Don Proctor's Journey to Christ

Announcer 0:06

Welcome to the Leading Conversations podcast sponsored by the Excel Leadership Network . On each episode , jd Paring will have conversations with church planting pastors and leaders from around the country . You can learn more about how to connect with Excel at the end of this podcast . Let's join JD now and listen in on this leading conversation .

J.D. Pearring 0:30

Welcome to another podcast with Excel Leadership Network . This is the Leading Conversations podcast and today we are thrilled to have the great and mighty and wonderful Don Proctor with us today . Don is the director , the president , the Grand Poobah of the City Pastors Fellowship of Sacramento , which is maybe the strongest in the United States of bringing city pastors together . Don has done a wonderful job of getting pastors to coordinate , come together , work with each other , pray for each other . So , don , thanks for being here today .

Don Proctor 1:06

Honored to be here , JD .

J.D. Pearring 1:09

Yeah , and you're here in wonderful Sacramento .

Don Proctor 1:13

Amen , yes , we love Sacramento .

J.D. Pearring 1:17

Okay , hey , tell us your story . Start at the beginning , how you came to Christ and all of that to Christ and all of that Awesome .

Don Proctor 1:29

Well , I , interestingly enough , I didn't grow up in a Christian home , so I didn't get saved till I was 20 . And how that happened was my dad told me hey , there's this guy that's got a job opening on a Saturday . You know , while you're going to junior college has an auto parts store . You can just run parts , he said . But he said , hey , he's one of those , he's one of those boarding in Christians . And so I said , well , yeah , so he's a real nice guy , but he's one of those Christians . And so I said , okay , whatever . So I went to work with him and just really fell in love with the guy because he was just a fun , good guy . Anyway , he'd grown up Catholic and just got radically saved , I think , probably about three years prior to me being there at that time , and so I , just for me , I began to just watch his life . I saw how he treated people , how he treated his wife . I go , wow , they don't even yell at each other . I go , what's wrong ? That's not normal , is it ? Because that's the way I grew up , which is I had great parents , my parents had . They loved us , they did everything possible for us . But , you know , nobody's perfect and they just always yelled a lot . I thought , man , I don't know if I really want to do that . You know , whenever I get married , so but anyway . So I just saw his life , how he treated people , his wife and his son , and I go , oh man , maybe there is a difference in how , being a Christian , because all I knew was my friends in high school that said they were Christians , but they really they kind of made me look like a saint , you know , at times . So I never really could see the difference . Well , if it's about good getting into heaven , I'm in . So when I saw his life , it really saw how he truly lived out the message of Jesus . It just it ministered to my heart in a huge way and I go well , maybe there is a difference . I know I want to go to heaven and so it was just one day in my room I just I , just one night , I just asked Jesus into my heart and it just began from there . So I was about 20 years old . He was currently going to Calvary Chapel churches , so I just went with him and started going . I saw , wow , they got a band in their church . You know , I'm used to the organ , you know the big organ . I go to visit my grandparents in LA . They would go to a Methodist church , you know , twice a year because that's what we'd visited around Christmas and Easter . So that's all I ever knew was seeing the big pipe organ . I saw a live band . I go wow , that's , that's different . So I just began to go with him and grow and then he would have Bible studies at his house and it just was a huge . Yeah , it just shaped my life and I was obviously never the same again . So it was a . It was a very interesting and I was obviously never the same again . So it was a very interesting journey .

Don Proctor 4:28

You know , one of the hardest probably memorials I ever had to do was his . You know , it almost makes me cry thinking about it , because he was only . He got stomach cancer . This was probably gosh , what was this ? 10 , 12 years ago maybe ? And he got stomach cancer . Then he ended up passing away at like 53 . I think when you do those types of things , it's like , you know , god uses people to literally almost rescue you out of hell . It's hard not to , you know , get emotional about that . But yeah , was it for him , I wouldn't be probably on this Zoom call with you or this podcast with you today . So that's kind of my beginning of coming to know Jesus . And soon enough my parents came on , you know , once they met my wife and her life , you know , realized , man , this is God , you know . So that's kind of the beginning of my coming to know Jesus .

