Life is about living- slowing down, looking around, seeing myself, others, and all of creation through the eyes of the Creator. I, like most of us, find myself often so consumed with the cares of life (the world) that I don’t really live. Many, like me, don’t fully wake up to that until we’re in the autumn of our lives. I have a story to tell, and it is still unfolding.
Here’s the nickel tour of who I am. I was born in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in 1955. Named for my dad,
Banner Kidd, my family chose to call me “Buddy.” Most people don’t know that, and so I’m known only by my given name, Banner, to most people I have a relationship with today.
I began living life in a little four room house with no indoor plumbing, on Little Mud Creek, in Floyd County, East Kentucky. I started first grade at Spruce Pine School, a small three room schoolhouse that housed First through Eighth grades. Our little home was only about a quarter of a mile from school. I walked to school every day, and the first month or so I used to run back home at recess because I didn’t really want to be there.
My family moved to Kendallville, Indiana in May 1965, just prior to my tenth birthday. I had a traumatic childhood, marked by being sexually molested by an uncle, and a lot of moving around, at times being separated from Mom and Dad. I grew up fearful, and doubtful that anything good could ever really come my way. It was a recipe for some bad choices in my life. But my loving Papa God spared me and rescued me.
I have been, and continue to be, a professional musician, songwriter, and have been a full time broadcaster on radio. I have written and produced jingles for radio and TV, since 1989, working with a network of professional musicians, writers, engineers, and singers around the nation. I was blessed to serve as a recovery specialist and development director for Inspiration Ministries for about 2 1/2 years. At the end of the day, I am just a little kid from East Kentucky, grew up in Indiana into an old man who has had some cool opportunities.
My wife Karen and I have raised four children. Sadly we lost our oldest daughter to cancer in June of 2020. Looking back at my life I can’t say that I did everything right. Likewise, I can’t say that I did everything wrong. I did enough wrong, that I’m grateful to have an opportunity to right some of those wrongs. The one BIG right was choosing to believe in Jesus on November 23rd, 1987. Since that time my life has been one of learning, growing, falling down, and getting up, marked with change.
I believe in Messiah, the Christ, whose shed blood, as the Passover Lamb, gave me new life. There is one God, who is Spirit, and is revealed in God the Father and God the Son. We are saved only by grace through faith. We can’t earn it. Keeping rules, even the law of God, won’t save us. God calls us to a relationship with Him, where we submit to His sovereignty, and His supernatural work to change us into the image of His own dear Son. But for a time I lost my mind and tried to head down a different road. I got a ways down that road before my First Love, Jesus, warned me and called me back to The Way, The Truth, and The Life – Himself
I have made many mistakes in this life. Some big ones after I became born again, when I became involved in the man-made religion of the Torah keeping hate that has taken hold in some areas of the church. My wrongs began not long after I was born again, when I took a sidetrack and began listening to what men say more that what the Creator has said in His Word. It is a dangerous and is in many areas of the profession church. It’s not Scriptural and is not Jesus.
As I began my walk out of the non-scriptural practices of Christianity I began to listen to some in the Hebrew Roots movement. Though I never considered myself a part of that persuasion I still took on many of its tenets and ways. I was a part of leadership in an assembly that became very legalistic and toxic at the leadership level. What began as Maranatha Christian Fellowship became Calvary Christian Fellowship, and in February 2007 became known as Messiah Fellowship, replete with a headlong pursuit of the Law of Moses in a Saturday Sabbath keeping gathering. It is my opinion that Messiah Fellowship has become a cult.
From a high point of around 600 people in attendance weekly, down to around 50, including children when my wife and I left in 2020, many were hurt and some, the faith was shipwrecked, even to denying Jesus as Savior. For my part in it, I renounce it, and repent of it. I left that assembly in July of 2020 after being there since August 1993. Shortly after we landed at what was then Maranatha Christian Fellowship, I began serving as a worship leader. I was in leadership there since 2003, and the better part of two decades in the delusion of the Hebrew Roots/Torah Observant persuasion.
My eyes have been opened to the danger of the Hebrew Roots movement along with the bondage in any legalistic religion of man. I categorically and completely renounce my involvement in it and I believe God has called me to refute it and expose the darkness inherent in it. Behind it is the spirit of anti-Christ/Messiah. It has, and continues to lead people who pursue the shadows in the Torah of Moses, away from Christ and the simplicity of the Gospel. The spirit of anti-Christ is present in any expression that professes Messiah, yet is devoted to laws and traditions over an adulterated relationship with Jesus Christ our First Love and Bridegroom. In some cases there are those who finally reject the writings of Paul, the Book of Hebrews, then Jesus as Messiah and the New Testament entirely. How can anyone define it as anything but the spirit of anti-Christ?
