Waldrip Family Report From Greece #1

7/28/2026

I retired from pastoral ministry effective December 31, 2025 (47 years), and my precious wife followed my lead and moved with me to Zakynthos, Greece. What a gal! We arrived February 20, 2026, so it is about time to file my first report.

Prior to my formal retirement, I sought and was granted the Church's authorization to represent them in advancing the Great Commission by preaching the Gospel and baptizing new converts should a New Testament Baptist Church not be conveniently at hand (I did not anticipate inactivity in retirement). Grateful for Calvary Road Baptist Church's endorsement, Pam and I moved here and settled in. When Pastor Korianitis requested that we join the Church he founded and led, I asked for CRBC's endorsement of that move; we were recommended by Pastor Kim, and we were subsequently graciously received as members of Bible Baptist Church, Zakynthos.

This first report is about one of the main ministries of Bible Baptist Church, Zakynthos, and its founding pastor, Takis Korianitis: their annual Christian summer camp. This year, from June 15 through August 28, camp is in session each weekday from 8:00 AM until 3:00 PM. It is a Gospel ministry the congregation is committed to, as well as the pastor, his wife, and his adult children, with even church members’ job schedules shifted to allow for their participation in the camp.

Imagine living in a country with an official religion (many countries), and with child evangelism being illegal (many countries). Where we currently live, there are five state-approved church buildings within 200 yards of my front door! Much religion without much evangelism opportunity. So, God led the pastor (born and raised on this tourism-economy island) to establish a summer camp program local citizens would want to place their children in, the parents willingly signing waivers to allow their kids to be taught the Bible, Christian hymns, and also the Gospel. Enrollment this year has reached more than sixty in attendance, putting a strain on existing facilities.

I have observed missionary endeavors in seventeen different countries and am familiar with missionary tactics employed in a number of other places I have not been privileged to visit and observe firsthand. This Church ministry is one of those delightful wonders the Lord has put together over time using wise pastoral leadership, spousal and family sacrifice, congregational commitment, and young adult on-site camp counselors drawn from American and European high schoolers and college students serving God in a missions ministry during the summer.

The results? Hard to tell with kids so young, many of whom had no idea Who God is when camp started. That said, the kids obviously love their experiences, with some camp kids being the children of former camp kids, and two youngsters having made professions of faith within the last week. So, things are looking good by any measure.

I am thrilled the church I led for forty years supports this ministry on a monthly basis, and has given special offerings in the past. I trust forward-thinking pastors will pray about supporting this ministry, will pray about one or two young people with an interest in missions considering being camp counselors here next year, and will be open to adopting this ministry for a special project in the near future.

I will be sure to provide more information about the ministry my wife and I are committed to in the future, but for now I want to leave you with this. God has given this pastor and congregation an outsized opportunity to influence Greece, Europe, and the world in ways I had not imagined before moving here. This summer camp ministry figures prominently in what I believe to be God’s plan for this congregation.

Feel free to call me to address questions or provide more information at +30 694 7712960 or email me at JohnSWaldrip@ClassicalBaptist.Press, or reach out to Pastor Taki Korianitis directly at ZanteBaptist@GMail.Com.

Below are some pictures and a short video of the multi-talented preacher leading the camp kids in singing a hymn before lunch in four languages!

Blessings. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Pam and I were here celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. Provided for those of you whose memories are as bad as mine, to help you remember what we look like.

Camp entrance.

Pastor's Bible lesson time.

Pastor leading hymn singing before lunch.

Make No Mistake. Men In The Ministry Do Not Fall!

“Make No Mistake.

Men In The Ministry Do Not Fall!” 

 It was the consensus among Gospel ministers for 1800 years that if caught committing sexual sin, while there might be repentance and reconciliation, there was to be no restoration to a position of spiritual leadership. C. H. Spurgeon agreed with everyone leading up to his time and including his era in insisting that one who had demonstrated he could not be trusted with a position of spiritual leadership should never be allowed such a position in the future. 

Now that we have once more been troubled with the exposure of a spiritual leader in our ranks, we must firm up our convictions about certain things and refuse to underestimate the real harm that has been done to people, to congregations, and to the Cause. It will be quite beyond the capacity of those directly affected to ever again trust a Gospel minister. So sad. 

First, let us be very clear about this matter of falling. There is no such thing as falling! King David did not fall into sin. He chose to be where he should not have been, when he should not have been there. He chose to fix his gaze on someone he ought to have looked away from. He chose to ask her identity (it was none of his business). He chose to fetch her. He chose to commit adultery. He then chose to conspire and arrange her faithful husband’s murder. I mention David as the prime example in God’s Word that there is no such thing as falling! 

Second, let us be very clear about this issue of conscience. A seared conscience is required for a professing Christian to sin but not repent with heartfelt sorrow. If sorrow is displayed only following the discovery of sin, it is likely the sorrow of the world, feeling bad because of exposure and consequences rather than genuine repentance not to be repented of. 

That suggests that when a Gospel minister’s infidelity is discovered by another as opposed to being confessed by the one who is repenting prior to being discovered, you might very well be dealing with a manipulative and hardened wolf in sheep’s clothing who has shown his disregard for the flock. Such a man should never again be allowed to serve as a spiritual leader. 

If you have been a believer in Christ for as long as I have, you likely own a virtual Rolodex of prominent men who have not just fallen (because one does not fall; he chooses to step off the narrow path), but have utterly destroyed whatever credibility they once enjoyed. From Maine to San Jose, from Jacksonville to Hammond, from Kansas City to Long Beach. And don’t forget Lynchburg and Springfield! 

If you imagined you had seen and heard it all, here is the topper. There are those who have such a perverse grasp of Scripture, such a distorted view of grace, with so profound a myopia about sin and forgiveness and sanctification that they actively seek the return to pastoral ministry of men who have been arrested for homosexual prostitution, who have been convicted of multiple statutory rapes, or who have demonstrated the kind of sociopathy as to fornicate and adulterate in every place of ministry they have been, both in the USA and on the mission field. 

1Pe 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Should we not step up and speak out about the corruption of our calling? Should we not take the opportunity (or make opportunities) to not only disabuse those who betray their calling of ever having any hope of serving in a pastoral capacity again, but speak against those who foolishly, corruptly, and irresponsibly restore those men to pastoral office? How do they justify such efforts? Do they have unresolved Daddy issues? Are they oblivious to the holiness of God? The congregation is the temple of God! I am seriously perplexed about their motives. 

I am now in my 76th year, recently retired from almost a half century of pastoral ministry in the United States, and sick to death of men so dominated by sentimentality that they behave as though the Gospel ministry is theirs, not God’s to control. Pastors who morally fail are not examples or illustrations of those who have fallen. Rather, they have chosen, through a discreet series of decisions, life choices, and steps, to end up where they landed. And they did what they did with utter disregard for the damage done to the ministry, their congregation, their spouse, their children, and who knows who else? 

Please do not imagine I am a hardhearted Pharisee. I am without conscious ambition. My only concern at this point in my life is to finish well, and to help others in what little way I can to also finish well. I am convinced that we should be forgiving, that we should be reconciling, but that we should never, ever stand silently by while someone who in time past proved himself to be untrustworthy is again considered for pastoral ministry. Better to end a friendship than to say nothing when such a man should be stopped.