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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Cline Rex Paden | image=Cline Paden of TX.jpg | birth_date=August 22, 1919 | birth_place=Wagner, Hunt County,<br> Texas | death_date=May 26, 2007 (..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Cline Rex Paden
| image=Cline Paden of TX.jpg
| birth_date=August 22, 1919
| birth_place=Wagner, Hunt County,<br>
[[Texas]]
| death_date=May 26, 2007 (aged 77)
| death_place=[[Lubbock]], Texas<br>
'''Resting place''':<br>
Resthaven Memorial Park in Lubbock
| occupation=Pastor and educator
| spouse=Jo Iris Cathey Paden (married 1947-2007, his death)
| children=Timothy Paden<br>
Terry Paden<br>
Tanja Paden Couchman<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
John Calvin Oscar and Lona Harden Paden
|relations=Gerald S. Paden (brother)
|religion=[[Church of Christ]]
|footnotes='''Notes''':<br>
*A prominent [[Church of Christ]] evangelist and pastor, Paden was the founder of [[Sunset International Bible Institute]] in his adopted city of [[Lubbock]], [[Texas]].
}}
'''Cline Rex Paden''' (August 22, 1919 – May 26, 2007) was a prominent [[Church of Christ]] [[evangelist]] and [[missionary]] who, in 1962, founded what became the [[Sunset International Bible Institute]] in [[Lubbock]], , [[Texas]]. The institute offers college-style instruction in Lubbock and a series of satellite schools in forty-six states and in such countries as [[Austria]], [[Bahamas]], [[Belarus]], [[Bermuda]], [[Canada]], [[Cuba]], [[El Salvador]], [[England]], [[Germany]], [[Ghana]], [[Guyana]], [[Indonesia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Mexico]], [[Nigeria]], the [[Philippines]], [[Russia]], [[South Africa]], and [[Trinidad]]. Such schools allow individuals to study the [[Bible]] in depth with instruction adapted to their schedules and particular circumstances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sibi.cc/external/satellite|title=Satellite schools|publisher=sibi.cc|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
==Background==
Paden was one of seven children of John Calvin Oscar Paden (1888-1957), an [[Arkansas]] native, and the former Lona Harden Paden (1889-1975), originally from [[Tennessee]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=allgs&gss=sfs28_ms_f-2_s&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Lona&gsln=Paden&mswpn__ftp=Lubbock%2C%20Lubbock%2C%20Texas%2C%20USA&mswpn=77806&mswpn_PInfo=8-%7C0%7C1652393%7C0%7C2%7C3249%7C46%7C0%7C1824%7C77806%7C0%7C&MSAV=1&msbdy=1889&cp=0&catbucket=rstp&uidh=upc |title= search ancestry.com for "Lona Paden" |publisher= search.ancestry.com |accessdate= July 21, 2015}}</ref> Only one of the seven children, the youngest, Patsy Paden Whitson (born December 7, 1928) of Lakewood, [[California]], survives.<ref name=gpaden/> He was born in Wagner in northwestern Hunt County near [[Dallas]]. The population of Wagner never exceeded fifty persons, and the community is no longer listed on road maps or gazzeteers. In 1927, the family moved to Lubbock County in West Texas, where Paden later graduated from Idalou High Schoo]. In 1947, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University in [[Abilene]] in Taylor County in Wex, Texas.<ref name=cpobit>Cline Rex Paden obituary, ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,'' May 28, 2007.}}</ref>
==Ministry==
Paden delivered his first sermon in Hawley in Jones County, also in West Texas.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1949, he joined a missionary team to [[Italy]], which he declared "sorely in need of material and spiritual help." There, he ran into much opposition from the police and the [[liberal]] Italian government in his effort to establish in [[Rome, Italy|Rome]] the Church of Christ, which at the time had some 700,000 members in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858599,00.html|title=Religion: Beachead|date=January 23, 1950|publisher=''Time'' magazine|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> At one point, the government ordered Paden and his brother, '''Gerald S. Paden''' (August 17, 1924 – July 20, 2015), to stop the distribution of food to the needy and to close their [[orphanage]]. After a lengthy legal fight, and with some help from then [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], the Italian courts upheld religious toleratio], and Paden was allowed to continue his mission in the shadow of [[Vatican City]]. His mission work was cited in several issues of ''Time'' magazine in which it was disclosed that previously established [[Protestant]] churches in Italy, which have complied with the registration laws, have not faced this time of any trouble with the authorities.<br>
Said the Reverend Emanuele Shaffi, a [[Methodist]] and the chairman of Italy's Federal Council of Evangelical Churches (membership: 60,000): "We enjoy complete freedom of worship ... We feel that our friends of the Churches of Christ are not entirely in the right."<br>
Paden travelled to Italy in the midst of the [[Cold War]] without first applying for the visa needed to be a missionary under Italian law. Also, in Italy at the time non-Catholic churches were considered businesses and had to submit appropriate paperwork, which Paden avoided unlike Protestant missionaries. After Italian officials travelled to the United States and presented documents pertaining to Paden's claims of persecution, the [[United States State Department]] released a letter stating that "No Americans are being denied the right to worship in Italy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935763,00.html|publisher=''Time''|title=Religion: Missionaries in Rome|date=September 29, 1952|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref></blockquote>
In 1957, Paden went on a missionary journey to [[Denmark]].<ref name=cpobit/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bible.acu.edu/crs/lec/a5657.htm|title="They Shall All Be Taught of God": Center for Restoration Studies|publisher=bible.acu.edu|date=1956|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> Though he spent five years with the [[Denmark|Danes]], no sustaining Church of Christ work could be established there.