J.D. Pearring 5:36

Wow . Well , thank you for sharing that One parched guy . Store owner .

Don Proctor 5:44

Yeah , he changed your life . That's owner .

J.D. Pearring 5:46

Yeah , he changed your life . That's phenomenal .

Don Proctor 5:48

Yeah .

J.D. Pearring 5:48

How did you step into ministry ? What was that about ?

Don Proctor 5:52

Well goodness . So it was probably six years after that A friend of mine I was about 25 at the time and I was just trying to look to settle down , living in Sacramento bought my first house . At that time I was in construction , I was an electrician . My friend told me about this girl and he said do you know of her ? I said no , I never heard of her . He said she's the pastor's daughter . I said well , if you know the pastor , why don't you just give him a call , make sure she's single , because I'm not going to show up at the church if she's not single . And so I ended up . He found out that she's single . I showed up at the church . I saw her from a distance .

J.D. Pearring 6:42

So you're just going to churches to pick up girls at that time ?

Don Proctor 6:45

Yeah , well , at this point I'm ready to settle down . I'm very spiritual , jd , so I show up at this church she's leading worship . I go , okay , this is looking pretty good . So far , from a distance , I can say , okay , she's beautiful . We got a good start here . Like I said , I'm very spiritual .

Don Proctor 7:07

Then , it was probably two weeks later , I finally met her . I went up and introduced myself to her dad , who was a pastor . I said , hey , we had a common friend . This is a friend that reached out to him , and so I met her mom and her sister . I think it was only two weeks later that I met her mom and her sister . I think it was only two weeks later that I met her . And , man , the minute she opened her mouth , I go , gosh , she's the one you know . Just the confidence . Just love the Lord . I could just tell she was the one . She didn't think I was the one at first . But so I hung out and tried to make a long story short . Three months later , we're engaged . Six months later , after that , we're married . Three months .

Announcer 7:49

Yeah .

Don Proctor 7:50

So , within nine months . We are married from the time that we met oh my goodness , you're a pretty quick mover there , don Pretty quick .

Don Proctor 7:57

Yeah , I didn't mess around , I make a decision . So obviously you marry the pastor's daughter because her parents had been pastoring for 20 years . They were trying to look to make decisions into another . What's their next ? They didn't know what it would be . And then here we come along , my wife's got all she's . She could do it all really , really well . And I think when she first met me she , well , this guy doesn't want to be a pastor and this probably was never on my radar , and so she was fine with that .

Don Proctor 8:33

But then just God kind of does things in you . He used some people that were very prophetic that came to our church . We had this prophetic ministry where we'd have people praying over couples or singles , wherever they were . We it was kind of we call it a presbytery I don't know your background or if you're familiar with that and you'd have kind of we had pastors that were very perfect . They come in , they begin to just pray over you and speak things over you and they'd spoken that , hey , you guys would be like shepherds of the house one day and all this . So you know , that's a pretty strong word . So you always kind of get permission from the lead pastor beforehand and say , hey , this is what we're leaning towards . But is this something that's in them , or do you see this in them ? Because they have a very much a respect for the local church and just that covering and the leadership chain . So they spoke that over us . So I had that word in me .

Don Proctor 9:36

So when this interim period came , it just it helped me to have more peace ,

Stepping Into Ministry

Don Proctor 9:43

because if it was up to me , jd ID , I would have never been ready . I would have said , yeah , 10 , 15 years down the road . I'm an electrician , my wife's doing outside sales and selling computer chips . We have really good jobs making decent money . We're just getting started having a family , and so I never thought I would be in that place a family , and so I never thought I would be in that place .

Don Proctor 10:08

Well , that word when everything came down , when my in-laws were ready to make a change and they really had to make a sudden change because there were just things going on in their life , that in their marriage , that it had to happen . So you know this , you know here we are , we're thrust into this role , and I had never preached before . So I say this is the same year Joel Osteen took over from his dad . When his dad passed away , he never preached before . I had never preached before . It was the exact same year . I always say that you know he had a revival . We had kind of a Gideon revival .

