Spirit and Truth Ministries
Biography of David Spakes
This web site contains a scrapbook and condensed biography of David Spakes,
Pastor of
Spirit and Truth Fellowship of Knoxville
and founder of
Spirit and Truth Ministries. In most cases, you can click on pictures
to see an enlarged photo in a separate window.
[1980s]
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[2012]
Street Preaching, Lenoir City, TN
"My first opportunity to preach came in the Spring of 1989 when the
church I was attending opened its doors on Saturdays and had street
preaching. The church was located in the old downtown area of
Lenior City across the street from the main Post Office, and there
were always plenty of pedestrians within earshot of the church's
PA system. The meetings usually lasted two hours or more, and there
was constant preaching during that time, because when one of us would
finish speaking, another one of us would take over and continue.
Here are two short clips of me preaching on two different
Saturdays. The second clip is my favorite, because you can hear me
addressing some of the passers-by."
First Sermon
"I was very nervous the first time the pastor of our church asked me
to be prepared to preach during the mid-week service. I laugh about
it now, because I know that I must have tortured the congregation with my
extremely long sermon. The title of the sermon was
God Shut the Door, and I delivered it on Thursday, May 25, 1989.
Click on the document icon below to read a copy of my notes.
Prayed for the Sick at the Hunter Healing Explosion, Knoxville, TN
"On June 9, 1989, an event called the Hunter Healing
Explosion was held at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum (shown in the last
two pictures below). The evangelistic team responsible for this event
was
Charles and Frances Hunter of Kingwood, Texas. The general public
was admitted free of charge. After the Hunters delivered a sermon, the
people in the audience were invited to come forward to receive prayer for
their sicknesses and physical impairments. Local event participants who
administered prayer on the coliseum floor were required to watch fifteen
hours of
training videos, to read two books published by the Hunter
ministry, and to attend a live briefing held at
Redemption Church
in Knoxville a day or two before the event. I was privileged to be able
to be one of the participants in this event. The first four
pictures below were taken at Redemption Church on the day of the
briefing. We broke for lunch in the middle of the day, and some people
from the church where I attended invited me to eat with them at their
tailgating picnic."
Helped with a Tent Revival, Harriman, TN
"From July 14 to August 4, 1989, Victory Temple
Church conducted a tent revival beside the ACE Hardware Store in
Harriman, Tennessee. I helped to raise the the tent a few days before
the revival started, and I also helped with the advertising (through
this effort, I became acquainted with Uncle Jody at WBBX Radio Station
where I would later have my own weekly program).
The pictures below show step-by-step how we raised the tent.
- We had the land bushhogged. I was amazed when we found an
old rusty pickup truck completely overgrown and concealed
by the weeds. We had no idea it was even there until the
tractor was right on top of it!
- The old church bus holding all of the tent materials was
towed to the site, and the rusty pickup truck was towed away.
- We stood the main poles on end and secured them with ropes.
This took several attempts, because they kept falling over.
My pickup truck had manual transmission and didn't provide
enough control to stand the pole up and then stop in time.
We ended up using the pastor's van for this task since it had
automatic transmission.
- We unloaded the folded tent sections one at a time from the back
of the bus onto the bed of my pickup truck. Each one was
incredibly heavy! Then, one at a time, I hauled each bundle
to its place, and we unloaded it onto the ground. There was a
large square section for the center and a semicircular section
for each end.
- We unfolded the tent sections and laced them together.
- We hoisted the tent cover to the top of the main poles with ropes.
- We lifted the sides with small poles and secured the edges with
ropes tied to stakes that were made from automobile axles!
- Finally, we mowed the grass underneath and around the tent before
setting up the chairs."
Taught Adult Sunday School, Lenoir City, TN
"On September 3, 1989, the pastor of our church was scheduled to
preach a revival in Atlanta, Georgia. After that event had been
scheduled, Assistant Pastor Jeff Schrimsher announced that
he was moving in order to take over as pastor of a church in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. The pastor asked Danny Stimmie and me
to conduct the church service as normal during his absence. Danny
would preach the Sunday morning sermon, and I would teach the Sunday
School lesson in Jeff's place. The teaching responsibility lasted for
several months. Here is a list of Sunday School topics that I taught
for the next several months."
| Sunday School Topics (1989) |
| September |
5 |
1989 |
Revelation |
| September |
17 |
1989 |
Perfection |
| October |
9 |
1989 |
Marathon |
| October |
13-14 |
1989 |
Live the Wisdom of God |
| October |
28 |
1989 |
Defender of the Faith |
| October |
28 |
1989 |
Heaven |
| November |
10 |
1989 |
The Secret Place |
| November |
24 |
1989 |
The Body of Christ |
| December |
9 |
1989 |
Good Ground |
"In the Spring of 1989, I made a short trip to Florida with some
of my fellow high school students to compete in a national DECA event
in Orlando. While the trip was being planned, I convinced my teacher
to add nearby Cocoa Beach to our itinerary, because my paternal
grandparents lived in that city, and I wanted to meet them. My
grandparents asked me to come back for longer visits, which I did
several times over the next couple of years.
During one of my early visits, I learned that my grandmother was an
ordained full-gospel minister, and for twenty years she had been active
in prison ministry. Pictured last (below), her ordination certificate
hung on their living room wall. Her life and testimony were an
inspiration for me then and now, and I was pleased to be able to
have her certificate after she passed away.
I spent the Christmas of 1989 with my grandparents at their duplex in
Cocoa Beach.
They attended a church called Beach Christian Fellowship that met in
the Freedom 7 School building. I enjoyed very much attending
church there, partly because they sang beautiful praise and worship
songs, and I had never heard 'Praise and Worship' music until that time.
The first picture below is one of me from about this time wearing a
Beach Christian Fellowship hat. Next to it is a picture of the duplex
where my grandparents lived.
After my grandparents would go to sleep about 8:00 or 9:00 o'clock, I
spent several hours each night reading my Bible and praying, usually
past midnight. I wrestled with the decision about whether I should
continue to attend the Victory Temple church after I returned home
to Tennessee, because my mother had already decided that she was
going to look for another church to attend closer to our house in
Harriman. During one of these nights, the Lord gave me a sermon
to preach called 'Redigging the Wells of Abraham'
(based on
Genesis 26:17-18)."
[1980s]
[1990s]
[2000s]
[2010s]
[All Years]
[1980]
[1981]
[1982]
[1983]
[1985]
[1988]
[1989]
[1990]
[1991]
[1992]
[1993]
[1994]
[1995]
[1996]
[1997]
[1998]
[1999]
[2000]
[2001]
[2002]
[2003]
[2004]
[2005]
[2006]
[2007]
[2008]
[2009]
[2010]
[2011]
[2012]
Spirit and Truth Ministries /
contact@spirit-and-truth.net