==Sunset International Bible Institute==
Sunset International began modestly with six [[Hispanic]] students. Paden believed that schools of preaching were needed to counter secular modernism within Church of Christ colleges and seminaries. Originally called the Latin American Bible School,<ref name=sunsethistory>{{cite web|url=http://www.sibi.cc/about/history|title=Sunset International Bible Institute: Our History|publisher=sibi.cc|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> Sunset expanded over the years. In 1973, Sunset established an Adventures in Missions program for college students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aimsunset.org/page/41|title=Life in Lubbock|publisher=aimsunset.org|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> In 1977, a deaf program was added.<ref name=sunsethistory/> Paden served as the executive director, equivalent of president, of the school until 1993, when he chose Truitt Ellis Adair (born December 28, 1944) as his successor. He remained as chancellor until 2006.<ref name=cpobit/> Over the decades, Paden helped to establish other seminaries, including the Mid-South Bible Institute in Glasgow, [[Kentucky]].
Paden was also an elder at the Sunset Church of Christ, 3723 34th Street in Lubbock, for more than thirty years. As a result of his missionary background, Paden stressed global evangelism.<ref name=cpobit/> He urged [[Christianity|Christians]] to shun debt and practice proper financial stewardship according to biblical standards. "[We need] a strong warning for those headed for fiscal disaster and yet ... hope ...for those who had already given up hope of ever breathing another breath of debt-free air."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nodebtnosweat.com/churchleaders.htm|title=What Christian Leaders Are Saying: Cline Paden|author=Steve Diggs|publisher=nodebtnosweat.com|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref> In 1973, Paden issued a manifesto stating that the innocent party in an [[Adultery|adulterous marriage]] has biblical sanction to remarry, but there is no such approval to the guilty party.
Paden aroused controversy when he wrote the introduction to a 1995 book by Terry Rush entitled ''The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense.'' Rush claims that from birth to his [[baptism]] [[Jesus Christ]] was human and not divine. According to this view known as "adoptionism," it was the baptism which makes Jesus divine, a reference to the biblical line: "The Word became flesh."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seektheoldpaths.com/stop598.htm#SSOP|title=Sunset School of Preaching and Terry Rush: When Cline Paden, Richard Rogers, and Ted Stewart endorsed Terry Rush's book, The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense, they endorsed Rush's false doctrines of: "Christ was only a man" (Adoptionism), "Direction Operation of the Holy Spirit," "Divine Illumination of the Scriptures," and "Law verses Spirit." Doctrinally sound men do not endorse false doctrines!|author=Tommy H. Hicks|publisher=seektheoldpaths.com|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
==Family, death, and legacy==
Besides Patsy and Gerald, Paden's other siblings were Mildred, Ivan, and Harold Oscar Paden, Sr. (July 22, 1922 – March 29, 2001), a [[United States Army]] private who received the [[Bronze Star]] and the [[Purple Heart]] during [[World War II]]. He was a minister in [[Albuquerque]], [[New Mexico]]. Harold Paden is interred at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in the capital city of [[Santa Fe]], New Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Paden&GSfn=Harold&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=17577647&df=all&|title=Harold Oscar Paden, Sr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref>
