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C.T.L. Spear

C.T.L. Spear III is an evangelist, consultant, conference speaker, and recording artist born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on October 16, 1947. He is the firstborn son of Talbert L. "Bud" Spear (C.T.L. Spear II) and H. Lilia (nee:Bashford) Spear, both born in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska in 1916 (C.T.L.S.II b.4/11/1916 at rural Mitchell, NE, and H.L.B.S., a twin b.1/6/1916 at Henry, NE with twin brother, Henry Lyle Bashford who married Lucile E. Spear, sister of Talbert). He has one brother, Dale, who also served twenty years in the ministry.

Story-telling and humorous ditties blend with intense passion in the platform style of the evangelist, whose grandparents [Henry D. & Lettie (nee: Copeland) Bashford, and George C. & Martha E. (nee: Wallace) Spear] and great grandparents [Clarence (C.T.L. Spear) & Mary Irwin Spear were homestead pioneers in the Nebraska panhandle on the Oregon Trail arriving in the early 1900's (Bashford) and 1900 (Spear). Clarence T.L. Spear's Scotts Bluff County homestead was filed in the name of his daughter, Katherine Gertrude Spear, a nurse (L.P.N), who remained single throughout her life. This was his second homestead attempt, the original one in Banner County, NE in approximately the 1880's.

Spear, known as Lloyd and as C.T., along with his wife, Sharen L. (nee: Derksen) has pursued his motivational, educational, and evangelistic ministry in school assemblies, youth camps, expos, county fairs, tent and pavilion meetings, radio, and prisons, including Louisiana’s Angola Prison, Mississippi’s Parchman Penitentiary, West Tennessee High Security, Northwest Tennessee Correctional Complex, and others. Most of the prison ministry work was done under the auspices of Rock of Ages Prison Ministry, Cleveland, TN. and as a full time volunteer chaplain at Northwest Tennessee Correctional Annex, Tiptonville, TN (1996-2001), where he administered the Lake County Tennessee branch of Rock of Ages Prison Ministry's Prisoners' Bible Institute, averaging 58 students (including live classes and correspondence students) each semester for five years, with credits recognized by Mountaineer Baptist Bible College, Salem, WV., granting Associate degrees.

Hourglass Ministries (www.hourglassministries.com) is the vehicle for “Rally-Concerts” performed by the Spear family throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Concert tours covered most of the United States and led to seven recording projects, Hourglass newsletter, Blessing Spout newsletter, “Old Timey Tent Meetings,” Ladies’ Extravaganzas, Hourglass School of Music and Hourglass Life Coaching. For ten years, they focused on assistance to church planters who were founding new churches in “forgotten communities,” including projects in 15 states among inner cities of Alabama, South Carolina, New York, Florida, and in Gypsy and Native American communities in Alaska and New Mexico. He was Field Administrator for USA Church Planting with Baptist Missions to Forgotten Peoples, Inc., Jacksonville, FL (2003-2013).

C.T. & Sharen began singing together before they married, and took duet lessons from Ray Lutke, who recorded and toured as Ray & Opal Lutke while serving as Band Director and Vocal instructor at Grace Bible Institute (now Grace University) in Omaha, NE. and BIOLA College in LaMirada, CA. The Spears' music ministry grew into full time evangelistic work during his tenure as Director of Ministries (Public Relations, Publications, Student Ministries, & Student Recruiting) at Western Bible College (now Colorado Christian University), Denver, CO (1972-76). Hourglass, also known as Hourglass Singers, featured the couple, their children, Dayna, Kendra, and Casey, and sometimes featured in major concerts Dale & Candi Spear, and Donna Toews. Sharen, Candi, or Dayna played keyboards most of the time, but Donna traveled to several meetings in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. During 1976, they traveled recruiting students for Denver Baptist Bible College & Denver Baptist Theological Seminary, while finishing his residential classroom Graduate studies, begun in 1973.

For four years, Spear was host of the radio program Focus on Western, appeared on the Annual Sharathons, and aired featured Christmas Specials on KWBI-FM. His responsibility at Western Bible College included launching and organizing the Annual Founder's Banquet for the college, which grew to over 1000 seated guests, as well as annual fund raising banquets for KWBI-FM, which assisted in the growth of the station from a four hour per day to a 24 hour schedule, and eventual expansion statewide and beyond. Hourglass Ministries conducted fund raising concerts and pie and coffee meetings to launch KCEB-FM radio station in Casper, WY in 1986.

Spear began his ministry as a street preacher on March 17, 1966, preaching from a soapbox in front of the old downtown J.C. Penney's Store on Sixteenth Street in Omaha, NE. He was a Summer Intern two summers (1967 & 1968) under the ministry of Pastor Adrian L. House at Berean Fundamental Church, Cheyenne, WY. In the autumn of 1968, he began preaching in Auburn, NE and organized the Berean Fundamental Church there on December 6, 1968. Two years later, a weekly BIble study was held and a second church, Humboldt Bible Church, Humboldt, NE was organized on December 6, 1970. During the church planting years in southeastern Nebraska (1968-1972) he set up pie and coffee fund raisers for the coverage expansion of KGBI-FM radio from Omaha. He was ordained in March 1971 by the Berean Fundamental Church, Auburn, NE, recognized by the Berean Fundamental Church Council, North Platte, NE. Since 1973, his church membership has been in independent Baptist Churches, and he was ordained at First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN in 1989, although his doctrinal position has remained essentially the same.

Spear’s full-length book, e-book, and audio book, Still a Kid, (Tate Publishing Company) features homespun stories, prison experiences, and lessons from Jether, an obscure Bible personality, to showcase a crucial message about decisions and consequences, targeting decision-makers and youth (see www.stillakid.com). Other publishing projects include award-winning histories for historical and genealogical societies in Kentucky and Tennessee, Maranatha, the Miracle Camp, and coffee table style commemorative histories for Sheriffs in Denver, Nashville, Fort Worth, and St. Paul, Minnesota. His projects with Martin County, Kentucky Genealogical Society and Bedford County, Tennessee Historical Society won Pictorial History of the Year and Family History of the Year at Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, KY, where he was mentored by Publishing Consultant Keith Steele. Numerous other projects were completed with Historical and Genealogical Societies, Veterans Organizations and Law Enforcement agencies, including the Anniversary Edition of the National Fraternal Organization of Police.

A recipient of the Men’s Class Speaker award at Grace University where he earned the B.A. degree (1970), he holds a Master’s degree in Systematic Theology from Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (1987) (which merged with Denver Baptist Theological Seminary), studied American History and Literature at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is certified as a Crisis Management consultant by Crisis Consulting International and as a presenter for the Center for Teacher Effectiveness.