Remembering Elmer Burgett June 7, 1925–June 18, 2004 Brother Burgett began serving on the Board of Directors for the Florida School of Preaching in 1993. He served until his death, June 18, 2004. Brother Elmer also served for a number of years as one of the elders of the Beville Road congregation in Daytona Beach, Florida. By profession, brother Burgett was a business man. His insight and input into the decisions of the school were always welcomed, and a cause for serious reflection in what was the best course of action to be taken by the school for the cause of Christ. We shall miss him and his wisdom, and pray God’s riches blessings upon his family.

Your School
And
Some of its Fruit

The 2004-05 classes were listed to provide the teaching content proposed for the fall semester.

These classes and the faculty are carefully chosen after serious reflection upon the goal of the school–PREPARING SOULS TO SERVE THE LORD.

The Board and administration of the school are dedicated to training individuals to establish congregations of the Lord’s church and to stabilize existing congregations. It is our conviction that the classes (and their location) will reflect the positive fruits of our joint effort.

At this writing two faculty members (Bob Bauer and Ted Wheeler) are in Ghana, West Africa. These brethren return to this part of Africa each year to start congregations and to encourage those works begun in the past.

You may recall last year Joyce and I went with Ted and his family. Our youngest son, Daniel (a pharmacist), is in the group traveling with Ted this year. In the Venice bulletin where Ted serves as an elder and full-time preacher, the following note relative to the trip is made:

“Ted and the group will leave for Ghana on Friday [July 9] and will arrive on Saturday evening at 7:35. They will be spending the first few days in Tema. Next Sunday morning Ted will be speaking on the radio at 5:30 am and later in the day they will be worshipping with the churches in Kpone, Haana and Dawhenya. On Monday, July 12, they will be driving to Yendi and then on to Bunkpurugu the following day. They will spend most of their trip working in and around Bunkpurugu. While there, they will be (1) following up on the village and the well-drilling; (2) conducting three mobile clinics; (3) working with several small churches; and (4) seeking to establish a new congregation in the village of Gabtimong. Thank you for your prayers and support.” (Venice church of Christ Bulletin, July 4, 2004).

When you support our work, the results are far reaching. We are appreciative to any and all who continually make this work possible.

We often receive letters of encouragement. We reproduce two such expressions here as a means of indicating the effect of your work and the willingness of others to uphold our hands in the same:

July 3, 2004 Dear Bro. Stearsman: I would like to participate in the good work the school is doing to promote sound gospel preaching. I would like to help by sending a contribution, as I can. I so enjoy reading the Harvester. I pray the Lord will contiue blessing this work. [sic] Name withheld, Lake Worth, FL.

June 23, 2004 Dear Brethren, I am writing on behalf of a small, mostly English speaking church in Vicenza, Italy. Most of us are associated with the military base here. We had more money in the church account than we could put to use here. Therefore, we sought good works to support. We are familiar with your program and your stand for the truth. Thank you for your work in the Lord. May God continue to bless you. We are enclosing a money order for $1,000.00 to be used to support a student in some small way. We wish we could do more.[sic] Name Witheld, church of Christ in Vicenza, Italy.

Gene Burgett Report

As I write it is only five weeks until classes start for the fall term at the Florida School of Preaching. This marks my twelfth year as an instructor for the school. My love for teaching has not diminished, and I am looking forward to teaching Preparation and Delivery of Sermons on Tuesday afternoons in Lakeland.

June provided me several opportunities to teach and preach. The Alachua church of Christ, where I serve as an elder, had a very successful Vacation Bible School in June. I also preached in Alachua one Sunday.

It was my privilege to visit with the Tenth Avenue church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida June 27. Some of the brethren in that congregation have been in the satellite class I have been teaching at High Springs. They are an impressive group of Christians working toward appointing elders. We bid them God speed in this effort. I appreciate the many kind words they had for the Florida School of Preaching.

I was blessed with an opportunity to speak at the Wednesday night summer series June 30 at the Orange Street church in Auburndale, Florida. While there I noted that the attendance for the Sunday morning and evening services was almost identical. I asked their preacher, Bob Bauer, if this was normal. Amazingly, he said, “Yes.” Bob then went on to say that the elders had worked very diligently to attain that goal. The Orange Street brethren are to be commended for what is, unfortunately, an unusual circumstance.

I am looking forward to speaking at Orange Street for both the morning and evening assemblies on July 18 while Bob Bauer is in Africa. I am proud to say that Bob is a product of the Florida School of Preaching, and Orange Street is among our most loyal supporters.

My plans are to be in Alabama and Tennessee for a couple of weeks during late July and early August. I will also be preaching for the congregation in Zephyrhills, Florida for the last three weeks of August.

I am always available to speak to individuals and congregations about the Florida School of Preaching, and I encourage any of our readers to contact me if they know anyone who might be considering preaching as a career. Of course, we also welcome those who would like to have fellowship with us financially in the work of training preachers.

Gene Burgett
Director of Public Relations
352-339-3195
burgett@atlantic.net