Disciples' Portraits

One of the special features of our fellowship hall area is a collection of portraits by Kenneth Wyatt featuring Jesus and the twelve Disciples with biographies of each.

Here is a sample biography of the above disciple Peter:

“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. That was Peter’s call to be an Apostle. His answer was to immediately leave his nets and go with Jesus.

“Peter, like so many of the members of Christ’s church, let his weaknesses show. He argued, let his temper rage, bragged, cursed, slashed out with his sword, and finally—he denied Jesus Himself. Imperfect? Yes! But this imperfect Simon, by the power of God, became Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone (John 1:42).

“Through the Gospels, the books of Peter, and in the first half of Acts, we can see the leadership of this fisherman as he gradually carried the story of Christ beyond Judaism into the Gentile world.

“Throughout the world, there are numerous churches which have been built honoring the great evangelical efforts of Peter, and he founded many of them himself. Persia, Britain, Gaul, Babylon, and Rome are places in which Peter probably traveled, preached, ministered, and organized.

“Twice imprisoned in Rome, most historians agree, Peter was also martyred there. He met his death by being crucified with arms extended but head downward. Tradition tells us that Peter and Paul were put to death on the same day in Rome, though in different parts of the city. Peter’s death, however, came only after an imprisonment of nine months in the horrible and dreaded jails of the Mamertine. He existed there in absolute darkness, forced to stand at all times because he was chained to an upright post in the center of a cell which was never cleaned. He endured vicious torture by experts at their craft. It seems impossible that he could have survived those terrible months to face his death on that inverted cross. Peter not only lived through those long days—he, with an undaunted evangelical fervor, converted to Christ his two jailers and forty-seven others in the prison.

“Peter was probably the oldest of The Twelve. . .that was it!

“I wanted to paint this fifty year-old, work-hardened fisherman at that instant in the Gospel of John (21:11) when Peter laid hold of his net, and, with one eye on his Lord, pulled those fish ashore just as he would do so many times afterward as a fisher of men.

“Finding the right model for Peter was not a simple task. I finally began to drop hints to others about the kind of man I needed. Word soon drifted in from several places, ‘Go see Don Parker.’ See him I did; and paint him, I did.

“Don was born in Massachusetts, raced motorcycles as a profession in the state of Florida, served in both the Navy and Air Force, and now lives a rather quiet life with his wife and three children. He and his family attend the Congregational Church.

“When I met the man Don Parker, I sensed an explosive power within him—the power I wanted for this Big Fisherman.”