2021 Camp pastor: Dr. Vern charette
As a teenager hailing from the westside of Tulsa, Vern was a high school dropout, in trouble with the authorities and living an immoral life. He grew up with an alcoholic father and had a sister die at the age of 39 due to alcohol and drugs. An African American preacher shared the Gospel with the 18-year-old and invited him to church. In the summer of 1990 at a little store front church in Tulsa, Vern, broken by the power of the gospel, gave his life to Jesus.
​God confirmed Vern’s call to preach at the age of 19, after a trip to Indian Falls Creek; the same trip wherein Vern also met his wife, Jennifer. In 1997, with a GED, he entered Oklahoma Baptist University to begin his formal educational journey. After graduating from OBU, Brother Vern went on to earn an M.Div. from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee and a Th.M. and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Throughout his studies, Brother Vern continued his evangelistic ministry, serving for more than two decades as an itinerate evangelist. He served over seven-years teaching “text-driven” preaching as a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and recently served in an adjunct for both Southwestern and the Haskins School at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. In more recent years, Brother Vern has entered pastoral ministry.
Vern and Jen have been married for 25 years and have a son named “Christian,” named for John Bunyan’s famous character in Pilgrims Progress.