Don Jackson

I suppose my spiritual journey began with my Mother reading to me from the Hurlbut's Story of the Bible. In my teen years I became the product of a conservative family and, what we would call today, a "legalistic" church. My outlook was formed by "rule keeping," getting my theology "right" and a very skeptical view of other denominations. Our young people's group was quite small. We seldom got deeper than "Bible facts." It was a segregated town and church.

What a wonderful discovery ACC (now ACU) was. I learned there were hundreds of people pretty much like me, but with much greater diversity - some more "conservative" and some less so, but we were all Christians.

My spiritual development made a major leap forward as my wife and I left the comforts of the "Bible Belt" and moved to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, Washington DC, and several foreign countries. All of these congregations were small, or we had the opportunity to help plant a new church. The differing cultural values, the great diversity of Biblical understanding, the questioning of long held assumptions and practices were a bit of a shock and surprise. It wasn't until the 1980s that I really had my first hint of the power of God's grace. And it wasn't until we moved to Abilene and Highland with its enlightened, scholarly, spiritual teachers, preachers and elders, that I began to get a glimpse of the dimensions of God's love and the freedom and demands of accepting His grace. I am still learning.

Serving as an elder for almost 30 years - half of that at Highland - has been a blessing and privilege. I believe the role of elder is first and foremost one of an humble servant of Christ's church engaged in keeping watch over the fl ock. I love the term "shepherd" as being the most descriptive of what an elder is, what he does, and how he does it. Elders need to spend much time in prayer. Elders need to be most careful of their reputations, both within the church and without. They must exercise their authority gently and by example. In practice they need to submit themselves to God, to one another, and to the church as a whole.

Elders need the prayers of the church. It is an awesome responsibility to be held accountable for the Christians at Highland. At the same time, I take great comfort in knowing the elders are not the head of the Church - Christ is.

My vision for the Highland Church is first and foremost that we remain united and faithful in serving our King. I am most grateful for our new facilities and pray that we will continue to use them to serve our community. I would love to see an energetic expansion of our eff orts to help our neighbors meet Jesus Christ. We need to be on the lookout to serve the needs of the poor. We need to continue to be a healing place where all feel welcome. We need to continue to grow in love and respect for one another so the world will know we belong to Christ. We should empower every member of Highland to be zealous in "doing good."