“I’m confident that what I have to say is very important today,” said Greenwood Park Church of Christ preacher Kenneth Grizzell after a morning full of setbacks.
It would be his final Sunday morning sermon for the Bowling Green, Kentucky, congregation.
The 60-year-old minister died in an accident that night when his vehicle hit a wooden fence off Greenhill Road on the outskirts of Bowling Green.
His wife of 37 years, Lori, and two grandchildren who were also in the vehicle survived without major injury.
Earlier that day, Kenneth Grizzell told his 500-member congregation that he believed his Sunday morning message was important “because at 3:03 a.m., I woke up this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep — my head playing, trying to remember Scriptures, trying to pray, trying to do all types of things. It was a feeling of being under attack.”
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After getting to the church building, he had trouble with his microphone and realized he brought the wrong glasses.
“I’m just like, you know, what else could there be?” he said. “And then we sing praises to God and we acknowledge him.”
Grizzell went on to preach about overcoming Satan to walk with God — no matter what trials we endure.
“In a fallen world that we live in, most of the time, when the path is not clear, I see God’s got something on the other side of that obstacle,” Grizzell said. “God has and is doing something in our midst that is mighty.”
Grizzell had preached at the Greenwood church for eight years and ministered to congregations in five other states — Tennessee, Ohio, California, Florida and Georgia — over the past four decades
“Kenneth loved God and loved preaching his word and sharing his faith,” Greenwood elder Ray Newton told media. “And we are less for his loss.”
Grizzell had one adult son, two daughters and seven granddaughters.
A memorial service will be held at Greenwood Park Saturday at 2 p.m. Further details are available online.
Sunday, Grizzell will be interred at a family grave site in Winchester, Tennessee.
“The ‘day of rest’ — he’ll like that,” Newton said. “God’s blessing.”
This article originally appeared at The Christian Chronicle.
Calvin Cockrell is the media editor for The Christian Chronicle. He also serves as the young adults minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama.
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One Response
Sending my deep sympathy to the family and congregation for the loss of a man who from all descriptions loved God, loved his family and congregation and did his best to serve God.
It is so refreshing to read in these columns about a man who lived to honor God and was praised by his elders at his death.
May God bless and strengthen all the pastors who work hard, don’t seek the spotlight, and just do as God has asked us all to do: Love God, love others, share the Gospel.
May their tribe increase.