Cline Paden died at his home in Lubbock after a lengthy fight with [[Parkinson's disease]]. Earlier in 2007, he had also been diagnosed with the beginning stage of [[Alzheimer's disease]]. He was survived by his wife of nearly fifty years, the former Jo Iris Cathey (December 28, 1926 – August 19, 2014);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Paden&GSfn=Jo&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=46&GScnty=2671&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=134610100&df=all&|title=Jo C. Paden|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> three children, Tim and Metta Paden of Lubbock, Terry and Becky Paden of Abernathy, north of Lubbock, and Tanja and Randy Couchman of Boerne, west of [[San Antonio]]; brother, Gerald Paden of Lubbock; two sisters, Geraldine "Jeri" Fox (twin sister of Gerald Paden) of Oceanside, California, and Patsy Whitson, and nine grandchildren.<ref name=cpobit/>
Like his brother Cline, Gerald Paden graduated from Idalou High School and Abilene Christian College. He enlisted in the [[United States Navy]] in 1943 and served aboard the [[aircraft carrier]], the ''[[USS Shipley Bay (CVE-85)]]''. Honorably discharged in 1946, he wed the former Bobbie Rhea, who became a vital part of his ministry in the Church of Christ in West Texas at Meadow in Terry County (1951-1953) and New Home in Lynn County, Texas (1960-1963). In 1953, he followed his brothers Cline and Harold into overseas mission work in Rome and [[Pisa]], Italy. Self-taught in the [[Italian language]] and with his knowledge of Scripture, research, and publications, he became a sought-after lecturer in Italy and in other European cities. Upon his return to Lubbock in 1971, Gerald Paden joined the faculty of Sunset International Bible School, already in its ninth year of instruction since its establishment by his brother.<ref name=gpaden>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lubbockonline/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-s-paden&pid=175333020&fhid=19536#sthash.EXD3pUGs.dpuf|title=Gerald Paden|publisher=''[[Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]]''|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
Cline Paden's services were held in Lubbock on May 30, 2007, at the Sunset Church of Christ, and interment followed at Resthaven Memorial Park.<ref name=cpobit/>
Paden's life work was recognized by honorary doctoral degrees from five universities including his alma mater, Abilene Christian: [[David Lipscomb University]] of [[Nashville]], Tennessee|Nashville]], Tennessee, [[Harding University]] of Searcy, [[Arkansas]], Lubbock Christian University, and [[Pepperdine University]] in [[Malibu, California|Malibu]], California.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1969, Paden was named one of the first "Distinguished Alumni" of Abilene Christian University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acu.edu/alumni/awards/past_recipients/recipients_dac.html
|title=Distinguished Alumni Citation|date=1969|publisher=acu.edu|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
Paden was referred to as "The Gray Eagle", presumably for his keen vision and wisdom. Truman Scott, a Sunset administrator, penned a 2000 [[biography]] of Paden entitled ''The Gray Eagle,'' in which Scott documents Paden's impact on many people, particularly young ministers and missionaries whom he trained over the decades.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-gray-eagle-truman-scott/1009163943?ean=9780976869870|title=The Gray Eagle|publisher=Sunset Institute Press|location=Lubbock, Texas|date=September 5, 2000|author=Truman Scott|isbn=9780976869870|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paden, Cline}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:Educators]]
| name=Cline Rex Paden
| image=Cline Paden of TX.jpg
| birth_date=August 22, 1919
| birth_place=Wagner, Hunt County,<br>
[[Texas]]
| death_date=May 26, 2007 (aged 77)
| death_place=[[Lubbock]], Texas<br>
'''Resting place''':<br>
Resthaven Memorial Park in Lubbock
| occupation=Pastor and educator
| spouse=Jo Iris Cathey Paden (married 1947-2007, his death)
| children=Timothy Paden<br>
Terry Paden<br>
Tanja Paden Couchman<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
John Calvin Oscar and Lona Harden Paden
|relations=Gerald S. Paden (brother)
|religion=[[Church of Christ]]
|footnotes='''Notes''':<br>
*A prominent [[Church of Christ]] evangelist and pastor, Paden was the founder of [[Sunset International Bible Institute]] in his adopted city of [[Lubbock]], [[Texas]].
