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FEATURE FOR
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2003
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Reverend Tony Janner - Building on the Cornerstone |
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 Walking
into Reverend Tony Janner's office, the first thing one
sees is a striking fine art print of a cowboy on horseback
leading two pack horses away from a rustic log cabin,
across a swollen creek bed in early fall. Embedded within
the matting surrounding the print is the admonition from
Psalms 37:5: "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in
him and he shall bring it to pass."
Reverend Janner is the new pastor serving McKenzie's First
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, although "new" seems off
base for the minister who, aside from his pastoral duties,
has already fit into civic and community events as easily
as a native son.
The sturdily built Texan admits he is a cowboy of sorts,
but closer conversation reveals life itself has been most
often the bronc he has ridden, and he's been thrown more
times than perhaps he would care to remember in youthful
days when life's circumstance clouded the promise he has
since learned never fades away.
Born in Corsicana,Texas and raised with a brother five
years his junior, Tony says he didn't have much of a
"religious background."
"My mother was Catholic, mostly because her sister was,"
he muses quietly. "I was born in a Catholic hospital as a
preemie... the nurses really stayed with me and took care
of me while my mother worked, so that was beginning of
it."
His grandparents, on the other hand, "were very strong
independent Missionary Baptists."
"That was a big influence," says Janner, who recalls what
was perhaps an even bigger influence when his best friend
invited him to a Cumberland Presbyterian youth camp when
he was 16, where he experienced his salvation.
Life still delivered his share of hard knocks. "My parents
divorced during my junior year," he shares. "I had a lot
of conflicts in my life like all young people do. I wanted
to go out and do my own thing."
Although he attended high school throughout his senior
year, he lacked enough credits to graduate. He joined the
Army in 1964, tackling both basic training and infantry
training at Fort Pope, Louisiana.
He served with the 502nd Infantry, 1st Missile Battalion
in Vicenzia, Italy for 13 months before deploying to South
Vietnam on December 21, 1965.
It was there that Janner received his wake up call when
his first sergeant, a black man by the name of Fuller,
literally kicked him in the rear to get his attention.
"He told me, 'Janner, you can do anything you put your
mind to - anything in the world - but it's not by chance
but by planning (that one accomplishes what he sets out to
do), and you have to be part of the planning.'"
"He made a point with me," Janner nods, adding, "I think
military service is good for all our kids because it does
three things: One, it gives purpose; you have a mission
and that is a team mission; to make sure everybody gets
back alive. Two, it gives discipline; you learn to get by
and not do, and be, lackadaisical about everything. Three,
it gives pride; pride to do good, pride to make an
accomplishment and make things better than they were."
Four and a half months into his tour of duty amid the
jungles of Vietnam, Janner came down with malaria and
hepatitis which landed him in the hospital at Johnson
Station Japan for 142 days. After his recovery, he
rejoined the 502nd Infantry at Ben Cat, Vietnam in the
Mekong Delta.
Janner's homecoming on December 23, 1966 was even more
exciting, perhaps, than the average soldier-come-home. For
two years, he had been writing a young lady who lived in
the city of Oran in the Missouri bootheel. The two had
become pen pals after becoming acquainted by mail through
her brother, Glenn Holmes, who was Janner's best friend in
the service.
After meeting, the couple became engaged, and Janner soon
headed for Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where he achieved his
G.E.D. before completing his enlistment on March 17, 1967
on Saint Patrick's Day.
Tony and Mary Ann married on April 8, 1967, when he was 21
and she was 19, after which Janner farmed with her father
for about a year. They then moved to Houston, Texas where
he went to work with the EI DuPont Company... and received
his call to ministry.
Reverend Janner served at the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in Houston, then moved to Arlington, Texas where he
was supply pastor for the Mission Ridge Cumberland
Presbyterian Church.
He received an Associate of Arts Degree in Elementary
Education with a minor in psychology through Tarrant
County Junior College in Fort Worth, then pursued his
Master of Divinity Degree at Memphis Theological Seminary,
which, he shares, was once housed at Bethel College.
Revered Janner was ordained at Shiloh, where he served as
supply pastor. He completed his master's degree in 1979
and moved to Hampton, Arkansas where he pastored Camp
Ground Cumberland Presbyterian Church, then moved to
Clinton, Oklahoma where he was pastor of the Clinton,
Oklahoma CP Church until 1981. While living in Oklahoma,
Janner spent a summer in post-graduate studies of the New
Testament through the San Francisco Theological Seminary
in San Anselmo, California.
On May 25, 1981, Reverend Janner entered the Air Force
Chaplaincy at age of 34. His first duty assignment took
the Janners to Tyndall AFB near Panama City, Florida for
about two years, after which he was stationed at Gila Bend
Arizona for two more years, where he was the only chaplain
on base.
He spent some time in the Persian Gulf in 1982 during the
Iraq-Iran War where he gained great insight into the
freedoms Americans enjoy.