Don Proctor 10:42

You know we went in reverse . It was a tough time but it was obviously very much a learning curve and learning about people , learning about leadership , learning about just how sudden changes can really , how it affects everybody , even though they say they're with you , but are they really with you when you go through a , through a tough time ? So , anyway , we went through that . We had a four month interim . Then they had to vote us in and so they ended up voting seems like 75 . Some stuck around just to vote , then they took off . But you know , you know , here we are . That was , excuse me , that was , uh , gosh , where were we at ? That was 26 years ago that that took place . So we begin that's the . That's kind of my journey coming into pastoring . That's how I kind of started . So I don't know how much more you want me to go beyond that , but that's how I started .

J.D. Pearring 11:39

What happened ? You pastored for how long ?

Don Proctor 11:41

So I ended up pastoring total for 18 years . So we ended up pastoring for 18 years and then we passed the baton to the Father's House , which is out of Vacaville , and we became a Roseville campus so that I could do City Pastors Fellowship full time . You know , I always tell people , look , if you ever feel like the grace is lifted on that role , you could probably attest to that too . You know it's time to move on . It's better sooner than later . So we just knew .

Don Proctor 12:12

And then the timing , we had a kind of a son of the Lord that was being that was back at the Vacaville campus , cause we had a long history with Pastor David Donna for many years , probably over 30 years . So we had that connection , we had that . That DNA was all very similar . So we had a son . We had that . That dna was all very similar . So we had a son of the lord that was going to be sent out from their church to go plant a church . So I said , well , why don't you just have them come here ? We'll make this a roseville campus , we'll just be kind of an associate . Just our role will just be in the city doing our thing . And that's what happened . Uh , it's going on , oh goodness , eight years ago now .

J.D. Pearring 12:49

So the city pastors , let's back up . How did that happen ?

Don Proctor 12:53

so what happened to the pastors really city pastors kind of if I could kind of make the beginning of that how it came about , it was really in the beginning . Jd's , another pastor from another denomination reached out to me when I first started pastoring . I was just trying to keep my head above water , just surviving , and he reached out . He just had a revelation about what we're seeing now with cross-pollinating and bringing pastors together . So he brought seven of us pastors together in Roseville . I just began to hang out with these guys and begin to just minister life to me . It's like wow , there's other guys that have bigger problems , more issues going on than even I do with much bigger churches . And he just cared about me . He just had a heart . He knew I couldn't give anything back , but that's what he just kept giving out and it just really touched my life . It really marked me for when City Pastors came about later on it was because of this one pastor . So we did this for about five or six years coming together . We go on retreats , maybe once or twice a year , the seven of us . We do some things in the city together prayer events and coming together . And then when he retired after about five or six years , everybody kind of went back to their quarters . You know what I mean . They went back to their old ministry because he was kind of our , our guide . To make it all . What's that ? Yes , he was a glue .

Don Proctor 14:24

So when he left we went back to our own deals and then it was probably two years after that , so that was about 2008, . I believe we had a Slavic service going on in our church at that time and then we had a Baptist guy that was doing a church plant out here West Roseville guy that was doing a church plant out here West Roseville and I , just because of this , this pastor and the relationship I had with the other pastors , like Francis and Fuso , was a part of that in the beginning too . It just marked me and I just felt like gosh , these pastors are isolated . We need encouragement , we need I know the alone feeling and I had this heart because this other pastor would bring in other people from other like countries that saw unity and transformation happen too , and I , like I said , I didn't grow up in church , don't understand all the different denominations , but I see where Jesus is moving . It's like well , where there's unity's blessing . Why would we not want that over our city . Why are we not working together , even though we don't agree on everything ?

Don Proctor 15:32

So I'm taking all this stuff and processing it over those five , six , seven years and I thought well , why don't we just get pastors together ? We'll have a lunch at our church . You reach out to your Baptist guys , I'll reach out to my guys . A Slavic pastor friend . He reached out to his and he said let's just have a lunch , we'll do a free lunch , we'll cook an amazing meal for them and just remind them hey guys , we're in this together . We love you , we want to see you succeed as you succeed , we're all succeeding .