}}
'''Cline Rex Paden''' (August 22, 1919 – May 26, 2007) was a prominent [[Church of Christ]] [[evangelist]] and [[missionary]] who, in 1962, founded what became the [[Sunset International Bible Institute]] in [[Lubbock]], , [[Texas]]. The institute offers college-style instruction in Lubbock and a series of satellite schools in forty-six states and in such countries as [[Austria]], [[Bahamas]], [[Belarus]], [[Bermuda]], [[Canada]], [[Cuba]], [[El Salvador]], [[England]], [[Germany]], [[Ghana]], [[Guyana]], [[Indonesia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Mexico]], [[Nigeria]], the [[Philippines]], [[Russia]], [[South Africa]], and [[Trinidad]]. Such schools allow individuals to study the [[Bible]] in depth with instruction adapted to their schedules and particular circumstances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sibi.cc/external/satellite|title=Satellite schools|publisher=sibi.cc|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
==Background==
Paden was one of seven children of John Calvin Oscar Paden (1888-1957), an [[Arkansas]] native, and the former Lona Harden Paden (1889-1975), originally from [[Tennessee]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=allgs&gss=sfs28_ms_f-2_s&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Lona&gsln=Paden&mswpn__ftp=Lubbock%2C%20Lubbock%2C%20Texas%2C%20USA&mswpn=77806&mswpn_PInfo=8-%7C0%7C1652393%7C0%7C2%7C3249%7C46%7C0%7C1824%7C77806%7C0%7C&MSAV=1&msbdy=1889&cp=0&catbucket=rstp&uidh=upc |title= search ancestry.com for "Lona Paden" |publisher= search.ancestry.com |accessdate= July 21, 2015}}</ref> Only one of the seven children, the youngest, Patsy Paden Whitson (born December 7, 1928) of Lakewood, [[California]], survives.<ref name=gpaden/> He was born in Wagner in northwestern Hunt County near [[Dallas]]. The population of Wagner never exceeded fifty persons, and the community is no longer listed on road maps or gazzeteers. In 1927, the family moved to Lubbock County in West Texas, where Paden later graduated from Idalou High Schoo]. In 1947, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University in [[Abilene]] in Taylor County in Wex, Texas.<ref name=cpobit>Cline Rex Paden obituary, ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,'' May 28, 2007.}}</ref>
==Ministry==
Paden delivered his first sermon in Hawley in Jones County, also in West Texas.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1949, he joined a missionary team to [[Italy]], which he declared "sorely in need of material and spiritual help." There, he ran into much opposition from the police and the [[liberal]] Italian government in his effort to establish in [[Rome, Italy|Rome]] the Church of Christ, which at the time had some 700,000 members in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858599,00.html|title=Religion: Beachead|date=January 23, 1950|publisher=''Time'' magazine|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> At one point, the government ordered Paden and his brother, '''Gerald S. Paden''' (August 17, 1924 – July 20, 2015), to stop the distribution of food to the needy and to close their [[orphanage]]. After a lengthy legal fight, and with some help from then [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], the Italian courts upheld religious toleratio], and Paden was allowed to continue his mission in the shadow of [[Vatican City]]. His mission work was cited in several issues of ''Time'' magazine in which it was disclosed that previously established [[Protestant]] churches in Italy, which have complied with the registration laws, have not faced this time of any trouble with the authorities.<br>
Said the Reverend Emanuele Shaffi, a [[Methodist]] and the chairman of Italy's Federal Council of Evangelical Churches (membership: 60,000): "We enjoy complete freedom of worship ... We feel that our friends of the Churches of Christ are not entirely in the right."<br>
Paden travelled to Italy in the midst of the [[Cold War]] without first applying for the visa needed to be a missionary under Italian law. Also, in Italy at the time non-Catholic churches were considered businesses and had to submit appropriate paperwork, which Paden avoided unlike Protestant missionaries. After Italian officials travelled to the United States and presented documents pertaining to Paden's claims of persecution, the [[United States State Department]] released a letter stating that "No Americans are being denied the right to worship in Italy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935763,00.html|publisher=''Time''|title=Religion: Missionaries in Rome|date=September 29, 1952|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref></blockquote>
In 1957, Paden went on a missionary journey to [[Denmark]].<ref name=cpobit/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bible.acu.edu/crs/lec/a5657.htm|title="They Shall All Be Taught of God": Center for Restoration Studies|publisher=bible.acu.edu|date=1956|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> Though he spent five years with the [[Denmark|Danes]], no sustaining Church of Christ work could be established there.
==Sunset International Bible Institute==
Sunset International began modestly with six [[Hispanic]] students. Paden believed that schools of preaching were needed to counter secular modernism within Church of Christ colleges and seminaries. Originally called the Latin American Bible School,<ref name=sunsethistory>{{cite web|url=http://www.sibi.cc/about/history|title=Sunset International Bible Institute: Our History|publisher=sibi.cc|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> Sunset expanded over the years. In 1973, Sunset established an Adventures in Missions program for college students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aimsunset.org/page/41|title=Life in Lubbock|publisher=aimsunset.org|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> In 1977, a deaf program was added.<ref name=sunsethistory/> Paden served as the executive director, equivalent of president, of the school until 1993, when he chose Truitt Ellis Adair (born December 28, 1944) as his successor. He remained as chancellor until 2006.<ref name=cpobit/> Over the decades, Paden helped to establish other seminaries, including the Mid-South Bible Institute in Glasgow, [[Kentucky]].
