Ken Davis is a seriously funny guy. Speaking to audiences around the world, he combines side-splitting humor with the heart piercing truth of the gospel. His two-minute inspirational program, Lighten Up with Ken Davis, is heard on over 1,500 radio stations across the country and around the world. Ken's books have received national critical acclaim, including the "Book of the Year" award and the Gold Medallion Award. As president of Dynamic Communications International, he teaches speaking skills to ministry professionals and corporate executives. BoldMan Chronicles had the opportunity to sit down with Ken Davis and discuss his life and ministry. This is the first of a three-part post of that interview.
BMC: So, first of all, you grew up in our home state. You're a Minnesota boy.
KD: I am, I was born in Brainerd and spent my early childhood and young adult life on the Iron Range up near Virginia, in a little town called Sax. I think there were just two of us in Sax.
BMC: That's just north of Lake Wobegon, I think.
KD: Well it's quite bit a north of Lake Wobegon. It was just a little farming community and I have wonderful memories of that place.
BMC: That's terrific. Let's go back there. When did you first discover your comedic talent?
KD: I think it was right after the doctor slapped me and said that's a boy!
It really was pretty quick. I probably didn't recognize it in full form until one day in junior high English class. Our teacher, Francis W. Peterson, had just read Shakespeare's famous line, "Out, out damn spot." I had taken that opportunity to raise my hand and suggest other adjectives that could be used to describe the spot. None of them appropriate. She was not pleased, and made me stay after school.
When you stayed after school in those days, the buses left without you. You had to call and have your parents drive 30 miles to pick you up. And when your parents came they didn't bring a lawyer they brought a two by four! I knew I was in big, big trouble.
While I was waiting for my parents to come, my teacher (who had always been very kind to me), finished correcting papers, capped her pen with those long slender fingers, and said to me, "God has given you a gift." I fully expected that she was going to expel me right then. But instead she said, "You've been using this gift to destroy my class and that is going to change. I want you to try out for speech and humorous interpretation." That was the beginning. I won every contest I entered, except for one, and was in all of her plays and drama presentations. She was a tremendous encouragement to me. She was a woman who walked past the dirt to find the gold.
BMC: She was your Mr. Holland then?
KD: Absolutely! That is an excellent way of putting it.
BMC: Were there others that came alongside of you and fanned the passion for Christian comedy in your early years?
KD: Not in the beginning, not that particular passion. You have to remember that was 1962. At that time, comedy, faith and Christianity were not really closely connected.
BMC: When did you first realize that you could have that kind of ministry?
KD: I realized that immediately, but there weren't people who encouraged me. In fact there were some who were very encouraging to me in all other areas of life. They just were not encouraging in that area. I was probably encouraged at that time more as a communicator, just as a flat communicator rather than for my humor. In fact, one of my mentors, who had profound influence on my life, expressed discouragement that I did not become a preacher. But comedy was God's intention, His call. As much as I enjoy presenting God's word in preaching, and I have been in some of the biggest churches in the country, that part of me to find humor in almost everything always shows through. In the long run, that has given me a wider audience than I would have had in any other way. I believe God knew what he was doing.
BMC: You had to have a pretty strong conviction that this was God's calling for you, to stand in the face of a mentor who is encouraging you to do otherwise.
KD: I'm going to be honest with you. I would love to say "Yes, I was so strongly convinced that God had called me in this direction that nothing could deter me," but that really isn't true. What's true is that I found comedy as a means to be accepted. I was beat up in high school. I was skinny. I was not accepted, and humor was a way to get acceptance. I quickly found that what I couldn't gain because my lack of social skills, I could achieve when I was standing in front of people doing a presentation and using humor. Now, the one who was convinced of the power of this and convicted that it needed to continue was God himself. So, he used all of that, even though it was misdirected in the beginning because I used humor for what the audience gave me, rather than me ministering to them. He used all that time and all of that training to hone this craft to a fine tuned edge that is enjoyed all over the world today. So I would love to say that I was so committed that nothing could keep me from pursuing it, but in all honesty, for the longest time, it was the only means by which I could find acceptance.
BMC: Sometimes God even uses our own self-protection to advance His cause.
KD: Indeed. I would say a lot of times!
In our next post, Ken discusses the challenges and criticisms he's faced in pursuing his calling.
I've always enjoyed Ken Davis. The teacher that had an impact on him is the type of person I hope to be. The statement, "she walked past the dirt to find the gold" says a ton. Mainly that says to me she was a woman that saw what is possible, not what is visible. Ken is a man that knows what it is like to love people and show them that the Lord knows how to give us a life that is abundant!