Don Proctor 16:04

So we started . We had our first lunch at our church all succeeding . So we started . We had our first lunch at our church . We had about 20 pastors come and that's where it began , and so from there we ended up having them each quarter .

Don Proctor 16:17

So we probably spent the first year and a half at our church doing it there , and then , when more pastors would get on board and just see value in it , then we'd just begin to see what God's doing in Sacramento and we thought man , we've got to touch every culture and denomination , so we need to find guys around the region that would host , that wouldn't try to take it over but would pay for it , because I had no money . I didn't even get a nonprofit status for the first seven years . So I just built trust . It was very organic . It still kind of is now . It's all through trusted relationship . So we started there . Francis got on board . He would host also and really step it up , spend all kinds of money on the pastors and their and their spouse .

Don Proctor 17:07

You know , when they came , yeah , we just begin to move around the region . And my heart was always when we first started getting together . I said , guys , we just care about you , you know , we just want to see all of us , you know , fulfill the grace on our lives because we're in this together , whether you realize or not . You know , I always believe that in Psalm it says give us a nation for inheritance . But I believe it's coming into Jesus' last prayer that we become one and it's a very dynamic thing but it's powerful , but it can take a lot of work to get there too and building trust and all that . So , yeah , we begin to move around the region and just begin to grow . And I know , jd , that and you know this , unless you . This works for you . You send out an email for an event . That doesn't mean everybody's coming . You know it's like you've got to make connections along the way , and I do .

Don Proctor 18:05

In between those lunches I just reached out to those pastors had a lot of coffees one-on-one . I would text them on a Sunday morning , just encourage them , remind them that , hey , we're in this together , I care about you , we're just praying for you , and just so , when it came around every corner it was just a little more meaningful because they had a connection and they know that . You know this is not just another thing . They knew after the first year and a half we weren't going to . You know , drop the ball , okay , what's the agenda , and push something out there . We just knew we had to keep an agenda free and just keep loving on each other and encourage each other .

Don Proctor 18:41

And , and through that , you know , we've seen church mergers happen . We've seen relationships that are in that room that would never have been in that room years prior , because you know they worked out their differences . They worked out things like he left this church , started this

Birth of City Pastors Fellowship

Don Proctor 18:57

church plant , took my people . You know you got all that going on , but in the end it's like hey , guys , we're in this together and we've got to work through this stuff and I know we've done wrong . We hope everybody would apologize and , you know , take the Jesus road , but we still have to . We can't afford offenses and unforgiveness because we have our whole city to reach .

Don Proctor 19:18

And I think it was through Jim Carmichael , that first pastor , that really brought us all together . But what it made me realize when he brought these other people in , these other pastors that saw transformation happen in their city . And I don't know if you know the story of Idi Amin in Uganda , when he was just an evil dictator People were dying at times , you didn't know if you're going to wake up the next morning . But it forced these pastors to come together . And they had to come together for their very lives , their very family , their church , their region and through that it transformed that whole region to where it was dedicated to the devil . Literally for 200 years they dedicated to Jesus Christ , they filled arenas and they prayed and they brought in righteous leadership and that's where they had so many mega churches down in that area . That's where it started , was in that season .

Don Proctor 20:18

And honestly , I'm just a simple guy . I read it for what it is , and it's like we come together , there's blessing , we work through things . Even though we don't agree upon everything , we still , because we want to reach people and we want to see people know who they are in Christ and working together , and so that's the way I'm looking at all these things , and so it really ministered to me . It's like why can't we do it now ? Why do we have to wait to our lowest point ? Minister to me is like why can't we do it now ? Why do we have to wait till we're at our lowest point ? Why can't we work together when we're whatever season we're in , you know , but still keep bringing us together ? So that's where my heart is . I truly want to see transformation and see revival that's sustainable . I don't know all the ingredients . I don't know what's enough unity that just brings God . I don't know what that's enough unity .

J.D. Pearring 21:12

That's right .

