The congregation at Victory Baptist Church went all out Sunday for Pastor Appreciation Day.

But for Pastor Ricky Easter, now in his 39^th year at the church, it could have been called “Preacher” Appreciation Day.

“Most everybody calls me Preacher,” Easter said Monday, just a day after the special service, which included the congregation gathering around Easter and his wife, Debbie, to lay hands on and pray for the couple and for Easter’s ministry.

“I like being called the preacher,” Easter said, “because that’s what I am…called to the Lord to preach the Gospel. And that’s my greatest joy.”

As an independent church, Victory Baptist isn’t a member of any group or association, and Easter said they use the King James Version of the Bible. “We still sing the old hymns, and some of the newer songs” that young people like to sing.

The folks who come to worship on Sundays are really like a family, he said. “Some of our people are closer to our church family than they are to their own family,” Easter said. “Christ unites us together and brings us together.”

So when that church family rose from their seats on Sunday to offer prayers for Easter, he said it was something special.

“Yesterday was a blessing,” he said, “to see all the people in our church that moved forward and gathered around Debbie and I. It was a blessing to know that we have that much support. That they still stand with us, still stand behind us. And stand for what we stand for. It was great encouragement to know that your people are ‘for’ you.”

Victory Baptist supports 40-plus missionaries across the world as they spread the Gospel far and wide.

And Easter said the weekly broadcasts on WIZS help the church work at home. “We work in our Jerusalem, in our Judaeh, to get the Gospel out,” he said.

The Gospel message is the most important aspect of his ministry, and Easter said he tries to preach with all his heart.

“I’m passionate about it…that’s the only hope that anybody has of heaven – the gospel.  If they don’t believe the gospel, they have no hope of heaven.”

Music is another important component of Easter’s ministry. The couple would sing together a lot, Easter said, with him providing accompaniment on the guitar.

They don’t sing as much anymore, but their three daughters – and the grandchildren are carrying on the tradition.

And when the family got up at the end of the service to sing some of those songs that he and Debbie sang together years ago…well, the Preacher was quite moved.

“It was heart-wrenching,” he said.

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