I was honored to be one of the voices praising God for the life and ministry of Rev. Bobby Haley.
We’re here today, Bobby Haley, because we love you and
praise God for your life.
We love you, Bobby,
For being such a fan.
You loved your Alma mater, Mississippi College. You kept up with the St. Louis Cardinals,
often sporting a Cardinals baseball cap to let the world know where you
stood. Amid the roar of many Clemson
Tigers, you crowed proudly for your Gamecocks.
You were never a fair-weather fan.
Your loyalty ran deeper than last season’s record or next season’s
prospects. You were just a fan.
In that same spirit, you cheered for us. When you chose us in friendship, you put on
our colors and never took them off. When
we won, you celebrated with us. When we
lost, you helped us up, dusted us off, and gently coached us for our next
challenge. And you always believed we
could win. You loved us the way God
loves us, Bobby, and that’s why we will always love you.
We love you, Bobby,
For that childlike spirit you never allowed to grow
old. Life was always a gift, an
adventure, a celebration for you. That’s
why your heart could so quickly connect with a VBS class of first graders or a
room full of adults. You had the freedom
to read and teach the scriptures one minute, then gather a group around you to lead
the congregation in “baby shark” or, my all time favorite, “Doo Be Dah.” Even if I tried, I could never forget you in
front of a church, saying, “Be doo be dah…” You helped us find the child within
us and live as joyful beloved children of God.
We love you, Bobby,
For being an overcomer.
Your life had a rough start. You
didn’t dwell on that and never talked about it, but you were dealt a pretty
rotten hand. But you played that hand masterfully
enough to win. You worked hard. You welcomed Godly mentors into your
life. You got an education at
Mississippi College and Southwestern Seminary.
You discovered your gifts and developed them for God’s kingdom. You married a wonderful lady and began a
beautiful partnership in marriage and ministry.
You welcomed children in the world and gave them a strong faith and
sweet love. We love you, Bobby, because
your life teaches us that faith is the victory that overcomes.
We love you, Bobby,
For making us into missionaries. I’ll never forget you coming to my study in
Greenville to ask permission to recruit a few people from your new church to
complete that year’s roster for your Kentucky Mission Trip. I answered, “Bobby, let me be sure I understand you. You want to know if you can invite our people
to do missions. I think I can support
that.” You recruited five or six
people that year who returned, with joy in their hearts, tears in their eyes,
and a firm promise to return to Kentucky the next year. Word spread.
Hallway conversations of “I want
you to go with me to Kentucky this summer” grew the team. Within a few years, you took fifty-five
adults and youth, easily a tenth of the church family to Kentucky. And once those people tasted the joy and felt
the fulfillment of giving their lives to God’s work, they didn’t stop with
Kentucky. People came back home with a
missionary calling to serve Christ in their community in new ways. Others went to Africa and South America and
Jamaica to help people in need and share God’s love. Bobby, everywhere you went, in your low-key
unassuming way, you made missionaries.
And I will always thank God for the way you shaped the lives of my
sons. Josh and Andrew made many trips to
Kentucky because of you. Those trips
taught them the importance of service, the power of the gospel to cross
cultures, and the great joy that comes from joining in Christ’s Great Commission. They are better men because of you, Bobby
Haley, and I love you for that.
We love you, Bobby,
For seeing and celebrating the beauty and dignity of all
people. Some of God’s people do very
good things in an absolutely awful way, with a spirit of Messianic
condescension that resembles some kind of holy float in a Mardi Gras parade,
riding through God’s world throwing out trinkets of help and attention to the
needy crowds, then moving on. But,
Bobby, you were the polar opposite of that.
When you talked about the people you served, you spoke, not of how needy
they were, but how rich they were in faith, in perseverance, in
hospitality. You didn’t talk about how
much you could teach those you served, but how much you learned from them. You never implied their worship was backward,
but that is was passionate, artistic and reviving. Bobby, you came to every man as his servant,
not his savior. And that’s why so many
people in so many places are proud and grateful to call you friend.
We love you, Bobby,
For showing us how to hurt faithfully. You came into my life and my church at a time
when your heart was deeply wounded. But
as I got to know you, I saw that you weren’t giving in to the temptation to be
bitter. You didn’t sit on the sidelines
of God’s kingdom licking wounds, assigning blame or excusing yourself from
God’s work. You were honest about your
pain, but you didn’t let pain compromise your calling. You’ll never know how much your example has
meant to me. I’m sure many others could
say the same.
And especially today, we love you, Bobby,
For leaving us with no doubts about how your story
ends. You belonged to Jesus. You were your Heavenly Father’s precious
child. You walked with God. And now the grace that saved you, the grace
that calmed your fears and saw you through every challenge of this life has
seen you home. I believe the angels sang
“Pass it On” as you entered the city.
We’ll always love you, Bobby Haley. And with a few "Kentucky flies" in our eyes,
we’ll strive to shoulder the mantle of ministry you leave behind.
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