Don Proctor 21:13

Yeah , what's enough desperation in all the hearts of pastors and the church to bring a sustainable revival ? Only God can create that stuff . I'm just trying to make a place for it and a safe place where we can work together and let God change us . You know , as we need to if we're open to it , Because I don't know about you , but I'd love to turn a switch to change people's mindset . You know , even when I was pastoring . But God had to intervene and I know he has to intervene upon his church too and the pastors that lead it . But that's what kind of brought us to this place . And , like I said , through this safe place , we've seen church murders . People pass them on to somebody that they met at one of the luncheons . We've seen more collaboration of different communities of pastors , more collaboration of different communities of pastors , and I know I'm doing all the talking . So if you want to break up stuff , you just tell me .

J.D. Pearring 22:13

Tell us where , give us kind of a State of the Union of the City Pastors Fellowship of Sacramento right now . What's happening now ?

Don Proctor 22:22

Well , I think now , what I'm working on right now is to try to really help . As you know , you're a church planner , so you're planning churches , but we see more churches closing than opening and I think that if I can keep connecting with pastors and keep encouraging them and maybe resourcing them in whatever season that they're in , there's so many soul needs sometimes too , whether you need counseling or you need a retreat just to get away , you see the value of fellowship . That's why you're doing what you're doing . Even though you're planting a church , you're not leaving them alone . You're still connecting with them . All those things are so important .

Don Proctor 23:05

So I'm trying to create more . How do we help every pastor in whatever season that they're in ? So I'm trying to create more . How do we help every pastor in whatever season that they're in ? So we're trying to create a resource page of partnerships , of ministries that are going on to help pastors in their season . So we're trying to put that together and raise funds to where . You know , if money is ever an issue , we never want that to be the reason not to reach out .

Don Proctor 23:31

And even on the church planning side , you know , I see with you and there's a couple other church planning organizations like you know , craig Whitney , and different things . If we could create some of these things that are already in place that you guys are passionate about , these pastors hey , I want to plant a church , but I don't know how . Well , here's the group of people you could talk to and they've got different facets of how that could work , but they're ready to help you if you want help , you know , and just try to keep the church moving forward instead of backwards and seeing these guys with discouragement and churches under a hundred that don't know what to do . It's just planting them with people that do know what to do , and I think that's kind of my motivation this year is to get more of that in place and that could be the encouraging arm of city pastors , because that could help people a lot wherever they're at .

J.D. Pearring 24:28

So how many pastors are involved ?

Don Proctor 24:30

now would you say so over the 18 years we've reached probably over 800 different pastors at one time or another . We probably average , as you know , close to a couple hundred . Come to the lunches , I would say on average of a church represented . We invite spouse too . There's probably 140 , 145 churches that

Transformation Through Unity

Don Proctor 24:53

are represented each time and it's always different because these pastors , you know they've got emergencies , they're out of town , as you , you know you have ministry , you have different things going on , so I try to stay in touch with a lot . But you know we created something else convener pastors , which you know Tim kind of helps do at Elk Grove , reach those pastors . So we I don't know if you want me to share about that- yeah , why don't you ?

Don Proctor 25:18

talk a little bit about what the convener pastors do . So it was probably 10 years ago . We realized that pastors were getting together in different pockets all around Sacramento , were getting together in different pockets all around Sacramento , and I thought , well , gosh , why don't we ? I was working with Jeff Kreiser at the time and he kind of helped me put this together . So we broke down the whole Sacramento region into the whole 2.4 million people , into 40 city communities , and so we would find those pastors that were doing something within that community , come alongside them and do like a little lunch event that would be hosted at each one of those convener pastor churches , you know , at some point or another , just so we can all know where they're at in the region . And we just said , hey , what are you guys doing ? How can we learn from each other ? How can we pray for you ? Hey , what are you guys doing ? How can we learn from each other ? How can we pray for you ? You know , obviously they have a heart for pastors , so they're doing something beyond their pastoring their local church , which says a lot about them and seeing the value in this . So we get together four times a year , about probably two or three weeks before the bigger luncheon and we just say , hey , how are you doing ? How can we learn from each other ? How can we pray for you ? And , yeah , kind of learn from there . So we probably have 23 of the 40 represented at some point you know throughout the region a representative of a pastor in those areas . But it's been really good because they've got together to do different things as they build relationship and trust .

