'Little Pastors' with Big Hearts Honored at Theo Awards
Acknowledging the tireless efforts, struggles, and sacrifice of preachers who have often times gone unnoticed, the award ceremony on Saturday sought to recognize before an audience of more than 2,000 the Kingdom-building works of award recipients.
HOUSTON – ‘‘The show like no other’’ is the phrase used by the creator and hosts of the 2nd Annual 2006 Theologian Awards & Gospel Music Celebration to describe the event using Gospel music to celebrate pastors who may not be well-known but who have lived an exemplary life in Christ.
Acknowledging the tireless efforts, struggles, and sacrifice of preachers who have often times gone unnoticed, the award ceremony on Saturday sought to recognize before an audience of more than 2,000 the Kingdom-building works of award recipients.
“The Theologian Awards came by way as a vision from God and the purpose of the award show is to acknowledge the work of theologians, men of God, who work tirelessly in the environment that God has put them in,” explained the Rev. Darrel Johnson, the award show’s founder.
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“What we try to do with the Theologian Awards is reach out to those pastors who are working. It doesn’t matter how big or small the church is, but it is what the pastor is doing in the lives of others.”
Johnson pointed out recipients such as Bishop Leroy Woodard, senior pastor of Christian Rescue Mission City Fellowship Church in Houston and recipient of the 2006 Theologian Humanitarian award, as an example of someone who exemplifies a life in Christ. Woodard’s ministry fed 60,000 people in two days for Thanksgiving.
“So what we are doing is not necessarily focusing on fame, but we are focusing on those who are able to speak the Word into people’s life and give them hope,” concluded the “Theo award” visionary.
Cheryl Jackson, one of the four hosts of the Theo award show, said she would do anything to make Johnson’s vision come true.
“I am a preacher’s kid, a pastor’s kid and the reason why I connected with him (Darrel Johnson) is because I noticed that he wasn’t after a popularity contest,” said Jackson. “My father passed away two years ago and he died for the ministry. He literally drove four hours one way and four hours the other way back and the doctor said that his body just shut down on him.”
The sole host of the first Theologian Awards & Gospel Music Celebration shared that she was afraid that although her father died for the ministry, no one would ever know his name and all the effort he put into sharing the Gospel.
“My father use to tell me, ‘Cheryl, only what you do for Christ will last.’ So I’m going to keep going and keep going and I cry because my dad died for this and no one will ever know his name. But he (Johnson) said I want to talk to those pastors who have given their life. It hit me and tears locked up under my cheeks because I just lost my father and I thought no one will ever know my father’s name. That is what I told my dad: ‘The world will know what you put into the ministry and I will pick up the torch.’”
The preacher’s daughter concluded, “Those little pastors who are praying and crying, those pastors who are going out on the streets and helping the homeless and taking money out of their personal pocket – that is the kind of pastor my father was. Nobody knows their names; they don’t get the recognition. This man is making my dream and my father’s dream come true of somebody that says, ‘Keep on working because only what you do for Christ will last.’"
