Lessons in humility
In 2007, George moved his family to Birmingham, AL. And he took another job in pharmaceutical sales, this time with far less success. Even with the pay from his adjunct professorship at Birmingham Theological Seminary, he and Jill struggled to make ends meet. When the recession hit, George took a third job to help pay the bills. “Although it was a minimum-wage position at Lowe’s, it put me in a place where I had the opportunity to encourage people daily—which is why I’ve never regretted it.”
About The Author
Author, Teacher, and Pastor, George Shamblin is that rare individual whose excitement on the day of his salvation never cooled. He’s a man who lives to challenge other Christians to take God’s gift to them and pay it forward. It’s a challenge borne of equal parts enthusiasm and concern. “At any given time,” he contends, “Christianity is never more than a generation from extinction.
“I’ve seen too many Christians who think of faith as a spectator sport, and I have always chafed at the cliché that ‘faith isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.’ It’s neither. Those are individual events, and one happens to be longer than the other. True faith is a relay, a team sport if you will—and it’s up to all of us to pass the baton to others. Especially the runners who succeed us—the next generation.” George’s relay began with what might be called the spiritual equivalent of a false start.
“I was raised in a church where someone carrying a Bible was, in all likelihood, a first-time visitor. One of the most hostile responses I’ve ever received in sharing my conversion story came from my childhood priest. He was genuinely furious to hear me say I’d only recently been saved, because, he said, I had already been baptized, and had dutifully gone through all the ceremonial rituals of my church.”
Accepting his own baton
“When I was at Auburn, I went so far off track that I was almost kicked out of my fraternity three separate times.” Sometime during his senior year (1990 – ’91), George began paying closer attention to his brother-in-law—one of the first openly vocal Christians he’d ever met.
“He had something I wanted. I had tried several times to get whatever it was, through halfhearted prayer—and then one night, I dreamed two words over and over.
“The next morning, I pictured myself in an open pasture, waving a white flag and repeating those words: ‘I surrender.’ At that moment, I felt like I was struck by lightning. I went to the hospital later that day, where my niece had just been born. The instant my brother-in-law saw me, he knew.”
While George saw his conversion as a definitive call to ministry, he followed the advice of a trusted friend—who told him, “Take another job first, and if you can’t see yourself doing anything else after a few years, then go into ministry.”
Answering the call. With one on hold.
Five years later, Author George was a successful pharmaceutical sales rep in Montgomery, AL, who couldn’t see himself doing anything but being in ministry. So in the summer of 1995, he asked the Elders of his church to pray that he and his wife Jill’s house would sell quickly enough that he could enroll for the fall semester at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS.
George’s house sold within the month. Shortly after, he learned he’d qualified for a $46,000 bonus ($77,440 in 2020)—provided he stayed with Merck through the end of the year. Otherwise, he’d receive nothing.
It was enough money to pay for his entire 3-year tuition. So George went back to the Elders, assuming they’d understand if he postponed entering school by a semester. Instead, one of the men cited Luke 9:62—“No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
George called his manager at Merck to let her know he made a decision. She then took it upon herself to send a request up the corporate ranks—which resulted in an unprecedented decision on his behalf: George would receive half of his bonus without being required to stay with the company any longer.
Turning the corneR
Since 2012, Shamblin has been a pastor at The Center for Executive Leadership in Birmingham, Alabama, where he teaches Bible Studies and disciples others at various stages of spiritual growth. He served on the board of Reel-Life International and taught as an adjunct professor at Birmingham Theological Seminary. In 2023, he and his brother Keith co-founded a missions ministry to Cuba, The Overseas Initiative.
Shamblin published his first book, The Relay, in 2020, followed by Inerrancy in 2023, and was recently inducted into Marquis Who’s Who. An avid outdoorsman and Master Gardener, George and his wife of 32 years, Jill, have four children Sydney, Bailey, Miller, and George Jr.
