Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Although he hasn’t pastored many churches, the Christian ministry is nothing new to Pastor Daniel King.
He has been at it since he began preaching in 1979. Most of that time, he has done it while serving in the U.S. Army as a chef.
King took over Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church from Doug DeMille in December.
He has been back in the Sweet Home area for about a year after growing up in Sodaville and graduating from Lebanon High School.
Prior to entering the military, he worked at a cannery, and then moved to California where he was a chef at a truck stop. He entered the Army in September 1975 and served for 20 years as an award-winning chef. He spent eight years serving overseas, two years in Korea and eight years in Germany.
He retired from the Army in February 1996.
“I surrendered to preach in 1979, after my first tour in Europe,” King said. “I was licensed by a little Baptist church in Crowfoot.
“I think the reason the Lord kept me as a cook in the military is the cooks know everybody.”
Everyone needs to eat, so he would meet everyone on base, he said. Chaplains only see people when they seek the chaplain out for a particular reason.
Most of his ministry in the military was filling in for other pastors, King said.
“I actually never pastored a church while I was in the military.”
In 1996, after retiring from the Army, he went back to school and worked at Shari’s Restaurant in Lebanon and at the Pineway Restaurant, and started attending Mt. Calvary.
When King retired, he told his wife, Vickie, that she could choose anywhere she wanted to live, she said. She would have liked to settle in Germany, but she wanted to live in the United States, so she chose the Willamette Valley, which is most like Germany, she said.
The Kings have one 30-year-old daughter and six grandchildren. Vickie is a freelance seamstress, and she also enjoys making ceramic dolls. Daniel King makes the ceramic heads, and she finishes the dolls.
Ordained by Mt. Calvary, he took his first church in Omak, Wash. He was there for two years.
“One of the reasons we came back home is because brother B.J. Ellington was in ill health,” King said. King stepped in as an associate pastor to help out.
Pastor B.J. Ellington resigned, and DeMille took the position at Mt. Calvary. King remained the church’s associate pastor, a position he filled for five years. DeMille left last year and started a “mission point” in Lebanon, and he is attempting to organize it into a church.
King had a job offer in Idaho last year, but it didn’t work out, he said, so he returned to Sweet Home and took an offer from Mt. Calvary.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to actually be able to reach some of the friends and acquaintances I had when I was growing up here,” King said, and it’s a great way to meet people who have moved into the area since then.
“My main focus is to try to preach God’s truth, and that’s as He’s led me to believe it and practice it.”
His favorite Scripture passage is John 3:14-20, King said. It says essentially that Christ is lifted above the church so he can draw all men to Him.
“People can see Him and understand the love and sacrifice,” King said.
King said he plans to remain at Mt. Calvary as long as the Lord keeps him there, he said, and as long as the church wants him there.
“I would like to stay here till the Lord calls me home,” King said.
“Pastoring is a lot like gardening,” which is something he enjoys, King said. “You’ve got to be patient. You get a good variety of people, and you’ve just got to be patient with them.”
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church has approximately 70 members. Sunday School is at 10 a.m., and worship service starts at 11 a.m. on Sundays. Sunday evening service is at 6 p.m., and Wednesday worship service is at 6 p.m.