“Jesus said to them, ‘Come and eat breakfast’” (John 21:12, NKJV).

Mother’s Example

My mother, Willie Ferguson, was known for her hospitality and culinary skills. In November 1976, she hosted her first Thanksgiving breakfast for the 29 members of the Ferguson family. (Most lived within an hour away.) The percolator filled with steaming hot coffee served as an eye opener for the early bird arrivals. Biscuits were cooked at intervals—so everyone would have them hot—and served along with cream gravy and homemade peach preserves. There were also fresh donuts—made from scratch and cooked in an iron skillet—and waffles and hot cakes, so everyone could have what they wanted. Her breakfast was an instant hit and became a Ferguson family tradition until Thanksgiving, 2019, when COVID hit.

Besides being a good cook, Mother was also a woman of faith and prayer, which was evident in her daily life. While providing healthy meals for our family, she always had enough to share with homebound friends in our church. There were six of us kids; I was the second oldest and the youngest were triplets. We children often saw our mother studying her Bible, preparing to teach Sunday school, and she always managed to get all six of us properly dressed and in church.

Called to Serve

In 1976, I was ordained as a deacon by my church, First Baptist Church, Hurst, Texas, to assist the pastors in meeting the practical and material needs of the congregation—and I felt the weight of the responsibility. For many years, my wife Pat and I had been teaching preschoolers in our Sunday school, and it was a great privilege to help little children get to know the Lord. Now, as a deacon, I was given the responsibility to serve the needs of our church in tangible ways.

For several years, I had been sensing that God had something else for me to do with my life. I was 40 years old, married, with two daughters who were in high school. Pat was in transition at her work, and I was about to begin a full-time job that required me to be at work at 7:00 a.m. With the responsibility that came with being a deacon, I realized that I needed to spend more time in prayer. I knew that prayer had to be the foundation of all true Christian service, so I began to ask God to show me how I might lead the men in our church to pray. The idea of starting a Men’s Prayer Breakfast came to my mind. (I, like my mother, have a love for good breakfasts.) I shared the idea with my dear friend, Doc Glenn Baker, and he gave his full support, suggesting that we meet on Thursday mornings. So, in September 1977, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast was born.

The question I had was whether men would be willing to get up an hour earlier than usual to gather at the church to pray. I knew God would have to bring them, so I left the outcome to the Lord. Word of the prayer breakfast was shared man to man and publicized in our church newsletter. One of the men who attended from the start was Bill Green. He told the men that a piece of paper is only a piece of paper until you put a date on it—then it becomes a document. With his urging, all the men put the date on their calendar. We knew that a 5:45 a.m. prayer meeting would require commitment on the part of the men.

Our first prayer breakfast got off to a good start, with about a dozen men attending. Among the group were some young men who liked to get up early and some retirees who needed the fellowship with other men. A couple of former members of our church drove quite a distance to attend. At first, donuts and cinnamon rolls, orange juice, and coffee were the fare at the breakfasts. But after our family purchased a new cookstove, and Pat was regularly making biscuits for our family, I asked if she might make enough biscuits for 20–30 men. She was very willing and that became her ministry for the next 47 years.

The biscuits and gravy menu soon expanded to sausage, eggs, juice, coffee, Blackburn jelly, and honey. Men would often comment that it was the best breakfast they had all week. It didn’t take long for Pat and me to hone our skills and get a smooth-running routine. On Wednesdays, we’d make a run to the grocery store to get the items we needed and then stop by the church to put things in the refrigerator and get the coffee ready to brew first thing the next morning. Pat would mix the biscuits on Wednesday nights at home, except for the buttermilk which she added the next morning before rolling them out. I carried the uncooked biscuits to the church in a cart, and using the code to the back door of the church kitchen, entered, and began the routine I knew so well: coffee pot turned on, oven set at 450 degrees, sausage in the oven, eggs cracked and in the bowl. The gravy was made last minute from the sausage drippings.

I would try to arrive at the church at 4:45. For me, that first hour working alone in the kitchen was a time of worship. Usually, words from hymns would run through my mind—my favorite was “I Must Tell Jesus.” And I would recall favorite scripture verses, like 1 Peter 5:7 (RGT), “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” Men would arrive at various times—some to help with the preparation, and at 5:45 it was time to begin eating. Breakfast was always a time for fun, laughter, and catching up with each other before we prayed.

Men of Prayer

The prayer time was led by one of the men, with everyone sharing prayer needs with the group. Each person would write the requests on 3x5 cards, then—with a partner or in small groups—pray for the requests. The cards were meant to be carried home as reminders to continue to pray. We followed the biblical injunction that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Timothy 2:1, ESV). We prayed for our government, our president, and world leaders. Mainly our prayers centered around the needs of our church, the outreach to the community, and mission projects. We prayed for our pastors and their families, church staff, and personal needs of family and friends.

Through the years, we prayed people through crises in their families, illness and grief over the loss of a loved one, financial difficulties, wayward children, and broken marriages. One man went through a dark place in his life, and he credits the prayers and support of his breakfast friends as God’s way of bringing him out of depression. Over the years, many men came to believe in the power of prayer and called themselves “Men of Prayer.”

The faithful men who throughout the decades came to the prayer breakfasts believed that God was hearing and answering our prayers. Though we never knew nor could see the full extent of how God was answering, we knew God was honored when we turned to Him with our needs. In the model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, we are to pray, even for our daily bread. The Men of Prayer trusted that God was ready to help us with our needs—sometimes before we realized we needed His help. We accepted His promise in Jeremiah 33:3 (ESV), “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

Called to Faithfulness

For 47 years, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast met, rain or shine, except for a few times when the streets were icy and a three-month pause during the COVID pandemic. Once when our church kitchen was under repair, we met outside, cooking breakfast on grills. If for any reason Pat and I had to be out of town, Doc Baker and his wife would fill in for us. God granted us the strength we needed to be faithful to the job He had called us to do. Cooking breakfast for the men was not always easy, but it was never burdensome. The joy of the Lord was our strength. Everything we needed was provided, with the men generously covering the costs of the breakfasts.

Pat and I are grateful for the 47 years God gave us to serve men breakfast first—before they prayed. And I cherish many pleasant memories of fellowship and prayer with men around breakfast tables. On the anniversary of our 45th year of cooking for the Men’s Prayer Breakfast, our church gave Pat and me a plaque of appreciation. Then the Lord graciously gave us two more years to serve! When I turned 87, we decided it was time to retire. Our last prayer breakfast was on November 21, 2024, with 25 men and women attending, including our pastor emeritus, church staff, and several faithful men who had been with us from the beginning. The Quilters for Christ ladies from the church presented us with a quilt of gratitude, and Doc Baker’s wife, Lene, read the words to the song “Find Us Faithful,“ which was the prayer of us all:

Oh, may all who come behind us

find us faithful

May the fire of our devotion light

their way

May the footprints that we

leave lead them to believe

And the lives we live inspire them to

obey

Oh, may all who come behind us

find us faithful.

Luke 16:10 (ESV), “The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”

Lee Ferguson worked for 27 years with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford (HEB) School District in Tarrant County, Texas. In retirement, he and his wife Pat enjoy participating in the senior adult ministry at their church and getting acquainted with their first great-granddaughter, Nora. Married for 67 years, Lee and Pat live in the house where they have lived for 60 years and practice being good neighbors to other residents in their community. Lee’s hobby is birdwatching in his backyard.