By Phillip R. Hunter
Loving others by sharing the kindness of God with them as you are going through each day is normal Christianity when you read the New Testament.
I pray God will use this short version of “my story” to greatly encourage you to experience what you were saved for: “that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (Philemon 6, NIV).
I was born in 1951 and grew up in Warren, Arkansas, continually seeing my mom love people and share Christ with everyone she met, leading many to trust Christ to be their Lord and Savior.
When I trusted Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior at the age of seven, God gave me the desire Jesus promised to give everyone who receives him, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17, ESV), it was just normal that I went to school the next day and I had to tell others about Jesus! The Lord’s power, priority, and passion were now in me. I had to tell others about Jesus–not because my mom did, but because Jesus had redeemed and reconciled my life (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)!
My family moved to Ephrata, Washington in 1964 because of a new job for my dad. Finding no church with the priority of sharing the gospel with those without Christ, my parents started a new church.
My parents modeled before my brothers and me the way Jesus enjoyed meals with others to express his kindness and love to them. They invited many of our new neighbors and friends to our home for a meal. Through their kindness, many of these guests began to come to our new church. Some of them trusted Christ to be their Lord and Savior.
When I was fourteen, the LORD called me into Christian vocational ministry. Being a part of a new church provided many opportunities for me to learn, grow, serve, and lead during my teenage years.
On March 17, 1973, I married Roni Jo Payne. Roni has been an indescribable blessing in my life! She is the mother of our three sons, my best friend, and my partner in ministry. She has prepared and served countless meals to others. We have seen many trust Christ to be their Lord and Savior in our home after enjoying a delicious meal!
Graduating with a B.A. degree in piano performance from Eastern Washington State College, an M.M. degree in piano performance from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, an M.Div. degree and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary, I will forever be grateful to my professors who faithfully loved me, prayed for me, taught me, encouraged me, and challenged me to daily: submit my life to the authority of God’s Word, surrender my life to the power of the Holy Spirit, and settle the issue of whose I am.
After being privileged for fifteen years of leading, serving, teaching, and preaching in churches in Washington, Texas, California, and Oregon, I was asked to serve in the evangelism office of the Missouri Baptist Convention in 1984 as an associate and a few years later as the director until August of 1991.
It was seven years in which I was able to pray, love, lead, preach, teach, encourage, equip, and serve with the Missouri Baptist Convention staff, the Home Mission Board staff, Southern Baptist seminary and college staff, and hundreds of pastors, and worship and student pastors in ministering to their people. It was seven glorious years of reaching many for Christ and then making disciples in partnering with pastors and student pastors across Missouri and the nation.
Listening to so many stories of pastors and people, I learned like never before, that regardless of how good anyone looks from “the outside,” everyone has more disappointments, hurts, heartaches, insecurities, struggles, temptations, frustrations, failures, fears, and sin than you could ever imagine.
But the good news God taught me to tell everyone was: “No matter how horrible your sin or past is; no matter how unfair or hopeless your situation seems to be, “Jesus is enough to cover every sin, comfort every heartache, and change every life!”
In July of 1991, honoring one of my son’s requests to be “his pastor again,” and being faithful to God’s call in my life as a husband and as a dad, I accepted the call to pastor First Baptist Church in Ellisville, Missouri. Two-and-a-half years later, I became the founding pastor of West County Community Church and enjoyed twenty-two years of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, reaching many for Christ, and making disciples of those, to reach many more for Christ!
After each of our three sons and eleven grandchildren (fifteen now) moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, believing it was God’s will to partner with our children in “making disciples” of our grandchildren, I resigned as pastor of West County Community Church in December of 2015.
We purchased a home in Arlington, Texas in January of 2016 and moved to Arlington a few months later looking forward to new areas of service as the Lord would lead. Roni and I are members at Fielder Church in Arlington, where our youngest son, Matt, is serving as a pastor of Fielder Church at the South Oak campus. Our oldest son, Phillip, is serving as a pastor over the Gateway Ministry Experience at Gateway Church in Southlake. Our middle son, Josh, works as a physician recruiter in the medical field.
In January 2017, I was invited to write the daily prayer prompts for the prayer ministry, “Pray 4 Every Home.” Beginning in 2014, this ministry was already being used by hundreds of churches in states across the nation to daily pray for their neighbors! When I asked the P4EH leadership: “What are you doing to equip those who are praying to share Christ with their neighbors?” They responded, “We are not there yet.” I answered: “By God’s grace, that is my life and I will do that!”
“Home 2 Hearts” was born! From January 2017 to March 2021:
- I wrote all the prayer prompts for Pray 4 Every Home.
- Roni and I started a Home 2 Hearts ministry in our subdivision of 95 homes which grew in a few months to include a bi-monthly neighborhood Bible Study that averages 15-20 persons. We have had as many as 36 neighbors at one time in our home. Several neighbors have trusted Christ to be their Lord and Savior.
- Having Keith Young’s web-design expertise and computer skills, we developed this Home 2 Hearts website and wrote and published the Home 2 Hearts Conference book.
- I began to lead Pray 4 Every Home and Home 2 Hearts Conferences across the nation for churches, associations, and state conventions.
In March of 2021, Pray 4 Every Home merged with the prayer ministry of Bless Every Home. From April 1, 2021, to October 31, 2022, I was a consultant with Bless Every Home and did with them what I had been doing with Pray 4 Every Home.
Presently, I am partnering with Dr. Bruno Molina in the Evangelism Office of the Texas Southern Baptist Convention to lead Bless Every Home / Home 2 Hearts Conferences. I continue to partner with pastors, churches, and other ministries to inspire, equip, and encourage God’s people to live Spirit-filled lives with a Bless Every Home and Home 2 Hearts vision for their neighbors.