Just east of LaSalle Parish, across the Catahoula Parish line, resides a great man of God, Reverend Jack Knapp, respectfully known to his friends and neighbors as Brother Knapp or Brother Jack. Brother Knapp and his wife, Shirlene Brazell Knapp, have been laboring for God since they married 61 years ago, with his ministry beginning at the young age of fifteen, when he received his call to preach.
It was in the church that his dad, Brother Mack Knapp, pastored that he was saved at only thirteen years old. His calling came through a dream he had after his conversion wherein lost people were struggling to turn to God but who could not get to Him. The dream bothered him, as he put it, and the calling on his life was ‘strong’ from that point on.
“I wanted to preach, more than eat,” he recalled with fervency in his voice. “I felt the call and the desire.” Once he acknowledged the call of God on his life, he began reading and studying the scripture, and praying for God’s guidance and anointing.
“My dad told me to get a message. He never coached me or tried to show me (how to preach) but he led by example,” he explained remembering his first sermon titled, ‘Living Life Without God’s Spirit to Temper You’, from the book of Ezekiel. There is no counting the number of message Brother Knapp has preached from that day to this.
A short two years after his conversion, he married his lovely wife. They had grown up together in the same community, connected through his dad’s other job as bus driver of – believe it or not- two school buses in Concordia Parish, her mom who worked in the lunchroom in the local school, and their dual attendance at Shaw Elementary School. Little did they know as childhood friends what God had planned for their lives.
This lifetime preacher was only seventeen years old when he assumed his first pastorship at the Larto Pentecostal Church in Catahoula Parish in 1964. A few months short of the Knapp’s first wedding anniversary, they moved into a two room ‘house’ the congregation had added to the back of the church. There was no indoor plumbing and few other conveniences, but their passion for God was enough.
“We had church back in those days,” he related. “All we needed was a flat top guitar, there was no other music…it wouldn’t have done any good to have it, nobody knew how to play!”
The small congregation’s finances required that he find ‘another job’ to supplement his income, and he found himself using a borrowed boat and a gifted trotline to run trotlines on Larto Lake. He’d paddle the boat (no motor) into the lake, bait the lines at night and check for catfish every morning. He normally caught around 20-30 pounds which he sold to a company called White’s Fish Dock.
“Later, the men in the church got together and bought me a used six horsepower Mercury outboard motor. I could then move the trotline up to Saline Bayou then,” he explained.
He also remembered how receptive people back then were to the church. By his account they were respectful and reverenced and honored the preacher. Church folks felt there ‘was no comparison to the man of God, and they showed it’.
Church members also strongly believed in tithing their tenth to the church. Brother Knapp remembered that what people didn’t have in money, they more than made up for in fresh garden food and the like. Saints returned tithe to God on what they had. “One lady even had a cat that had a big litter of kittens. She tithed by bringing us one of kittens!” he said laughing. “I told her I wasn’t into cats, and she told me she didn’t care, one of them was mine.” Tithing was taken quite seriously back in those days.
After seven and a half years of pastoring the Larto Church, the Knapps moved to Jonesville and were elected to the pastorship of the Jonesville First Pentecostal Church. They stayed one year, left, then returned four years later achieving a total of forty years as pastor and wife and serving as Senior Pastor/Bishop of the church for the last seven years, with Rev. Bruce and Cindy Lofton as pastors. Rev. Lofton was only ten years old when the Knapps first came to the Jonesville First Pentecostal Church.
Brother Knapp has held ministerial license with the Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout his ministry and credits the late Reverend Everette ‘Shorty’ Mayo as one of his strongest mentors. His faithful and weathered hands have baptized hundreds and hundreds of people, prayed for the sick and ministered to needs. He has preached the gospel across the United States with the reward being salvation of souls and the strengthening of the body of Christ. He has ministered at more camp meetings and conferences than he can recall…and faithfully executed a multitude of other labors for God’s kingdom.
He was elected as the ALJC National Assistant Superintendent, the LA District Chairman, and served in countless other capacities. It was under his leadership that the huge tabernacle on the ALJC Campground in Olla was built after a tornado demolished the old floating tabernacle.
“Ministry was always my priority,” he shared. “I’ve been privileged to baptize countless people, even having some come to my house waking me up in the middle of the night wanting to be baptized, right then. There was no baptistry initially at the church so I had to baptize them in the car headlights in freezing waters of Little River.”
His mantra for the ministry, regardless of young or old, is prayer, fasting, reading the Bible and church attendance. “There’s no discharge in this war, “he concluded. “Make your calling and election sure, that’s what the Bible says.”
After four heart bypasses, Brother Knapp finds himself relaxing more than he once did. His wife, three daughters, 24 grand and great grandchildren are his heart. He’s still ‘fishing for men’ whenever the opportunity calls and his love for God still rings in the passion in his voice. Seventy-eight years of life, 63 years of ministry, and 61 years of marriage speak highly of this man of God’s commitment.
