SALT LAKE CITY — On the evening of Dec. 13, the Rev. Oscar T. Moses and his wife, Jacqueline, were both sitting in their Chicago home trying not to think about a life-changing phone call.
At that moment across the country in Utah, the couple knew the Calvary Baptist Church congregation was voting to select a new pastor to replace retiring Pastor France A. Davis.
Pastor Moses had already survived a rigorous application process and interview to qualify as one of three finalists. The couple traveled to Utah, where Pastor Davis introduced them, gave him a chance to preach and showed them around the area. They liked the church, the people, the mountains and more.
By 9 p.m., they had not received a call from Salt Lake City. Pastor Moses looked at his wife and said, “Oh well, I guess not,” to which she responded, “Just keep on praying.”
The big call finally came around 10 p.m., and the pastor suddenly remembered the hour time zone difference. With phone in hand, he sprinted to his wife’s side and pushed the speaker button. A member of the Calvary Baptist search committee said the vote was over and Pastor Moses had been elected.
“I immediately looked at my wife and a smile came across her face. That was the determining factor. It was confirmation that the Lord was indeed in this,” Pastor Moses said. “So we accepted and looked at each other like, ‘Wow, what just happened here?’ Yessir, it’s been a pilgrimage of faith.”
Fast forward more than a month and the 53-year-old pastor is in Utah, adjusting to his surroundings as the new spiritual shepherd at Calvary Baptist Church. He has preached his first sermon and still marvels that he’s actually in Salt Lake City. The path from Chicago policeman to faith leader in Utah has been a fascinating journey.
He knows he has big shoes to fill. For now, he’ll rely on his favorite scripture verses in the Bible, Proverbs 3:5-6 — “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
“I believe the Lord has me here for a reason and everything that has happened, every experience, for whatever reason, has led me to this point,” Pastor Moses said. “I’m trusting him to connect the dots.”
The seeds of his ministry were planted when he was 17 years old. As he was leaving for college, his late grandmother, Bobbie Lou Moses, gave him a Bible. Inside she had written: “Proverbs 3:5-6.” It didn’t mean much to him at the time but it served as a spiritual “lightbulb” later in life, he said.
“That has been my go-to scripture all of my adult life, and I’ve always leaned on that scripture when I needed direction,” he said.
But first he wanted to be a police officer. Pastor Moses served just under 10 years with the Chicago Police Department. He spent the majority of that time working in the “projects,” some of the “toughest housing developments in the country,” facing a high crime rate, violence and all kinds of trauma, he said.
“It looked like a hopeless situation,” he said. “It was while I was working there that my prayer life really picked up.”
One of the pastor’s favorite sayings is, “Your assignment in life is not your decision, it’s your discovery.” He decided to be a police officer, he said, and his discovery came when the Lord called him to a higher calling. In 1996, he became an assistant chaplain in the police department and its public spokesman.
Three years later, the city of Chicago disbanded his branch of the department, ending his police career. “Maybe this is the Lord’s way of telling me it’s time to move on,” he recalls thinking.
For the next few years, Pastor Moses was a substitute teacher but mainly helped his grandfather, Rev. Joseph A. Allen, at Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church of Chicago. His life path became clear in 2002 when his grandfather retired and Pastor Moses assumed the responsibilities of a full-time pastor.
His grandfather served as pastor for 41 years and during that time had three battles with cancer. The spiritual leader was his grandson’s “primary model of ministry,” he said.
“I’ve watched him not only serve the people, but I watched the sacrifices he made, and I’ve watched the exercise of his faith. I watched his faith in times of trials and tribulation,” Pastor Moses said. “His faith demonstration was that of confidence that Christ and God would bring him through. At those difficult times he sang louder and prayed harder. He was a bastion of hope and faith.”
Another mentor who has been like a spiritual father to Pastor Moses is Pastor William R. Lott Sr., who still lives in Illinois. For that reason the refers to him as his “Pastor Dad,” he said.
The other great influence in his life is his wife, Jacqueline, who has worked as a special education teacher with Chicago public schools and is a former assistant professor of education at Trinity Christian College. He describes her as friendly, intelligent, thoughtful, loving and caring — not to mention full of integrity and faith.
“I think Calvary probably chose me primarily because of her,” he said. “I tease them, ‘Y’all want my wife, y’all don’t really love me.’ She’s just a lovely person.”
It was his wife who strongly encouraged him to apply at Calvary Baptist, a process that started for him a few years ago.
After more than 15 years as the pastor at Mount Hermon, Pastor Moses had reached a point where he felt “a sense of completion.” He began praying for the Lord to give him new direction. At the urging of a friend and his wife, he looked at the Calvary Baptist application, which called for a pastor between the ages of 41 and 59. “You need to look at that,” his wife told him.
“At 50 your shelf life starts to wear as a preacher,” Pastor Moses said.
He exchanged some texts with people at the church and submitted an application, then said he thought nothing of it. Three weeks later the church contacted him and requested the first interview, initiating a long process.
Then in December he was selected. Leaving Chicago and a congregation he had known most of his life was hard, “a lot of emotional ties and connections there,” but he knew it was the right move.
Jacqueline Moses is still in Chicago attending to affairs and will soon be in Utah, Pastor Moses said.
His eyes and sinuses are a little dry from the air, but he loves the view of the Wasatch Mountains and has felt warmly welcomed by people in the congregation and community. He’s met a few other faith leaders in the area. He’s also figuring out how to get around without his GPS.
Pastor Moses loves football and says he’s a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, although now that he’s in Utah he’s considering becoming a Jazz fan.
“We’re just real people. We’re not perfect,” he said with a smile. “What you see is what you get.”
How does he feel about taking over for Pastor Davis, whose 45 years of service has been well-documented?
“It’s very intimidating. There is no way I could duplicate France Davis. I won’t even try. He’s laid such a foundation here, not only at Calvary, but in Utah,” he said. “So my prayer to the Lord is not to imitate France Davis, but to be the best Oscar T. Moses that the Lord is created me to be.”
The topic of his first sermon was “Lord, Show Us the Way,” and yes, it was based on his favorite verses in Proverbs. In the coming years, Pastor Moses hopes to implement a five-point Christian family value system that will bless families and especially the young people with truth.
“Our motto for years has been ‘The church of great expectation.’ I’m not doing away with that, but I’m adding to that, ‘Preparing future generations to evangelize the world,’” he said. “We’re trying to get our generation to pass our faith on to our children.”