The Hand of the Lord Was Upon Me, by Clarence Hopson

I became aware of Pastor Hopson when he appeared on the cover of our denomination’s home-mission magazine, and he came to mind when I was scheduling chapel speakers for MBTS in the fall of 1995. As with other seminary presidents, I booked a number of prominent pastors and laymen, but I also wanted to feature faithful, lesser-known ministers. That’s what the magazine had done with regards to Clarence, and I decided to follow suit, drawing from the “pioneer” areas within our MBTS “parish”—the Upper Midwest—to which we were pointing our graduates.

His visit was a high point of the fall, and I was intrigued by something Clarence showed me—the simple drawing of a large church building with a gold-colored dome. He said it came to him in a dream, and he was convinced it was the Lord’s pleasure that his congregation at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church would one-day occupy it. Sure enough, the church was built, about a mile west of the original BMBC home. And less than a decade after Clarence’s visit to MBTS, several of us from Evanston Baptist Church (also in Chicagoland) walked in the parade from the old building to the new.

Through those intervening years, I was astonished at Pastor Hopson’s kindness to me. When I ran afoul of the trustees and had to leave MBTS in 1999, Clarence flew Sharon and me to Chicago to preach for him, and with a limo pickup at Midway. Then, when I came to Chicago to plant a church on the North Shore, he gave us dozens of folding chairs for use in our first Sunday meeting site, the YWCA of Evanston. And, to help with our launch, he sent his church choir on a bus to deliver a concert in a park beside Lake Michigan, just south of Northwestern University.

When I saw the manuscript for this book, I was eager to commend it and delighted that he asked me to write the foreword.

Foreword

Pastor Clarence Hopson is a giant in the ministry, and I am so happy that he passed along his life testimony and his wisdom. When I speak of his wisdom, I don’t mean words of wisdom for meeting particular circumstances, but there are many of those insights. I mean primarily the overarching recognition that the Lord’s hand upon those who seek and obey Him. The book is saturated with that great wisdom.

Some ministers are inclined to compromise their calling out of fear, greed, or ambition. Not so with Clarence Hopson. He has kept his eye on the Lord and His Word, asking at every turn whether things are pleasing to Him. The result has been a chain of miracles and a life of gratitude. This book is a treasury of those accounts of God’s blessing.

Pastor Hopson is careful to trace the way in which the Lord has prepared him in advance for the range of challenges he would face later on in the ministry. He has a very strong sense of the sovereignty and providence of God. From his earliest days in Mississippi through his Army service, his move to work in Chicago, and his growth as a servant of the Lord in Melrose Park, Clarence saw God shape him perfectly for the work in Broadview. And, of course, he thanks God for his wonderful wife and family, who walked with him through the years.

I wish young pastors would read this account of a man who has attended to the great things of God with keen focus on evangelism of discipleship. I have seen the splendid ministers emerging from his ministry and his gifted interaction with seminary students. But I also think that veteran pastors will find fellowship, encouragement, and even counsel in this book.

As much as I appreciate his writing, I even more appreciate the man, a dear friend in the ministry. He has been instrumental in church planning in a variety of ways and continues as a strong elder brother in the Lord. I commend his words and example to you.