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A Tribute to a Faithful Pastor

Norman J. Wheeler

December 31, 1936 – November 12, 2016

I first met Bro. Norman Wheeler in April 2007. He and his family had been watching video tapes of our worship services in Danville for some time; and we had talked to one another by telephone a time or two. Bro. Norman, his dear wife, Hilda, and his grown children and their families all came to a meeting I held at West Park Baptist Church in Wolverhampton, England. After the service, some friends had us for a visit in their home, along with several others who had come to the service. The Wheelers and the Fortners immediately became friends.

Cherished Friend

Words cannot express how thankful Shelby and I are that our God made this faithful pastor and his family a part of our lives. After our initial meeting, Bro. Wheeler asked me to preach in his pulpit for three days twice a year. Each visit has more and more endeared him, his family, and Robert Street Strict Baptist Church to Shelby and me.

That dear friend, fourteen years my senior, was a constant source of encouragement to me. I never spoke to him without receiving a word of encouragement from him. He assured me, every time I saw him, of his unfailing intercessions on my behalf, and for our church family at the Throne of Grace.

The Lord God says concerning his servants, “they shall see eye to eye” (Isaiah 52:8). That was certainly true with Bro. Norman and me. In all the years of our friendship and labor together in the cause of Christ, we never had a cross word between us. Doctrinally, we were twins.

Faithful Pastor

The Robert Street church called Bro. Wheeler to be her pastor in 1974. He faithfully served the congregation he dearly loved for forty-two years. His failing health compelled him to stop preaching several months ago. But, as those who were blessed of God to have him for their pastor, will attest, for forty-two years he faithfully fed them with knowledge and understanding, expounding the Scriptures, proclaiming with boldness and joy the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus, our adorable Redeemer.

Resting

Today, my friend has ceased from all his labors and all his trials. Bro. Wheeler was almost 80 years old when he entered into his rest. His body will soon be laid in the grave; but he entered into glory Saturday morning. There he shall never again know sorrow, or pain, or weeping, or dying. He will never again struggle with sin, or any of the evil consequences of sin. He has entered into that rest the Lord Jesus Christ obtained for his people when he entered heaven as our all-glorious, successful Redeemer more than 2000 years ago. Norman Wheeler has taken his place, seated with the white robed throng around the throne of God and of the Lamb, looking on the face of the Son of God, singing with the ransomed multitude, “Worthy is the Lamb!”

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s