Walton Leroy Marsh served as Interim pastor of First Baptist Church for several months in 2008.
Graduating from Hialeah High School I began my working life in construction with a stint of military service. I had a short career with the telephone company then moved on to sales with the 3M company. In my mid 20s I was called into the ministry and began my education eventually obtaining a Masters degree.
I began my ministry in South Florida in 1973 preaching at rescue missions in Miami. I also served as a lay preacher and evangelist at my home church in Hialeah. During these years I worked for Southern Bell Telephone as a repairman and a test deskman. It was in 1974 that God called me into the Gospel ministry and I surrendered to his call. I immediately began attending Miami Dade Junior College and began an intensive personal study of the Bible. After Junior College I attended Florida International University earning a BA degree in psychology. I moved to North Carolina attending Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I served as the minister of music and youth at the Baptist Tabernacle Church in Wendel NC while a student in seminary. God called me to pastor Everetts Baptist Church in Eastern NC. This was my first pastorate and the first time I had to preach every Sunday. I soon discovered that the seminary didn't do a good job of preparing me for this task. This is when I began to search for preachers who preached with power so I could learn from them. Not all were famous, but all had that 'something' that gave them a powerful presence and powerful sermons. I continued my studies with Luthor Rice Seminary eventually graduating in 1987.
During the past 32 years the Lord has given me the opportunity of pastoring four Baptist churches and the great privilege of leading over one thousand people to faith in Christ as I served churches throughout the southern United States. For the past 9 years I have traveled extensively in eastern Europe and have served as the President and CEO of the Walhalla Foundation, a non profit corporation doing benevolent work in Romania.
I have recently retired from a full time pastorate and am currently doing interim pastor work and evangelism. I am the author of the course called Preaching With Power. During the last several years it has been my pleasure to communicate with preachers from all over the USA. There is a desire among preachers to be excellent in what we do, that is, preach. I have prepared the "Preach with Power" course to help those preachers who are sincerely searching for the secret of preaching with power. You may contact me on my cell (352) 339-3961.
Peach With Power
Every one of us can recall a time when you looked at your watch sometime during a sermon. I'm not talking about when you were preaching yourself, but when you were sitting in a pew and listening to another preacher. The sad truth is that many sermons are too long.
I went to a restaurant three weeks ago and ordered a steak cooked medium-well. The waitress was nice, the service was good, but when my steak arrived it was incinerated. It was overcooked, dry and unpalatable. I was in a hurry, so I didn't bother to ask for another. I tried to eat a little of it, but instead just ate the potato and salad. I decided not to return to that restaurant again. An overcooked sermon is just as bad and has the same result with your listeners--they won't be back. How long should a sermon be? I believe a sermon should be long enough to deliver the message in a complete and interesting way, but short enough to have a powerful impact. I remember sitting at a coffee shop with several young preachers when the conversation turned to last Sunday's sermons. After several of the young men commented on their messages, the young preacher on my left said, "I was on a roll, I preached over one hour." I just couldn't help myself!" I thought, I have no doubt your congregation had stopped listening after about 20 minutes. Don't misunderstand me; there is nothing wrong with preaching a long sermon IF the purpose and the material of the sermon require your congregation to interact with you. The difference between a smoldering fire and an explosion is only the time required for the combustion to take place. If you want your sermons to have explosive impact, you must get the point across with power in a relatively short time. The fact is that the average human being cannot stay focused on a speaker for more than a few minutes before his mind begins to wander. There are speaking techniques that can help you keep a listener's attention but you cannot hold their attention indefinitely. An old proverb says, "The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure."
As a general rule, a sermon should be about twenty long. If you cannot make your point in that amount of time, you need to rebuild the sermon. Remember that your sermon should have a distinct purpose. This purpose is not the subject of the sermon, but the result of the sermon. What do you want your congregation to do as a result of hearing your sermon. So if you can accomplish this purpose in twenty minutes, why stretch it out to forty?
I was listening to a sermon preached by a very good preacher. I was impressed by his power and his ability to paint pictures in my mind with his words. He reached a certain point in his message, and I was ready to act. I was just waiting for him to ask me to commit. But, instead, he kept on talking. He spoke fifteen more minutes, during which time I grew more disinterested. He preached past the best point to conclude the sermon.
The hardest thing for many preachers to do is to find a way to stop talking. The reason being is that most preachers do not design a good "dismount" into their sermons. They work hard on the main body of the sermon but they neglect the most important part - the conclusion and call to action.
In the ministry of teaching preachers to preach powerful sermons, one of the hardest things to get across is the importance of a strong close. If a sermon is to be powerful it must end powerfully and impress on the congregation the need to act. Don't allow your sermon to be too long, focused on impact. Let your sermons explode - not smoulder!
Walhalla Foundation
In 2002 a group of people in Walhalla South Carolina began discussing how they could be more effective in supporting mission work in Romania. This discussion became a vision and this vision became the Walhalla Foundation. At the heart our vision was a desire to be a REAL help to the people we would serve and to be an organization of the highest integrity and honesty to our contributers.
In the Fall of 2002 we were incorporated in Romania as the "Fundatia Walhalla" a recognized non-profit foundation registered with the government of Romania. In December of 2002 we were incorporated in the State of SC and registered as a charitable organization with the secretary of state as "Walhalla Foundation." We received our 501c3 tax exempt recognition December 30, 2002.
In Romania our Director is Stefania Kis. Stefania brings many skills to her position. She is fluent in English, Hungarian and Romanian. She is a very conscientious business woman who knows the culture, the business practices, the religious customs and has many contacts within the community. She directs our ministry in Romania with compassion and skill.
In the USA our President and Director is Walton Marsh. He is a retired pastor who has served churches in the Southern USA for over 32 years. He is a skilled administrator who keeps the ministry of the Walhalla Foundation in the consciousness of the American people. He consults with Mrs. Kis on a weekly basis keeping abreast of the work in Romania.
We have many volunteers both in the USA and Romania who assist us on a regular basis to accomplish our mission. It would be impossible to carry on without this loyal army of workers.
