“HE IS STILL WORKING ON ME”
If you would have visited the small quiet town of Westlake, Louisiana in the late 50’s and into the mid 60’s you would not have pegged the skinny little boy by the name of Rod Bankens as a Speaker, Preacher, Evangelist, or Pastor. Neither would anyone in Westlake, especially me, Rod myself.
I grew up in a godly home with a great dad and mother. I had two younger brothers and we are still good brothers to this day. But even being raised in a good godly home, I was never classed as one that could do anything right. In fact I had so many problems in my scholastics, had a retention problem which hinders me even today. I have just continued to challenge myself to improve even as I am getting older in my years. (My mother can tell you I studied almost every night, when I was in school. I just could not retain what I would read therefore I struggled in my classes. In those days students with such problems were just classed as bad students and written off by teachers and the higher learning system.)
I would never blame my problems on my father or my mother they did the best in raising me as they could, with them not fully understanding my problems back then.
Now, I will make a statement that I may have to reiterate to some people. I do know there are many dedicated school teachers in our schools, both of my parents were good dedicated educators, my mother is still in the education system at 82 years of age. I just was not placed in the classrooms of good dedicated teachers very often. I would get placed with teachers that to this day I wonder how they themselves even made it out of college. I will even go so far as to tell you many of my school teachers had bad attitudes and took them out on me and a few other pupils who had to be in their class, this made our struggles even worse. Yes, many of my teachers could not have made it if they had to work any other type job.
So many of my teachers would treat us like we belonged in jail or even prison and they acted like they were hired as wardens. We who struggled were often told we would never amount to anything. I was personally told by my English teacher in my junior year, she had never dealt with such and idiot, this statement was made by her often in an open classroom setting. My English teacher in my first two years of high school years was sweet on several of the guys. When I told him I would whip him and expose him if he ever tried to touch me, he began to make my life hard in his class. I was told publicly with much ridicule by my Speech Teacher, on more than one occasion, he sure hoped I did not ever plan on any public speaking because I was the worst speaker he had ever taught in school and I just did not have what it took to make it. I wish he would walk into one of the services and hear me speak now. I would love to let him grade me now, or maybe it would be good for me to grade him on his abilities. The music teacher would not let me into her music class. (Every year of high school I would sign up for music and never was allowed to take the class.) Yet, she would call on me as a male vocalist and also to join her male quartet every year for competition and we would always place. I met her several years after I graduated and she told me she did not like Pentecostal’s and that was her reasons in not letting me take music. I was also told by several of my school teachers I needed to just quit school and join the armed forces, because I would never be able to get a job beyond a service station attendant or a Pack-A-Sack grocery clerk.
(I almost quit school in my junior year,
because our High School counselor called me in and told me the military was my only hope. I look back and realize both of her sons dropped out of High School. Who hired such an idiot to counsel, us?)
I must confess in all my growing up years, not one of these teachers ever told me I had any value or that I could make it, they just let me know I did not have what it would take and I would never amount to anything in life.
(A note: I cannot say that I ever gave my own sons much encouragement either, we in America, just do not do a good job of encouraging our own. We follow the lead of those who are before us and we just do not know how to encourage our children.)I must confess that I did complete High School and attended McNeese State University and completed a few hours of college credits, but I was not ready for college either.
At the age of seventeen I felt my call to preach, such a burning desire I felt from God. I had no one to encourage me even in my spiritual endeavors. I was told by so many in our local church and in the Pentecostal Organization that I would never make it in the ministry I just did not have what it took to be in the ministry.
(How can we ever try to fill the position of God and tell a person they cannot fulfill a call that God has placed on their life.)My younger years as a husband, dad and bread winner were very hard. I had so many issues, and anger would cause me to explode often. I would quit every job I got due to the fact that even at work I faced the facts often that I just did not have what it took and I believed it. I look back to my job at Firestone Rubber Company and realize the supervisor that gave me so much trouble, died an alcoholic. Looking back at my job with American Finance Corporation, the man that gave me so much trouble and told me daily I was an idiot has lost everything he had and been in prison twice and is an alcoholic today. Looking back at my job at Conoco Oil there were three men that road me hard while there, all of them have died as alcoholics.
So many of the people who were my teachers in school and so many who were my leaders at work had convinced me I was a dud and would never amount to much of anything and that is just the way it would always be. Yes, I must confess the minute the pressure was on me I quit. I would blame all of these problems on everyone else, but all the while I was hurting myself and my young family.
The one thread that always comes through with successful people is when times get hard and things seem to go wrong they do not give up they do not quit. I must confess I am no longer a quitter in fact I put everything into what I do today. Yes I believe in giving it my all and doing my best in everything I do. If things do not work out as I think they should, when I lay my head on my pillow at night, I can say, I did my best.
I did have some successes in my life-time, but it seemed with each climb to success there was always a quick slide back down to the bottom. I had several business failures during my climbs to success. It was in 1987 on one of my serious declines of business, I realized I had to fulfill the call God had placed on my life at the age of seventeen.
I was now forty years old, over the hill and still had so many hang-ups in my life when I started preaching. I had not gone to any Bible School or Seminary. I had never been taught how to prepare a message in fact I had never even really preached a message. I had taught Sunday School classes, Bible lessons and many home Bible Studies. I can honestly say, my wonderful pastor Dr. M. D. Treece was so very supportive of my fulfilling this call of God on my life, he really is the first person that told me I could do it and he was my stay in the Lord.
I do not know how we class successes as preachers, but for me to ever have any feel of success I had to overcome my own personal fears and timidity. I would literally spend eight hours of every single day as an evangelist writing notes for messages and I had to literally hone these messages, by reading my notes over and over after I had written them and when no one was around I would often speak them out loud to myself. I had been told by a very successful Pastor, teacher that I needed to listen to my tapes so I would not get tied up speak repetitious words or verbiages. I worked hard and still work hard on my skills of writing and speaking.
I have had the privilege of preaching in seventeen different states including Alaska. I have been to Alaska eleven times to preach in many of the churches there. I have been to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada nine times. I have been to the Philippines on four different occasions to preach conferences and crusades. I have been pastor of two small churches one in Georgia and now Mississippi.
I have now published a booklet that has been sold all over this nation. I have published two books that are still being sold at this present time. I write a blog and publish it at least once a week. I write all my own messages, lessons and all my text for publication. In fact I must confess I love to read and write. I still fight a retention problem, but I fight it and know when to lay my work aside for awhile, rest my mind and start fresh later.
I am now sixty three almost sixty four years of age I am looking at a change in my ministry. I will never stop preaching until I pass from this life, but I will leave the Pastoral ministry shortly after I reach the age of sixty five. I feel that I must leave the local church to a younger man and I must go out ministering and teaching, leading churches and young preachers and leaders into a deeper walk with the Lord.
Yes my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is still working on me today. Even though I am getting up in age, “I am still a work in progress.”
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