Pastor Dave: Soul Director
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Silver hair combed back, dressed in clerical garb, David Brockhouse (B.B.A. '88) looks like a man at peace — a man who is right where he wants to be. But the journey wasn't easy, nor was it short. This 66-year-old only recently began a new career (a calling, really) that for decades had only been a whisper. Today, he's The Rev. David Brockhouse, Senior Pastor at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in San Antonio.
Raised in Peoria, Ill., Brockhouse held a successful 26-year career with Texas-based H-E-B Grocery Co., but it was a career whose path wasn't, in the end, where Brockhouse wanted to go.
"During those years, it was all about things of the world," he said.
"I heard God loud and clear, and it changed my whole life. I was much more open to hearing what God was saying to me."
He still kept the faith, sending his four sons to Mt. Olive Lutheran School and attending church with his wife, Patricia. It seemed like enough. He had graduated from the H-E-B management program, finished as an assistant store director and had even gone back to school.
But in 1996, Brockhouse was called home to Peoria, where his father was dying of cancer.
"Dad's death woke me up to being there for people," he said. "I heard God loud and clear, and it changed my whole life. I was much more open to hearing what God was saying to me."
Back in San Antonio, Dave became a church elder, but still, something was missing. He started ministering to the sick. When Mt. Olive's pastor fell ill himself, Dave became the congregation's lay leader. He took on more, teaching classes and expanding his ministry. He became a deacon. All the time, he kept up his 65- to 70-hour weeks at H-E-B as store director.
One day in 2004, Dave noticed a billboard he'd surely passed many times. It said: "Don't make me come down there." — God.
"I retired and started seminary soon after," he said. "To be where I am, I can't explain it. It's one of those things that, until you're ready to hear (God's call), your ears are closed. But when you're ready to listen, wow!"
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