“ Then it was April of 1987 – April ironically,” says Vaughn,“ During a spring revival at Park Street Baptist, I sensed a call to ministry,” and by September, with his dedicated wife, Sharon, by his side, he was“ pushed into my first ministry position,” he says, at Merit Baptist Church.“ That’ s not the way to do it, but that’ s the way it worked for me.”
What followed after Merit were years of missionary work.
“ I’ ve served in 18 foreign countries,” Vaughn says, working with Central American Missions,“ Our role was communications.”
Eventually Jimmy and Sharon Vaughn started Your Turn Ministries and modeled it after their work at CAM. At the same time Jimmy Vaughn was tapped“ to do some pulpit supply,” he says, for the retiring pastor of Greenville’ s Fairview Baptist Church.
November 2004 turned into December and when the New Year came, Vaughn was asked to be the interim pastor, a position, that after much prayer and discussion with his wife, has become permanent. Twenty years later, after a rebranding with the name Authentic Life Fellowship and a campus change, the church thrives.
The first time Vaughn was asked to tell his story was at the premiere of“ Shattered Dreams” hosted by Greenville High School in 2008.
“ Quite truthfully, I never talked a whole lot about [ the accident ] until‘ Shattered Dreams’ came into the circle,” he says. He’ s been asked to speak at every one of these events in and near Hunt County ever since.
Soon after the first“ Shattered Dreams,” he was contacted by the Hunt County Victim’ s Impact Panel –“ a court ordered attendance for those who’ ve been arrested for DUI / DWI,” Vaughn explained.“ The goal is to put a human cost to those choices.”
At his first meeting, after viewing a distressingly bad video that had little effect on the attendees, Vaughn offered to tell his story instead, enhanced with visuals of the car, the newspaper article, and always, pictures of the beautiful Lorene. Few folks leave these meetings unaffected anymore.
“ I’ ve been the only speaker at the Victim’ s Impact Panel for nearly 20 years now,” he says.
Vaughn admits there is some personal pain that becomes reignited every time he tells the story but he understands the importance for the listener to connect to this grief and feel it too.
“ The pain never completely disappears,” he says,“ That said, it does redeem the tragedy a little each time I tell it and for me fulfills the promise God has made in Romans 8:28,‘ And we know that those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’
Providence has come full circle. It seems Pastor Jimmy Vaughn made it home safely after all. Just as he prayed for so many years ago.
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