Here, in a little nutshell, is what I believe. If we are born again it happened through belief in Messiah, the Christ and not because of works of the law/Torah. We, who are born again by the work of the Holy Spirit, also continue to live by the same Spirit who made us alive, and not by works of law, as Paul wrote in Galatians Chapter Five. My eyes have been opened to see what is clearly written, but only understood by the power of the Spirit. New life in Christ, from beginning, through the middle, to the end is supernatural and wonderful and is an amazing ride that I would never want to miss!
God called me to the ministry in August of 1988, after a rollover accident I had, totaling my car, on Interstate 69 in Dekalb County. As I lay in the ambulance awaiting transport to the hospital to be checked for injuries, I heard the call. In short order I was leading worship, and have continued to do that in the succeeding years of my life in Christ. I’ve been blessed to be an outreach leader, a church teaching elder, the vice president of the church board, an on air-announcer and manager of Christian Radio, and a songwriter and music producer and in case management, development, and program supervision with a residential Christian recovery program.
It hasn’t been easy, especially having to say goodbye for now to our oldest daughter who is now with Jesus. But God has been so good to our family. God led me to be ordained by the laying on of hands by Pastor Paul Mowery and the elders at Harvest Fellowship in Fort Wayne. One of the elders, Brian DeCook shared with me about the seminary training with Christian Leaders Institute. I immediately checked into it and enrolled and spent many hours each day throughout the summer of 2024 studying at a college level and ending up with an ordination and registration as a Soul Center to continue in what God has called me to do. I am a pastor, and I have been for decades, though now I have the credentials to back it up.
Today I pastor First Love Outreach Fellowship, a start up fellowship to teach the whole counsel of God, in context, book by book and chapter by chapter. The vision is to be submitted to the Spirit that He may create His unified body, as Ephesians Chapter Four tells us, and to be used to equip the saints of the Living God to build up the body corporate, to reproduce and multiply the Kingdom of God.
God impacted my life in Revelation Chapter Two, several years ago, in a warning and an admonition to return to my “First Love.” I eventually left man’s empty and dangerous religion of Hebrew Roots and was restored to a loving relationship with Jesus. This is why I call this new church First Love Outreach. I want to be used to help others who find themselves in a legalistic expression of religion in any way, and be used to bring them to Christ, as well as introducing others to our beloved Bridegroom for the first time.
2nd Corinthians 5:18-21 and Ephesians 4:1-16 are the foundational verses for the ministry of First Love Outreach. It’s not about growing a large mega-church, but instead being a positive impact in building up the body of Christ to reproduce and multiply. The idea is the bring them in, raise them up, and send them out.
We are in the beginning stages of First Love Outreach, and we are praying for provision and for the people God is calling to be a part of this vision and mission. I am a part of a leadership team from another church in the process of launching a Kendallville based Celebrate Recovery, licensed and supported by the CR HQ out of Saddleback Church and with the full support of Grace Christian Church.
My wife, Karen, and I I have a vital Bible Study underway and in our second book of the Bible, verse by verse and chapter by chapter. I have a second small, coffee shop ministry men’s Bible Study that meets weekly, and Karen, and I, are involved in several individual’s lives as mentors, spiritual advisors and available to help in any way we can. Some are coming out of a hurtful religious experience, some have lost loved ones, and some are dealing with the hard experience of recovering from hurts, habits and hangups.
Meantime, I’m looking for opportunities to share in speaking and singing engagements at churches, small groups, coffee shops, or any other indoor or outdoor venues, picnics, backyard barbecues or any other venue idea you might have in mind. The love gifts are a very real blessing to us as we exist on the fixed Social Security income that I have. I am open to just about any opportunity to share the good news of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. Just let me know.
I’m available to anyone who has questions or concerns about Hebrew Roots Torah Observant issues or to discuss an opportunity to come share with you. If you have questions, or have an opportunity that you would like to pass my way. I can be reached at 260-336-4106 or by sending an email to bannerkidd55@gmail.com. Thank you!
Peace,
Pastor Banner Kidd. First Love Outreach
