Jack E. Middleton,   Pastor of Wichita Bible Church,  1958-1992

I graduated from Wichita High School East in 1946.  Since my High School years coincided with World War II, I assumed that upon graduation, I would either be drafted into the Army or enlist in some branch of the service that might be more advantageous to me.  The dropping of the Atomic bombs on Japan, however, brought the war to an abrupt halt.  They therefore stopped the draft a month before my 18^th birthday, and I was left wondering what to do next.  I had not really anticipated college.  So I then attended Wichita State University for three semesters struggling with mechanical engineering and competing with returning vets who were older and much wiser.

Deciding college was a waste of money, and not worth my time, I borrowed some money, bought a water well drilling rig, learned a little about the business and operation of the equipment, and low and behold….I was a well driller.  I did that until 1955 when I felt that I should start my college again, but then, at the Midwest Bible and Missionary Institute in St. Louis.  I might add that my drilling business was also interrupted by my time in the Air Force.  When the Korean War (so called) started in 1950, I was at the top of the list to be drafted, so I joined the Air National Guard to avoid the draft, and then President Truman, bless his heart, activated my unit the next month.

I graduated from Bible College in the spring of 1958.  By that time the Midwest Bible and Missionary Institute had changed names to the Calvary Bible College.  I came back to Wichita upon the invitation of Max Clinton, pastor of the Wichita Bible Church and the Board, to be an associate pastor.  My school counselor thought there would be no better place to gain experience for the ministry, than to work with the Wichita Bible Church, and Max Clinton, a very respected minister.  In about three months, Max Clinton resigned and low and behold, I really began gaining experience.  I continued getting experience until I resigned 34 years later in October of 1992.  I was certainly old enough to retire at that time, but a major contributing factor for this decision was that my wife, Donna, had Alzheimer's disease and was simply not able to manage on her own.  She suffered from that disease for 12 years, dying in March of 1999.  The last four years she was in a nursing home, beyond my ability to care adequately for her alone.

It is hard for me to evaluate spiritual success in the ministry.  Daniel in the lion’s den, Shadrach in the fiery furnace, Joseph in prison, and David in exile, were all looking rather unsuccessful, but spiritually they were doing quite well.

Nonetheless, during my 34 years, the church did more than double in size…numerically, financially, and materially.  In my sermons, I covered all of the books of the Bible in a chapter by chapter approach, some more than once…except the Song of Solomon! (That’s a good book, no doubt, but not one that I ever had the nerve to cover verse by verse from the pulpit.) 

The missions program grew, and a large number of individuals, like myself, who had benefited from the preaching at the Bible Church left for further schooling and ministry.

In my estimation, what I tried to do as pastor at WBC, was to repay the debt I felt that I owed to the church, by encouraging it to be a benefit to many others as it had been to me.  If it had not been for Leslie Unruh, an elder at the church, who invited me to the Bible church as a muddied up well driller, I have no idea how I would have heard the gospel.  It is certainly  not apparent from my then present, nor past circumstances.  As Leslie and others from the church prayed for me, and encouraged me to trust in Christ as my Saviour, then to grow in Bible knowledge and faith in Christ, I attempted to have the Bible church continue to preach and share the gospel, study the Word of God, memorize it whenever possible, support missions and missionaries, and be a faithful witness to the goodness and mercy of God in a very dirty and messed up world.

During my years as a pastor, according to my records, I have officiated at 231 weddings.  I have had many times that number of funerals, though I do not know the exact number.