Dr. Butch Varner is many things to many people.
Q: How would you describe your church?
A: We have fun in church. It’s upbeat. The kids like it. Most people fall away from church because they are bored. Another thing is we work hard on being nonjudgmental. Jesus taught us not to judge. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to convict people of sin. The gospel is good news. It’s not beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-40-pound-Bible.
Q: What is the hardest thing about being a bounty hunter?
A: I think it’s so much fun. I don’t look at it as a job, almost. ... We’re launching a ministry. We’re helping people. We’re able to put money back into our ministry from our careers.
Q: Ever had close calls in bounty hunting?
A: Yeah. I carry a hand taser. We take martial arts, too. It helps us to avoid getting hurt. Sometimes it can be scary, but we gather a lot of our information on our target before we go after it, and we do it very covertly. We’re not like Dog (a television bounty hunter), where there’s four or five cars and a camera crew. We’re very sneaky. We go in like ninjas. They don’t know we’re there, and we pop in on them and we’ve got them in custody before they know what’s happening to them.
He may be a fugitive’s worst nightmare, a preacher of the good news for the sin-sick soul or a trumpeter who completes a worship band. He’s also a husband, father, military veteran and man of letters.
“We don’t want to be what people think of as a stereotype religious ministry,” said Mr. Varner, the pastor of Hamilton Pointe Church in Hixson. “Being a bounty hunter/pastor is iconoclastic. We enjoy that. That makes us more approachable.”
Today, some words from the Chattanooga man who has combined two unlikely professions.
QWhat occupation came first, the bounty hunter or the pastor?
AMilitary police work actually came first. ... The whole time I was in the Army, I was growing closer to God. That’s what I did in my off hours. I’d play music in church and helped out with church and studied the Word, so when I finished my active-duty tour, I wanted to go to seminary. And while I was in seminary, I stayed active with the Army. I began to lean toward being an Army chaplain. It all grew together.
QCan a pastor be a type of bounty hunter in his ministry?
AWe’re rescuing the lost (in both). We’re rescuing people who are on a bad course. In fact, in physical bounty hunting, almost everyone we’ve caught, they realize, man, we’re nice to them when we catch them, and we generally minister the gospel to them. It’s an opportunity. We know some people who have wound up going to our church. That is not our main evangelistic thrust, but we do see fruit from that.
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Church
Clint Cooper is the faith editor and a staff writer for the Times Free Press Life section. He also has been an assistant sports editor and Metro staff writer for the newspaper. Prior to the merger between the Chattanooga Free Press and Chattanooga Times in 1999, he was sports news editor for the Chattanooga Free Press, where he was in charge of the day-to-day content of the section and the section’s design. Before becoming sports ...
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