Bio & Promotional Pics

Douglas Witherup serves as the Lead Pastor of Concord First Assembly, a thriving, multicultural church outside of Charlotte, NC.  He also contributes as an adjunct professor at Southeastern University and Trinity Bible College and Graduate School. Doug has a B.A. from Southeastern University, an MTh. from the University of Wales, Bangor, and a DMin. from George Fox University. Doug is passionate about communicating God's word with creativity and is a featured speaker at churches, conferences, camps, and leadership events. Doug, his wife Camden, and two children, Cade and Ana live in sunny North Carolina where they love to spend time outdoors.

Promo Pic 1- Head Shot

Promo Pic 2- Preaching

Promo Pic 3- Family

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My Story

I was walking across the dimly lit auditorium of Concord First Assembly, where I served on staff, for no other reason than to take a short cut. I was on my way from the finance office back to my office and instead of going through the main hallway, I cut through the sanctuary. It was there that I had an unexpected encounter with someone that altered the course of my life and ministry. Before we get to exactly what happened in the front of the auditorium that day, allow me to bring you up to speed.

I was raised in a rural church in Northwest Pennsylvania. The church had a fairly large youth group of around fifty, and a great volunteer youth pastor and adult leaders. As a junior in high school, I attended my first youth convention in Pittsburgh. It was a gathering of thousands from across the state. I had never seen or experienced anything like it. The speaker for the weekend, Sam Rijfkogel (pronounced “Rife-kogel”), communicated with amazing humor, creativity, and anointing. I remember thinking at the time, “Wow, it would be really cool to do what Sam does.”

A year later, I was on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic where I had a powerful and transformational encounter with the Lord. Several weeks after our return, we were at First Assembly in Erie, PA where Pastor Jim Grove preached a message on Isaiah’s response to God: “Here am I, send me.” When Pastor Jim gave the altar call that night, I couldn’t reach the front fast enough. If anyone has ever begged his or her way into the ministry, it was me! God had so radically transformed my life that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else except serve him.

A couple of weeks after this, I found myself in our family living room on our plaid brown couch watching a Billy Graham crusade on our dial television set. I’m not even sure I was watching it on purpose. It may have been the only thing worth watching on the three TV channels we got. As I watched the program, I had a strong sense God was calling me to preach.

And I spent the next seven years of my life avoiding that calling.

It’s not what you think. I didn’t run from God or from the ministry. I was done running. I loved Jesus and wanted to serve him. I went to Southeastern University to study for ministry and was involved in the drama team while I was there. I spent my summers ministering at youth camps. Immediately following Southeastern, God connected me with Pastor Joe Phillips, who brought me to Concord First Assembly where I ended up on staff. I wasn’t running from God, nor was I running from a call to ministry. So what was I running from?

What I had let slide was my specific call to preach. It wasn’t a calculated decision, mind you. Over the years I had taken small steps away from that calling. During my college years, I battled insecurity in my calling and lacked the courage to tell others of about it. I wasn’t bold enough to tell my non-Christian friends that I was called to preach and even within the church, there didn’t seem to be as much emphasis on young people with a call to preach. I saw plenty of people my age involved in ministries such as music and drama, but preaching didn’t seem to be emphasized as much.

As I completed college with preaching already low on my priority list, the busyness of ministry delivered the final blow. I was serving in the youth department and found myself planning retreats, organizing missions trips, keeping track of the finances, hanging out with and discipling students, and trying to grow leaders. Preaching and sermon preparation slid further and further into the background. At least until the day I took a short-cut through the sanctuary at Concord First Assembly.

It was there that I “just happened” to run into Pastor Phil Bennett. Phil is a tall man with neatly combed silver hair, and is a combination of sage and spiritual guide— a modern-day St. Francis of Assisi. He is one of those people who seems to have a direct connection with God. In the moments that followed, Phil stopped me and, in his casual and gentle way, mentioned a few things he felt that God was sharing with him about my life. I stared in disbelief. Had he been reading my journal? Had he been spying on me? How did he know these things? (Even though I was raised in a Spirit-empowered tribe, I was at that point a bit skeptical concerning some of the gifts of the Spirit.) As Phil shared with me, I was wrecked. All it took was a few moments in the front of the sanctuary for God to remind me of my calling—my primary calling—to preach the gospel.

Attacks against preachers are no accident. It happened to the apostles in the midst of the catalytic growth of the early church. As the church experienced rapid multiplication, three attacks were leveled specifically at preaching.[ii]

1)       Direct Hit- The apostles were put into jail and, if it hadn’t been for Gamaliel’s intervention, probably would have been killed.

2)       Discouragement- The apostles were flogged and warned not to teach or preach again.

3)       Distraction- The apostles faced the temptation to allow preaching to become secondary to leadership and social justice issues.

Since the first days of the church, preaching and preachers have been targeted because the enemy recognizes them to be primary catalysts of growth for the church. As preaching great John Stott has said, “Not only has [the enemy] effectively silenced some preachers, but he has demoralized those who continue to preach.”[iii]

Perhaps you share my story. Well, maybe not my exact story, but something along these lines. You know you’re called to preach, but if you’re honest, you’d admit preaching has slid to the background of your ministry. Perhaps there have been issues that have tried to take you out of ministry. Perhaps (either from internal or external voices), you have faced discouragement about your communication abilities. Perhaps the demands of ministry have squeezed out your sermon prep time, leaving you depleted and feeling that preaching has become another chore rather than a joy. If you resonate with this at all, you may be experiencing your “front-of-the-sanctuary” moment—meaning God is restoring to you to your primary calling.

[ii] The account is found in Acts 5-6.

[iii] John Stott, Between Two Worlds, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1982), 50.