"They had to call us 'Morale Officers' and we couldn't
wear crosses," he says. "It was an interesting time, too,
because I was the only minister in Riad. We could get a
priest from Rome every once in awhile but I was the only
Protestant chaplain there and I ministered to a lot of
military and civilians."
Nearly every night, Janner says, 15 to 35 civilian and
military personnel from countries such as Germany,
England, the Philippines, and the United States would
gather in an active ministry that attracted the religious
police as well.
"After we left Saudi Arabia, the religious police would
knock on their doors and take people in and question
them," relates Reverend Janner. "Thank God it didn't cause
an international incident, but it certainly shows the
power and importance for people to enjoy religious
freedom."
Most gratifying was the fact that "so many young faces
showed up eager to hear the word of God" at the secret
services. "I think when you take for granted something
that you have, then it is taken away, it becomes a more
valuable commodity for you," he explains. "We don't give
young people the credit we should. They are concerned
about spirituality; they are concerned about morality;
they want a safer world."
While at his next duty station in Sambach, West Germany,
where he served four years, Janner was promoted to Major.
He then moved to Washington, D.C. on special assignment to
Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he became certified
in clinical pastoral education and completed a year of
residency.
"That dealt a lot with death and dying, and trauma
counseling," Reverend Janner said, explaining the
certification.
At Eglin AFB in Florida, Janner was the Senior Hospital
Chaplain for the regional hospital for 18 months, during
which time the Gulf War began.
"I had to send a lot of chaplains to the Gulf at that
time, and our son (Markle) was in the Army at Fort Benning,
Georgia with the 197th Infantry." Soon, Markle was
deployed to the staging grounds in Kuwait for preparation
for the war.
Reverend Janner was sent as Team Chief to the 5th General
Hospital in Germany where he ministered to wounded
soldiers coming from the Persian Gulf.
He became Senior Protestant Chaplain at Eglin AFB before
transferring in 1993 to Woomera, Australia where he was
base chaplain.
"That was probably the greatest assignment in my career,"
says Reverend Janner, "The Australian people were so good
to us; they just seemed to love us and I was able to be
their pastor as well as pastor to the military
(personnel)."
He returned to the States in 1995 where he served at Reese
A.F.B. in Texas until the base closed, and Janner retired,
in 1997.
He became pastor of the White Oaks Pond CP Church, a large
country church about seven miles outside Lebanon,
Missouri. There, he built on the post-graduate work he had
begun through the San Francisco Theological Seminary,
Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and through Christian
Education courses in the Air Force, to complete his
doctorate of ministry through Memphis Theological Seminary
in 2001.
While his wife is Baptist, and the couple were married in
the Baptist Church, Reverend Janner says, "I think the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church has the best polity and an
open ended theology I like very much. I'm a conservative,
but we have ultra conservatives, middle and liberals all
believing one thing, that Jesus Christ is Lord of our
lives and we're saved by his blood and his resurrection.
If you look in the scriptures that's all it says we have
to do to be born again. John 3:16 is the cornerstone of
our church."
Reverend Janner says the CP Church is a very family
oriented church, but acknowledges that marrying the wrong
person sometimes sets one up for failure. "People spend
less time preparing for marriage (than for many other
things in life) and it's the most important decision in
their lives... we live in too much of a cop-out society."
As minister of McKenzie's First Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, Reverend Janner says, "My plan or goal here at
this church is that I want to be a very loving and caring
pastor for this group of people and see our church grow in
the capacity it is capable of growing, so that we can open
other avenues of growth in the community. We have to get
more involved in hunger, child abuse, child neglect,
education, and caring for the elderly; ministering to
their needs."
He also intends to be available to "be here to listen, to
instruct, and direct our youth."
"My grandfather was one of the last of the cowboys in Lano,
Texas," Reverend Janner shares. "He worked on a ranch most
of his life and during the Depression went on a cattle
drive from Lano to San Antonio, Texas. He shared that with
me and my cousins and of course we fell in love with it."
He will always remember, he says, seeing his grandfather's
horse, Jughead, tied up in front of the house when his
grandfather would come in. "My brother and I lived with my
grandparents," he explains. "My father was in the military
and was gone a lot, and he and my mother separated more
times than I can mention."
That his early life was filled with strife he discounts as
a part of life.
"I tell people if they had a bad situation when they were
young, if they had a bad family life, or their mom and dad
drank or took drugs, or ran around; if they felt neglected
and unloved - get over it - because you're the only one
who can get yourself out of a dysfunctional situation and
you have to take control of your life because no one else
can do it for you. And you can do it through Jesus Christ.
Reverend and Mrs. Janner have a daughter, Tracy Powell,
who is the mother of their three grandchildren. Markle and
his wife are expecting their first child this Christmas. |
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2003
Feature
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2002
Feature
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2001
Feature
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or
Fax (731) 352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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