Tommy Barnett and Johnny Cash on how You Can Do More

I’ve often been asked, pastor. It seemed like you are never satisfied, always reaching for more. You know, Davenport, Iowa. My little church started with 76 people on my first Sunday.

We sold our building for $10,000. Think of it. The entire budget of the church for a year was $25,000—the whole budget. But in eight years, we grew to 4,000 people and became the fastest-growing church in America. During that time, I preached a message in Nashville, Tennessee, and in that service was Johnny and June Cash. I preached on:

What should it profit a man if he should gain the world and lose his soul? When it was over, he and his wife came up and talked to me, said, “Reverend, I was really touched today. June and I are thinking about our future; we’re going to put a lot of thought into it, and we’ll be back.” Well, the next Sunday, I was not there, but he came back, walked the aisle of that church, and accepted Christ.

A year later, I met with him and said, “You know, I’d like to have the world’s greatest Sunday school. We can rent out our stadium in our city. That’ll take care of over 30,000 if we use the infield. And if you will come and sing and I will preach, I believe that we can reach more souls for Christ.” And I knew that was too big.

I knew it was an impossible thing. I said, “Would you just pray about it?” He looked at me and said, “No, no, I’ll come.” He didn’t even have to pray about it.

(Johnny Cash) – “I have a feeling for people. I can sense whether or not people are sincere, real in what they say and what they say they do. And I didn’t know the name of his church, and I didn’t even remember the name of his church until somebody reminded me today. But I knew that Tommy Barnett had no selfish purpose. He and I had this in common: we were interested in people, and from his standpoint, he was trying to point them to eternal life. And I’m here to support that.”

Johnny Cash came. He brought his entire caravan of singers; he brought Carl Perkins, who did Blue Suede Shoes. It was amazing. We rented the stadium that day, and over 30,000 people came. And when they gave the invitation, Johnny Cash sang the song “Come Home, Come Home, It’s Suppertime,” and over 6,000 people crowded down that stadium into the infield and accepted Christ as their personal savior. It was one of the great events of my life.

I remember walking in the parking lot, and I was moved. I was teary-eyed. I thought, God, I never thought you’d use me like that. It was like a Billy Graham crusade when suddenly a little guy came up to me, and he said, “Pastor, I’m so proud of our church. I never thought in my life I’d see anything like this. Pastor, I’m so proud of you.” And then he pointed his finger in my face and said, “But you can do more!”

I am now in Phoenix, Arizona. Our church has just finished building the largest auditorium at that time in America. We had to borrow money at 21% interest to build this building, but at last, we had it finished.

I wondered if we would fill it. I was scared to death. I walked into that auditorium, and not only was it filled, but people were standing around in the aisles. Chairs were in the aisles. But guess what? The day that we had the dedication, I was in the parking lot. It was the greatest service of my life. That little guy showed up again, and he put his finger in my face and said, “This is wonderful, pastor.” And he was weeping. But he said, “You can do more!”

Fast forward one more time. We bought the Dream Center. I am now in LA. We didn’t know if we’d ever have it paid for because it took $50 million to bring it up to code. Are you listening to this? This is very important. About five years ago, I was invited to the top roof of the Dream Center. A group of our faithful was there. And they lit a little fire, and they burned the mortgage of the Dream Center.

It was completely debt-free. I never thought I’d live to see that place debt-free. I got on the elevator. I was probably more moved than any experience I’ve had in my life. I walked to the parking lot, and, I mean, I was just rejoicing, praising God. Guess who showed up? The little guy. And he said, “Pastor, I never expected to see the Dream Center paid for in my life. Pastor, I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of our church. I’m so proud of God.” But then that little rascal put his finger in my face and said, “But you could do more.”

And the Dream Center is built to do more. These have been the roughest years. The last few years. The roof at the Dream Center fell; it would cost over $2 million to repair. We just had come out of the pandemic. And then Matthew has three strokes within an hour and almost lost his life. Many of the people that came to the Dream Center had moved out during the pandemic, and they got used to being away. They got used to not having to fight the traffic. Why would they make the drive? And they would call and apologize. We understood. So we had to really build again. But you know what? The need is greater than it’s ever been before. There are more homeless than ever before. There is more violence than ever before. More abused women than ever before. These have been the hardest years of our life.

But you know what? We can do more.