Gerald Claxton

Yesterday we participated in the commissioning service for the Fellows program at Impact 360 Institute. Seventy-five students walked across the stage to receive their certificate of completion of this nine-month residential program that grounds 18- and 19-years old students in Biblical worldview, helps them become servant leaders, gives them a month-long international experience, teaches them not only to share their faith but to defend it, and demonstrates how to live in Christian community not only in college but for the rest of their lives. 

I was privileged to serve as the founding director of Impact 360, and sixteen years ago this week was a proud moment for our small staff as we watched 18 Impact 360 students in the inaugural class walk across a smaller stage to get their completion certificates. But it was a prouder moment yesterday to see how far this movement has grown.

The students are going to some outstanding colleges, and they will no doubt have some of the best college professors in the world.  I hope that every one of those students will have a professor like Gerald Claxton. I only had Mr. Claxton for one summer term, but he spoke truth into my life.

After high school I followed dozens of my classmates to a big state university. When I arrived on campus, I did not see much of my classmates because of the sheer vastness of the campus, and we just all went our separate ways. My old friends began new friendships, and I felt alone, but an extrovert like me makes friends easily, so I began new acquaintances. Unfortunately, I made some bad choices of friends, and I drifted away from the Lord. 

After the first couple of months of running around with these new friends, I realized that they were not becoming my friends, but just remained  acquaintances. The Lord got a hold of me and made me realize that I was not walking with Him and that these new “friends” were not good for me. 

During this time, I was asked to lead the music at a little church that my parents helped start. “Lead the music” really meant just standing up in front of the small congregation and firmly gripping the hymnal and singing and letting the pianist take the lead. I could handle that even though my only music training consisted of two years of piano lessons in elementary school. I discovered that I enjoyed getting up in front of people even though I did not really know anything about leading music.

The Lord used these experiences to convince me that I should transfer to Mississippi College to study music. Never having studied music or sung in a choir, I enrolled as a second semester Freshman to pursue a degree in music. That semester was life-changing for me as I met the love of my life. 

I learned that the Chapel Choir was conducting auditions for some vacancies in the traveling choir. Going on a choir tour sounded interesting to me, so I tried out. The simple truth is that they were desperate for a couple new tenors, and I was accepted—and I also found out that I was a tenor!! Over the weeks of rehearsal as I was following the lead of the tenors to my right and left who were actually proficient in reading music (unlike me!), as I watched Roland Shaw, our conductor, my eyes drifted slightly to the left to look at the choir pianist. She was indeed a “looker,” and I started thinking about how much I would like to date that young lady. 

We did date, and BOOM—we fell in love, and, by the way, we had the best time on the choir tour! And, we have been having a good time for the past 50 years. 

That first semester at Mississippi College I took a course in music history, and I had voice and piano lessons. The lady who was my voice teacher encouraged me, but I decided to take voice lessons from Mr. Claxton for the first summer term. 

As we were wrapping up the first summer term, Mr. Claxton asked to meet with me. I thought that was unusual, but I had no idea what he wanted to talk about with me. He came from behind his desk and pulled up a chair and was sitting almost knee to knee with me. Mr. Claxton jumped straight to reviewing the month of voice instruction. He was not complimentary, but he did not tear me down either. I don’t remember anything he said except this question towards the end of our meeting: “Larry, have you considered majoring in something other than music?”

He was sincere. I was not angry at all, but I was totally impressed that this man was really trying to help me. I have to admit that I struggled during my sophomore year trying to choose a major. But I did not lose any time with my studies as I took a full load each semester, and I definitely did not lose any time making progress in my relationship with Cheryl! 

Throughout my career, I have continually looked for people in my life like Mr. Claxton, and I have tried my best to be a Mr. Claxton for the people that the Lord has put in my life. 

“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Ephesians 4:25  

 P.S. Gerald Claxton passed away in March 2022. I read in his obituary that many of his former students were life-long friends. I was not among those, but I have a life-long remembrance of him, and I salute him for caring for his students enough to speak truth into their lives.