Don Proctor 26:54

You know , it's always a challenge , jd , because you've got guys . It's like the Acts Church , it's like you've got people that come to the bigger meetings and you've got the guys that only come to the small groups . They know the meeting in the houses and that kind of thing in that way . So that's the way it is with the conveners . Some will come to that but some won't come to the bigger ones . Some will come to the bigger ones , they'll only come to the small . It's one of those things . You don't know why , but they have their little reasons . But we just feel like we're trying to touch them at one point and I always tell the conveners look , if they don't come to a prayer meeting or whatever , just meet with them for coffee . That's where they begin to open up their hearts anyway and connect and just see how they're doing so . That's where we started the convener pastors . That was probably over 10 years ago and it's been a really

Current State and Future Vision

Don Proctor 27:41

big help .

J.D. Pearring 27:43

Have you had influence on some of the other cities in the US ?

Don Proctor 27:47

Yeah , I just was down in Lodi two weeks ago and they're starting a quarterly luncheon . There's about probably 30 churches represented there . There's probably about 50 in Lodi , I think there's about 100 in Stockton . So we see that I've connected across to North Carolina . What I've found is everybody has their little uniqueness of what they're doing . Some are more missional-minded , Some are more network , you know fellowship . So it's kind of like we're all doing a little bit similar things , but a little unique where we're at . But yeah , there is some others going on and I try to connect with more . So I'm always . If you ever hear of any other cities , please always give me their number .

J.D. Pearring 28:36

I'll do that . I'll connect . So what's your biggest need right now ? Don oh gosh .

Don Proctor 28:41

I think my biggest need is to get probably more resources . I need to ask for probably more monies to be able to get more things in place to help pastors . You know what I mean . To where , hey guys , you're going through this , we can help you in this , and we've got people in place . This is what they do . I think that's probably my greatest . I mean , we always need more pastors that share the same heart like you do , you know what I mean that have a heart for other pastors that gave up their church to do what you're doing , and so I always love to see that . But I think right now , I'm in kind of a resource stage where we need more the finances to help sustain this and , uh , to grow it well , I really appreciate what you're doing .

J.D. Pearring 29:30

It's just amazing to come together and see 150 pastors , a couple hundred churches together and just have a lunch . Learn from each other Great stuff . Hey , last question Give us a leadership tip . What's your big leadership tip ?

Don Proctor 29:47

Oh gosh , I would say my greatest , my leadership tip that I could tell today is be who you are called to be as a leader , you know . Don't try to be somebody else . You be you , who God's graced you with the gifting , the talents , the things . Don't compare yourself to other people . You just be that strong , have your identity wrapped in Him and be led by the Holy Spirit and don't compare yourself to others , because you're in your race and nobody can do it but you and know that how important it is and how valued you are and how , if you don't do what you do , it won't help have an effect on all the other things that are going on .

Don Proctor 30:33

And I think people underestimate the power of who they are in Jesus and what is God placed in them to fulfill . And that would be probably my leadership tip is just be all that you can in Christ , because nobody can be you . It's just be all that you can in Christ , because nobody can

Leadership Advice for Pastors

Don Proctor 30:48

be you . And you are more powerful and more . I say you can make a difference , more than you realize , because if we're all running in our lane , running in our race , it's going to affect everybody around us , in our city , our region and the world , and so that would probably be my leadership tip .

J.D. Pearring 31:09

Well , that's a good one , and it comes from your story . You know one person having an impact on you and one pastor having an impact on what you're doing now . So thanks for what you're doing , keep it up , let us know how we can help , and we really appreciate you being on today .

Don Proctor 31:27

Well , I appreciate you , JD . Thanks for all that you do .

Announcer 31:32

Thanks for joining the Leading Conversations podcast . We hope that you found it both helpful and encouraging . At Excel Leadership Network , our focus is on the church planter rather than the church . If you'd like to find out more about us , visit our webpage at excelnetwork . org . Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes . See you next time with another leading conversation .