to Glen and Christina Derickson in Pasadena, Texas in March of 1953.  He grew up in a Christian home and witnessed his parents' growing faith.  One day just before his seventh birthday he stood by the dining table listening to his father explain the gospel to a friend.   After he left, Gary asked his father to tell him, too, how he could become a Christian.  His father gladly explained the gospel to his young son.  A couple of weeks later, at a revival meeting in their church, Gary felt God's drawing him during the alter call and received Christ as His Savior.  Then, as an eight-year-old, he sensed God's call to service.  During a Sunday morning worship service alter call he went forward to tell his pastor of His calling.  He also offered to preach for him if ever he needed a substitute. His pastor stopped the service and shared his offer with the congregation.  All laughed, thinking it was cute.  But Gary was serious.

Gary's life was rather normal through High School, other than his family moved numerous times and spent his six and seventh grade years in Egypt.  In High School he involved himself in the Future Farmers of America program and worked in his father's tomato greenhouses.  By the time he graduated from High School he had mostly forgotten His calling.  He chose to attend Texas A&M University and study Horticulture, with a dream of earning a doctorate in greenhouse tomatoes, growing them, and getting rich.  His freshman year he was led by the Lord to become involved with the Campus Crusade for Christ group.  As a sophomore he sensed God's leading into the Corps of Cadets where he shared the gospel, led Bible Studies, and discipled other men.  After completing his R.O.T.C. training and being commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Gary remained at Texas A&M for two more years, both to earn a Masters of Science in Horticulture and to continue discipling three friends.

Gary served four and a half years of active duty in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps at Fort Eustis, Virginia.  His assignments included commanding a platoon of five tugboats, serving on Battalion staff, and as a company executive officer.  Throughout his career he led Bible studies and served in local churches.  Intending to stay for a thirty-year career, he began praying for God's leading - just as an exercise.  After a year of prayer he realized that God's calling when he was an eight-year-old was still there.   So, he resigned his commission and enrolled at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Gary studied biblical exposition at Dallas Seminary and earned his Masters of Theology degree in 1986.  Wanting to study further, he continued doctoral studies under four goldy men: Drs. Elliot E. Johnson, Stanely D. Toussaint, J. Dwight Pentecost, and Homer Heater.  Writing his dissertation on First John, he earned his Doctorate of Philosophy degree in 1993 and was awarded the Donald K. Campbell Award in Biblical Exposition.  He left Dallas to teach at Corban College in Salem, Oregon, where he continues to minister until the present as a Professor of Biblical Studies and Chairman of the Ministry Division.

During his doctoral studies Gary met Rebekah, who was in the Masters of Arts in Biblical Studies program at Dallas Seminary.  They were married in 1991.  God also has blessed them with a son, Ian.  They presently live in Salem, Oregon, attending and participating in the life and ministry of First Baptist Church.

Earl Radmacher was born almost seventy years ago in Portland, Oregon just a couple miles from Western Seminary where, in the providence of God, he would later serve on the theological faculty for thirty-three years (1962-1995) and in administrative positions as Dean of the Faculty, (1964-1965) President (1965-1990), and Chancellor (1990-1995).  In 1995 he was designated President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus.

His parents, who were immigrants from Romania and Austria, settled in Portland in 1913 where they brought eight children into this world, Earl being the last.  The whole family was very active in local churches so every Sunday found Earl spending all day in church - Sunday school, morning worship, potluck lunch at the church, recreation break, youth service, evening service, and after service.  Even though he had heard the gospel preached Sunday after Sunday, he did not personally receive Christ as his Savior until he was fourteen years of age.  He has often stated that sitting in church Sunday after Sunday doesn't make one a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes one a car.

At that juncture in his life, Earl came in contact with another Earl - Earl Gile - a faithful Sunday school teacher who lived right across the street from the grade school he had attended, and he opened up his home as an outreach to boys from the school.  Mr. Gile's church rented the school gymnasium on Thursday nights and made it available for boys to play basketball if they came to Sunday School on Sundays.  That sounded like a good deal, so he went.  Shortly after that, the teacher announced a forthcoming boys camp at Twin Rocks Beach, Oregon.  He decided to go; and there, at fourteen years of age, he accepted Christ as his Savior.

Although the church preached the gospel faithfully, they didn't go beyond the gospel to build up believers in the faith.  He has often said, "As a believer, I didn't need a birth message, but I did need a growth message.  That being absent, I tended to flounder, and my growth in Christ was stunted.  Thus, the high school years were a disaster as far as the things of Christ and spiritual growth were concerned."

As graduation time neared, he took the normal batch of tests to determine which line of work he should pursue.  The tests indicated mathematics or mechanics, so he decided to go the route of mathematics and join it with money by starting a career in a saving and loan institution.  He started as a file clerk and worked up to an investment statistician that year.

His plans in the investment business were dramatically interrupted, however, by a visit to Portland of a new evangelist on the scene, Billy Graham, in August of 1950.  A friend invited him to go to the meeting and, although he had little spiritual appetite at the time, God seemed to press him toward the affirmative.  As the poet Francis Thompson has written: "He tracked me down the corridors of time."  As it turned out, Earl not only went that night but every night thereafter for six weeks.  The only meeting he missed was the women's meeting (they wouldn't let him in!).

After listening to the powerful preaching of Billy Graham for six weeks, at the conclusion of the last service, he found himself standing to his feet, going forward, grabbing Cliff Barrow's hand, and telling him that God had called him to preach.  His next question was, "What do I do now?"  Cliff said, "You go to college and prepare" and he recommended his alma mater in South Carolina.

Once again, God had a man prepared to help him take the next step.  As the tabernacle cleared out, he saw a man he hadn't seen since grade school.  In the beautiful providence of God, this man, Jerry Burleson, was going to the same college in South Carolina that Cliff Barrows had recommended, and he was looking for one more rider.  Although it was just two weeks before Fall semester, Jerry assured him that they would accept him on probation though his recommendation.  He worked nights for two weeks training another person for his job so that he could leave with the good graces of his employer.

Twelve years and four degrees later (Bob Jones University, B.A., M.R.E.; Dallas Theological Seminary, Th.M., Th.D.), together with broad opportunities of experience in preaching and teaching, overseas missions and military chaplaincy, local church pastor and parachurch ministries, rural and urban outreaches, he ended up not in the pastorate, but in the training of evangelists, pastors, and teachers at Western Seminary.  His years there involved traveling over ten million miles and preaching and teaching over twenty thousand hours in over a thousand Bible conferences and thousands of churches.

Among the numerous books and articles that Dr. Radmacher has authored or edited are the following books:  You and Your Thoughts (1977), The Nature of the Church (1978, 1995), Can We Trust the Bible (1979), What to Expect from the Holy Spirit (1983), Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible (1984), The NIV Reconsidered (1990), The Nelson Study Bible (1997), Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (1999), and Salvation (2000).

Dr. Radmacher has often stated "In my wildest dreams fifty years ago, I could never have imagined the excited plans that God, in His sovereign grace, had for me."  His life mission is found in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  His personal life verse is 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

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"So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified."
Acts 20;32 (NKJ)