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Pastor Russell Davis

It’s been 51 years since the Rev. Russell W. Davis, Sr., found his calling and began his career as a Christian pastor.

His ministry has taken him around the world, delivering sermons in foreign languages, but his path started in his boyhood home of Bonner Springs.

“I was called into the ministry in 1957,” Davis said. “The Lord called me to preach and I answered.”

As he nears his 90th birthday, family and friends of Davis want to honor him with a celebration open to the public on Sunday Oct. 5, following services at Christ’s Church of the Jesus Hour, 1100 N. 18th St., Kansas City, Kan., where he serves as pastor.

“He has been an example of being a servant, a committed servant,” said Constance Davis Springer, one of Davis’ five children. “As his daughter, my Dad has never been less than what he said he’d be. He’s committed to his ministry and committed to the people. He still practices those things he began years and years and years ago.”

Springer said many churches have celebrations on a regular basis for their pastors, but that is never something her father was interested in. She and the rest of the party planners are keeping the plans a secret, Springer said, because she knows he father would have told her “no.”

“Dad never had a church anniversary or his yearly anniversary. He never had any celebration,” she said. “He never brought attention to himself. He always brought attention to people he served. That’s why we’re doing it.”

Davis was born in The Dalles, Ore., and moved to Bonner Springs with his grandparents as a young boy after his mother passed away. He graduated from Bonner Springs High School in 1936 and went on to Webster University before receiving his degree in philosophy from Park University.

He is a veteran of World War II and said he can remember being sent copies of the Chieftain by mail when he was stationed in the South Pacific. After recovering from shrapnel injuries Davis worked as a U.S. Postal employee for 25 years before receiving his calling into the ministry.

The first church he pastured was Brown Chapel A.M.E. in the Grandview neighborhood of Bonner Springs for five years. The church no longer exists, but Davis remembers it as the starting point for a career that would take him on an exciting path.

One of his fondest memories from those days was starting his radio and television broadcast of his sermons. “The Jesus Hour,” broadcast on a Leavenworth radio station and a Kansas City area television station, allowed for Davis’ voice to be heard further than from his small congregation.

“We could reach a lot more people,” he said. “There are people who cannot ever attend church but they could listen to the radio and watch the telecast. That was my reason and my desire.”

Davis’ career also took him overseas, where again he spread his message far and wide. In Tokyo, Japan. He took a special crash course in the language and during that seven-week tour Davis preached the Gospel entirely in Japanese.

He also visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he preached in the French language. He said he enjoyed his time overseas as a touring pastor and experienced a great welcoming from all the people he met.

“They are really hungry for the Gospel out there,” he said. “I love it there. Over here we have a church on every corner and Christianity is almost taken for granted here. Over there they receive it.”

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