By Matt Flumerfelt
VALDOSTA — Dr. Bob Moon took over the duties of senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Valdosta on June 21, 2009. In the short time he has been at its helm, he has gained a reputation as an engaging speaker.
Although Moon makes no claim to extraordinary rhetorical skills, his parishioners beg to differ.
Sonny Shroyer, best known as Deputy Enos Strate of television’s “The Dukes of Hazzard,” attends First United Methodist Church. He said, “Bob Moon is one of the most dynamic preachers I’ve ever had the privilege to listen to. He’s enthusiastic, colorful, funny, down to earth, and he makes it easy to love Jesus. He puts Jesus on a personal level. He’s full of love and enthusiasm for Jesus.”
It’s easier to be an interesting speaker if one has an interesting past, and Moon has a natural advantage in that respect. His parents, William and Mary Moon, were United Methodist missionaries. He was born in Tandur, Andra Pradesh, India, about 50 miles from Hyderabad, on Halloween night on his family’s dining room table. Many people have joked that the timing of his birth explains a lot about him, he said.
“When I tell people I was born in India, some say, ‘You don’t have very dark skin.’ I suppose these people would think that if I’d been born in a garage I’d look like a car,” he said.
His humor is one reason people enjoy hearing him speak, but humor alone doesn’t fully explain what is so mesmerizing about the man that is Moon. It’s hard to sit in the chair opposite the slender man with the small mustache and a slight gap between his two front teeth without feeling some of the joy he radiates.
One source of the deep joy Moon infuses into his sermons comes from his father — a large man with a beard so thick that he had to shave twice a day, according to Moon.
One of Moon’s favorite memories is how his father would wrestle him and his siblings to the floor and rub their faces with his beard until they’d literally squeal with delight, knowing that the man with those strong arms would protect them with his life.
As a child, Moon was told not to disturb his father when he was in his study. There were times, however, when he would wake from his nap, and in his childish enthusiasm to tell his father something, he would ignore the prohibition and enter the study, only to find his father on his knees, praying. Moon said he came to realize that everything his father did and who he was grew out of those private sessions when he was on his knees talking to God.
Moon had to leave home for nine months at a time to attend boarding school, two days travel from home. His father was already suffering from cancer of the liver, which eventually led to his death. Moon was 11 when he saw his father for the last time, leaning on the pulpit and addressing his parishioners in his familiar way, saying, “Oh, people ...”
“We’d said goodbye before the service that Sunday night since we had to leave during that time. I will never forget looking through the back window of that green ’56 Chevy and seeing Dad leaning on the pulpit talking with the people he loved about the Savior whom he loved.”
Moon said his father died on Palm Sunday morning and was buried the following morning at 7 a.m., so people still had time to get to work. He said some people walked all through the night to come to the funeral since they had no money for a train ticket.
Moon said he loved traveling by train in India, adding that the world’s largest railway system and the English language are the two best things the British left to unite India.
“Back then, the trains were coal powered. With no A/C, we sweltered across arid plains with windows wide open, arriving with hardly a pore unclogged by soot,” he said.
He grew up bilingual, speaking English and Telugu, the dialect of the region where he mostly lived, but said his family kept moving to different language areas, so he eventually fell back on English as his default language.
“Today,” he said, “I’m reduced to just speaking English, but I’m making significant strides learning Southern.”
Another way in which growing up in India differs from the U.S. is the wildlife, he said.
“Every kid grows up around dangerous animals to some degree,” he said. “One of ours was cobras. One day a snake charmer asked my mom if he could have any cobras out of our yard that he could find. It didn’t take Mom long to say OK to that. He found six in the cacti around our yard. It’s God’s grace any of us are still alive!”
The Indians are really bright, Moon said.
“I love the Indian people,” he said. “They are gracious and treated us well. They know how to truly do hospitality right.”
He pointed out that the city of Bangalore is the Silicone Valley of India and said the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” is a pretty accurate portrayal of the seamier side of India and its transition through the years.
Moon’s Indian education also carries over into his philosophy and preaching.
“Growing up overseas, I have always been convinced we need to break down racial and denominational barriers,” he said.
He said he thinks people often come at religion from the wrong end. Instead of being about man’s search for God, it’s really about God’s search for man, and the key to a relationship with God is clearing away the clutter that obscures man’s vision of what God wants for him, he said.
“So many mistake religion as a grim duty to keep a bunch of rules that suck the joy out of life. True faith inverts that debilitating view,” he said. “A Christian ought to live life with laughter and joy. It’s not about rules but a relationship with Jesus.”
Bob Moon and his wife, Betty, have been married 32 years, he said, and have two adult children, Sarah and Joshua. Betty is the choral director at Lowndes Middle School and has released two contemporary Christian recordings, “Free Reign” and “Hope Is Alive.”
Asked about his gift of divine gab, Moon said, “Years ago, when my daughter Sarah was young, she observed that I was a pastor as was my dad and his dad and his dad. ‘Wow, we have quite a tradition going. I guess Joshua will have to be a pastor.’ ‘Who knows, Sarah, it might be you,’ I replied. Very seriously, she looked at me and responded, ‘Oh, no, Daddy, I could never make up those long boring talks every week!’ There is a generous dose of humble pie that keeps perspective right!”
