I am certain that multitudes have their own stories to tell about this faithful servant of the Lord and I wish they could. I want to share something of my journey with him. Words are not sufficient, but they are all I have.
Darrell was a good preacher or as my late friend Lester Collins would say of himself, he was adequate. Darrell was a good and loving pastor and again as my friend would say of himself, he was adequate. Darrell was a capable theologian but as my friend would say of himself, he was adequate. I think Darrell would agree with this assessment. None of these things in my mind set Darrell apart from many of our colleagues.
I remember he and I were having lunch at the old Tatar campus of the First Baptist Church in Pasadena; Texas and we were talking about a mutual friend of ours, Estol Williams, who was pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and my pastor. Darrell said, “You know Brother Estol and I went to seminary together.” I replied that I had understood that they had. He then replied, “I would never have graduated from seminary if it hadn’t been for Estol. I struggled with Greek and were it not for his tutoring me in Greek I’d have never passed that course.” Darrell could never be accused of thinking more highly of himself that he should.
No, Darrell’s most notable characteristic was that he loved people and he desired that all of them that came into the realm in which he resided come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. I think that love for people is the engine behind another trait that marked his character . . . he never seemed to need to search for someone’s name. If he was ever introduced to you, he never forgot you and would greet you by name.
I recall when I was in seminary, we had returned to Pasadena to visit family and decided to attend First Baptist Church on Wednesday evening. It was their business meeting and I remember slipping in and sitting with my aunt (a member there). Darrell welcomed three new people into the church by Baptism, brought a really short message. Right in the middle of that message he looked up, saw us sitting there and stopped his message to welcome me, my wife, my two children by name and ask about our dog by name. He never met the dog that I know of and we had only seen him once or twice since meeting him at 15 years old. That told me he had been following our ministry from that first meeting. He truly cared.
But where most of us were just adequate the one area where Darrell exceeded all of us was in sharing Jesus and leading folks to faith in Christ Jesus. Darrell had a heart for the lost. I never met another Christian who lived to lead people to Christ like Darrell. I remember him telling me once about his constantly having the church community surveys and mass mailings. Darrell said, I want something in every home in the area to have something with our church’s name and contact information on it. Every family in this town is going to have at least one major crisis and I want the first thing that they reach for to be that card correspondence with our church’s contact information on it.
Darrell was a winner of souls. He also was a promoter of God’s preachers. I recall back in 1983 that I had just become the Pastor of the Woodland Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. I did not know another preacher in the area, and they had all known each other a long time. I also did not know that Darrell was on te program. At any rate it was the night we pastors had been asked to get as many deacons as possible to attend the evangelism conference being held at the Calvary Baptist Church. I managed to have all my leading deacons present. Seemed like no matter how hard Susan and I tried we could not break into that “preacher” club.
So Susan and I and our handful of deacons sat pretty much alone on the second pew from the front of the sanctuary. Darrell spoke and he was followed by a prayer time. During that prayer time he slipped down from the platform and came and sat next to me until the session had a break. Susan and I talked with Darrell for about ten minutes and then left to go get ready for his next session. After the session was over and as Darrell was leaving every preacher in the place made it a point to introduce themselves to me. That wasn’t accidental. Darrell had accessed the situation and consciously made it clear that he and I were friend. Just one way he gave my ministry a boost.
I also recall an occasion in Dallas at the Texas Baptist Evangelism conference when Susan and I along with another friend of mine bumped into Darrell in the lobby outside the arena. As we stood their visiting Jimmy Draper, and another SBC official came up and interrupted us. Darrell turned to Jimmy and said, “Jimmy, I’m speaking with Brother Appleby right now, we’ll be through in a moment and then he turned back to our conversation. When we finished a moment or two later, he turned to Jimmy Draper and asked, “Jimmy, have you met Dr. Appleby and his wife Susan? I have invited them to join us for lunch.” This was quintessential Darrell Robinson.
I can list on my hand the people who influenced me both personally and in ministry and Darrell Robinson was one of those few men. I have not tried to be exhaustive regarding my friend, but I have tried to show the kind of friend and person he was. I’m sure each of you reading this have your own stories and memories concerning Darrell. I invite you to share your special story of you and Darrell. I look forward to reading your experience with Brother Darrell . . . .
