SUNDAY SITDOWN
DAVID BEAULIEU
LIFEPOINTE CHURCH, CROCKETT
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
This is a series of reports the Messenger will be doing each Sunday about local pastors in our area. To see the full interview, check out the video online on our website, www.messenger-news.com The Messenger would like to thank Cutshaw Chevrolet in Grapeland for sponsoring this week’s edition.
David Beaulieu is the Associate Pastor and served as the interim pastor at Lifepointe Church in Crockett. The Messenger will soon do an interview with new pastor Timothy Jones.
When did you first feel a calling to be a preacher?
“My wife and I went to Colorado to be part of a church. Our purpose was just to get involved in church, and serve and the pastor asked my wife and I to minister to college-age people. We were in our mid-20’s and just out of Bible school. We thought we knew everything! But we didn’t. We then got sent as missionaries to Costa Rica and stayed there for four years. Then the pastor asked me to come back and preach. We came back and I pastored that church from 1998-2001.”
Is there a certain passage/story/verse in the Bible that inspires you?
“I look at some of the reformers in the Old Testament. One of them is King Asa. He came in and tore down all the idols. When the enemy came against them he prayed and asked God for help. God helped him and he won the battle. And he became a great King. But years later again his enemies come to attack. And instead of asking God for help again, he takes gold and silver from the treasury of his neighbors. The Bible says, ‘The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong to those whose hearts are perfect towards Him. But King Asa had done foolishly. And so he had war all the time. It’s a reminder. You can start off strong, but it’s not how you start out – it’s how you finish.”
What is the hardest part of being a preacher?
“I don’t consider myself a preacher. Someone said, ‘What’s the difference between a teacher and a preacher?’ Maybe 20 minutes? The challenge is when you hear from God, and knowing you have a responsibility for the things you say and the things that you teach. That’s a pretty heavy duty job. You have people that are resistant to any kind of change. But when you become a Christian, it’s all about change, it’s all about transformation. It’s a bummer when you see people not getting changed, as it is awesome when you see transformation in people’s lives. It takes time. You can’t just change people overnight and bring them joy, peace and hopefully harmony.”
What do you like most about being a pastor?
“Just working with people – I like working with people. COVID really messed up the church a lot because interaction eyeball to eyeball is a lot better than just staring at your phone and ‘tik-tokking’ your way to hell! How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity? I have always been a community guy. I like to work with Mission Crockett. We work a lot with the Mary Allen Museum.”
What do you think God wants from each of us?
“Micah 6:8 – ‘He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ I think that’s a big part of what we need to do. In humility, recognize that we have a need for a Savior. That Savior has extended grace to humanity. When you embrace that, you just want to worship Him! You want to thank Him. You want to look around and be appreciative for what He has provided you. Especially here in the United States – we are the blessed of the blessed.”
Lifepointe Church meets each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at 1417 E. Loop 304 in Crockett. Call the church at 936-544-8562.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]