A Life of Grace: A Tribute to Dr. Kenny Hodges

Outside of my family there are just a handful of people in my life that I can point to as people who impacted or changed the course of my life. Kenny Hodges was one of those people. If it weren’t for him, my understanding of God, Grace, and the gospel would be very different.

Teacher, pastor, theologian, author, musician, rock star, theologian, handy man, pilot, encourager, servant, and leader. Those are all words that come to my mind when I think of Kenny.

Rock Star

I first met Kenny in 1998 when I was just a kid. He was the music minister at Emmanuel Baptist Church when my family started attending there. I’ve never know anyone who could play the guitar like him. Trained in music from an early age, it was not uncommon to find him playing guitar, drums, piano, or singing. He was amazing at all of them. I remember standing in worship service as a kid thinking “this guy is so cool!”

Later we would see pictures of him from his rock star days in the 70s when he was with the Royal American Showmen. On the back of one of their albums he can be spotted with the long sideburns and bell bottom pants that were both in style at the time. He would regularly play at our annual valentines banquets or wedding receptions. He would always get a cheer from the crowd when he would put his guitar behind his head and play it. I’m told that he got quite the response from the crowd when he did that while playing in a concert during a mission trip to Russia.

I remember calling and talking with him a few years ago while I was driving to go see Bob Dylan in concert and him telling me about his experience seeing him back on the 70s. From Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Chicago to Christian artists like Rich Mullins, hearing Kenny cover many great musical artists really broadened my taste in music.

Teacher, not a Preacher

In 2005 he stepped into the role of lead pastor at the church. Unlike most pastors and preachers, his style wasn’t a fluffy encouraging 3-point sermon from a charismatic big personality. His approach was more in line with what you would get in a seminary class. Verse-by-verse, chapter by chapter, looking into the Greek or Hebrew words, the verb tenses used in the original languages and staying in context. It was my first insight into someone using a literal-historical-grammatical hermeneutic for studying and teaching scripture.

He would be the first to tell you that he was a teacher, not a preacher. He had a deep devotion to the Lord and studying His word. I know very few who studied scripture as intensely as he did. Sure, his sermons weren’t as entertaining as many pastors, they could be boring at times, especially when I was a kid, but his style of studying was on display in his sermons. And it was by listening to and watching him for a decade and a half of Sunday sermons that I really began to learn how to study scripture and see how things fit together. Due to his teaching I found the importance of looking into the original languages of the text and understanding their meanings. It wasn’t until I moved away in 2022 that I realized how rare his style of teaching was and how fortunate I was to grow up under his teaching. The careful analysis of the text is something that most pastors do not do but I’m sure glad he did it. When I took my first seminary course in 2024, a hermeneutics course, I realized that a good 40% of what was taught in the class was stuff I had already learned from Kenny’s sermons. The scripture study skills I learned from Kenny are skills that I am forever grateful for and will use till I meet him again in the presence of God.

Servant

Kenny was a servant in every sense of the word. He did not hesitate to help people in need. Whether it be bringing gas to someone he hardly knew broken down on the side of the road in the rain or helping people who came to the church in need of groceries, he was there to help. His background in contracting work made him able to help design and build our church and construct things to help others. If something needed fixing around the church, he could do it. He never slowed down either, his drive to help people and share the gospel never ceased. Most people, when diagnosed with a disease like cancer, tend to slow down and take life easy, he didn’t. He kept living. After being diagnosed with cancer he retired from pastoring, moved his family to Houston, started his 2 Circles Ministries, took on a new role as worship pastor at a church in Houston, finished his PhD, taught classes at Grace School of Theology, served on the board of Free Grace Alliance, published his book, and brought 30+ kids from Texas to Ikthoos camp in Mississippi every a year. He finished the race strong.

A man of Grace

As a student of the late greats Zane Hodges, Charles Ryrie, and James “Nap” Clark, Kenny was a staunch proponent of the freeness of God’s grace. He believed, as scripture teaches, that justification(salvation) was by grace through faith in Christ alone, not by works. One’s works couldn’t earn them eternity with Christ or prove they were saved. He also emphasized the distinction between justification and sanctification, both of which are rarely mentioned by most Protestant Christian pastors.

Sure, many will quote Ephesians 2:8-9 and say that it isn’t by works that one is saved it is by grace through faith, but they will then turn around and contradict themselves. They contradict themselves by saying that “if someone’s lifestyle doesn’t line up with Christ then they need to question their salvation” (making works the determining factor of justification) or “one must repent of one’s sins, turn from their sinful ways, make Jesus the lord of their life, call upon the name of the Lord, confess Christ as Lord, or surrender their lifestyle to Christ in order to be saved” (making human efforts part of the way we are saved). These teachings make it impossible to have assurance of one’s own salvation and thus make it extremely hard to grow in one’s Christian walk.

A proper understanding of grace as a free, unmerited, undeserved gift shows that those things are contradictory to the gospel. Kenny made sure to make that distinction in his teaching. I cannot tell you the number of people who suffered with doubting their salvation that were made sure after hearing his teachings. He made a clear gospel presentation and emphasis on eternal security a point in every one of his sermons. After I moved away I found out that it is apparently not the norm for pastors to share the gospel in every sermon, but I am sure glad he did.

During his funeral service, Dr. Everett McKibben spoke on how Kenny was always clear on the gospel and how he helped so many to understand difficult passages in scripture. He said “If there were more Kenny Hodges’ in the world, less people would be confused about James 2!” That is so true. Kenny, along with my mentor Butch Simmons, helped me to better understand the context of that passage and to view it in its proper context.

At the time of his death he was a board member of the Free Grace Alliance, which focuses on promoting the message of God’s free grace, he taught at Grace School of Theology, worked every year at Ikthoos camp, and he founded Two Circles Ministries, a ministry dedicated to showing Nap’s original illustration of the differences between justification and sanctification by using two concentric circles to demonstrate the family and fellowship relationships.

Friend

As the years went by I grew to view him not only as a teacher/mentor, but as a friend. For the past 12 years I worked alongside him at Ikthoos camp, where we both taught middle and high school students the gospel. That was when he really let loose. I remember one year the dance called “the floss” was all the rage and kids were doing it everywhere. One day while waiting in the lunch line standing in front of Kenny, I looked back to see him practicing this new dance move. I just started laughing. At Ikthoos he was always participating in hilarious skits to make the kids and adults laugh. His music talents were on display in every one of our worship rallies whether it be by playing the drums, guitar, piano, or singing.

Since he was over a small church, he could afford to make time for any of his church members, something that pastors at big churches don’t have the luxury of doing. If I didn’t understand something in his sermon or had a theological question, I could simply text or call him and he would always come through providing me with material to help answer my questions. He was always supportive of my efforts in doing pro-life work and encouraged me in my studies of the Word and in speaking about Grace. The last text conversation I had with him was just over a month before he passed where we talked about some interactions I had with some Mormon missionaries that I was able to give copies of his 2 Circles tracts to. In that last message he thanked me for my faithfulness to the Lord. His level of faithfulness and dedication to the Lord is something all Christians should strive for. I hope I can make him proud by continuing to pass on what he taught me.

During his funeral service, his son-in-law shared a verse that he read the day Kenny passed that perfectly summered up a final farewell to those who looked up to Kenny: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” – Philippians 4:9

I will greatly miss you Kenny. Your life made an impact on the lives of me and countless others and if anyone deserves a “well done, my good and faithful servant” from the Lord, it is you! I know I will see you again someday!

At the funeral service for Kenny, my friend Mark Murphy played this song that he wrote as a tribute to him.