Randy Faulkner is a pastor who retired in 2018 after 47 years in local church ministry. He is a teacher, disciple-maker, writer, leader and friend. He and his wife Connie have been married for 50 years. They are blessed with five adult children and twelve grandchildren. He enjoys hiking, racquetball, music and reading.
Pastor Randy wrote the following about his personal history.
I was blessed with Christian parents who reared my four brothers and me to live our lives for Jesus. J.R. and Magdalene Faulkner served in Christian higher education in Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga. Hardly a day goes by that I do not thank the Lord for their towering example and influence.
My dad was a pastor and college administrator who taught me to value people and to lead by example. He was a man of supreme integrity. My mother was a musician and musical scholar. From her I learned to love books, to love music, and to love the Lord.
Connie and I met when we were college freshmen at Temple. She came from the beautiful Virginia Highlands, near famous Whitetop Mountain and the Appalachian Trail. Her hometown, Damascus, Virginia, is said to be “the friendliest town on the Trail.” It is the home of Trail Days, an annual festival that draws thousands of hiking enthusiasts every April.
After college, Connie and I were married and she taught in a public school to support us while I studied theology, Bible, Christian history, and pastoral studies in preparation for local church ministry. I am thankful for for the training I received at Temple Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv) and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (DMin).
After serving as an associate pastor for eight years, I was called to be the senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky, in 1980. It was a joy to serve the Lord in a great church that valued expository Bible teaching, world missions, Christian school education, and ministry to the urban poor.
I was called to Oklahoma City in 1990, to Metropolitan Baptist Church, where I served for 28 happy years. No pastor could ask for a more supportive, gracious and generous church family than Metropolitan was during my tenure. The people supported three building programs, invested millions of dollars in world missions, and stepped forward to serve the Lord in a variety of local ministries. I will always be thankful for the godly and capable leaders who were partners in ministry (fellow pastors, elders and deacons).
I continue to serve as a board member of the Oklahoma Christian Counseling Center, here in the city, and on the board of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE), in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Connie and I are glad for this new stage of life. We look forward each week to our service as volunteer chaplains through the Oklahoma Jail and Prison Ministry (OJPM). We enjoy our children and grandchildren and we are grateful to have more time to spend with them.