Power of the Holy Spirit by Richard Roberts

SPKM DUSTY KEMP I’m not one to admit it.  But I do remember it.

SPKM RHONDA KEMP But he just kept coming on and kept coming.  You know, he sensed something in our church that he had never sensed before and that was the power of the Holy Spirit because it was there in our church.  And you just started coming, how did you start coming?

SPKM DUSTY KEMP They let me play my guitar in the band.

SPKM RHONDA KEMP We had a band and he got to play in the band, so he came to where he could play and minister, you know, in music.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Then after you got married, you were called to become a pastor.  How did you know that the call was real?

SPKM DUSTY KEMP Well, at that time I began working–after I graduated from the University of Houston, the Lord reminded me that I was called to preach, just forget about being a lawyer. It was at that time that I married Rhonda and I worked at construction jobs with a college degree, but just worked a regular construction job and learned more about life in that one year working construction than I probably had in all my life at the other things.  And after that He reminded me that I was called to preach.  I started working for Ronda’s daddy and did everything there was to do, proving my faithfulness to the Lord, that special time when you just have to be faithful.  And He raised me up at that time after I was with him approximately for a year, and opened the door for us to go to Houston.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Where are your parents pastoring now?

SPKM RHONDA KEMP In Montvale View, Texas, about 60 miles outside of Houston.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Now that’s a large church.

SPKM RHONDA KEMP Yes, the church is bigger than the population of the town.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS That sounds like Larry Lea in Rockwall, almost 7,500, I think, in Rockwall and his church has 11,000.

SPKM DUSTY KEMP Right, so if we do that in Houston we’ll be doing something.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS You certainly will.  I understand, Dusty, that about half of your church is single.

SPKM DUSTY KEMP That’s surprising, but we took a survey and just about half of our church is single.  Now some of those are single who have never been married.  Some are divorced parents, some are widows.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Single parents.

SPKM DUSTY KEMP Probably 35 to 40 years old is the median age of our church.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS How do you minister to singles?

SPKM DUSTY KEMP Well, I minister to them just the Word of God.  I believe that the power of God and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will take care of itself, if I’ll just minister to them the uncompromising Word of God. We do have two special singles groups, one for over 35 and then one is for under 35, which is more of a time of fellowship and then giving them an alternative to a worldly life-style.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS What do you do–and, Rhonda, I want you to be included in this, in this answer–what do you do when a person comes to you whose life has been broken.  Perhaps they’ve gone through a divorce or through a separation and they’re hurting and perhaps they’ve been criticized or they’ve been judged or maybe somebody’s cast them out?  How do you receive them?  What do you do to minister to them and to help them get over, get healed of that hurt?  What do you do?  I want a pastor and a pastor’s wife to explain.

SPKM DUSTY KEMP You said, pastor and a pastor’s wife, and I need to preface what I’m going to say with this, that people really don’t understand what I know that you and Lindsay go through as a minister and really what your dad and mom have gone through. That’s been probably the single most powerful inspiration in my life is what they have suffered, not that the Lord sent, but that the devil sent, and the constant persecution and the constant afflictions of the devil to try to shut them up.  And people sometimes don’t realize that a pastor and his wife feel that, not only from people coming against them but also begin to feel that for every person in the church.  Because Jesus said in John, chapter 10 that a true pastor is concerned for the sheep.  So automatically just by–it’s almost like when a broken person comes to us, we’ve already been broken in our own selves.