Paden was also an elder at the Sunset Church of Christ, 3723 34th Street in Lubbock, for more than thirty years. As a result of his missionary background, Paden stressed global evangelism.<ref name=cpobit/> He urged [[Christianity|Christians]] to shun debt and practice proper financial stewardship according to biblical standards. "[We need] a strong warning for those headed for fiscal disaster and yet ... hope ...for those who had already given up hope of ever breathing another breath of debt-free air."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nodebtnosweat.com/churchleaders.htm|title=What Christian Leaders Are Saying: Cline Paden|author=Steve Diggs|publisher=nodebtnosweat.com|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref> In 1973, Paden issued a manifesto stating that the innocent party in an [[Adultery|adulterous marriage]] has biblical sanction to remarry, but there is no such approval to the guilty party.
Paden aroused controversy when he wrote the introduction to a 1995 book by Terry Rush entitled ''The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense.'' Rush claims that from birth to his [[baptism]] [[Jesus Christ]] was human and not divine. According to this view known as "adoptionism," it was the baptism which makes Jesus divine, a reference to the biblical line: "The Word became flesh."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seektheoldpaths.com/stop598.htm#SSOP|title=Sunset School of Preaching and Terry Rush: When Cline Paden, Richard Rogers, and Ted Stewart endorsed Terry Rush's book, The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense, they endorsed Rush's false doctrines of: "Christ was only a man" (Adoptionism), "Direction Operation of the Holy Spirit," "Divine Illumination of the Scriptures," and "Law verses Spirit." Doctrinally sound men do not endorse false doctrines!|author=Tommy H. Hicks|publisher=seektheoldpaths.com|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
==Family, death, and legacy==
Besides Patsy and Gerald, Paden's other siblings were Mildred, Ivan, and Harold Oscar Paden, Sr. (July 22, 1922 – March 29, 2001), a [[United States Army]] private who received the [[Bronze Star]] and the [[Purple Heart]] during [[World War II]]. He was a minister in [[Albuquerque]], [[New Mexico]]. Harold Paden is interred at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in the capital city of [[Santa Fe]], New Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Paden&GSfn=Harold&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=17577647&df=all&|title=Harold Oscar Paden, Sr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref>
Cline Paden died at his home in Lubbock after a lengthy fight with [[Parkinson's disease]]. Earlier in 2007, he had also been diagnosed with the beginning stage of [[Alzheimer's disease]]. He was survived by his wife of nearly fifty years, the former Jo Iris Cathey (December 28, 1926 – August 19, 2014);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Paden&GSfn=Jo&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=46&GScnty=2671&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=134610100&df=all&|title=Jo C. Paden|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> three children, Tim and Metta Paden of Lubbock, Terry and Becky Paden of Abernathy, north of Lubbock, and Tanja and Randy Couchman of Boerne, west of [[San Antonio]]; brother, Gerald Paden of Lubbock; two sisters, Geraldine "Jeri" Fox (twin sister of Gerald Paden) of Oceanside, California, and Patsy Whitson, and nine grandchildren.<ref name=cpobit/>
Like his brother Cline, Gerald Paden graduated from Idalou High School and Abilene Christian College. He enlisted in the [[United States Navy]] in 1943 and served aboard the [[aircraft carrier]], the ''[[USS Shipley Bay (CVE-85)]]''. Honorably discharged in 1946, he wed the former Bobbie Rhea, who became a vital part of his ministry in the Church of Christ in West Texas at Meadow in Terry County (1951-1953) and New Home in Lynn County, Texas (1960-1963). In 1953, he followed his brothers Cline and Harold into overseas mission work in Rome and [[Pisa]], Italy. Self-taught in the [[Italian language]] and with his knowledge of Scripture, research, and publications, he became a sought-after lecturer in Italy and in other European cities. Upon his return to Lubbock in 1971, Gerald Paden joined the faculty of Sunset International Bible School, already in its ninth year of instruction since its establishment by his brother.<ref name=gpaden>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lubbockonline/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-s-paden&pid=175333020&fhid=19536#sthash.EXD3pUGs.dpuf|title=Gerald Paden|publisher=''[[Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]]''|accessdate=July 21, 2015}}</ref>
Cline Paden's services were held in Lubbock on May 30, 2007, at the Sunset Church of Christ, and interment followed at Resthaven Memorial Park.<ref name=cpobit/>
Paden's life work was recognized by honorary doctoral degrees from five universities including his alma mater, Abilene Christian: [[David Lipscomb University]] of [[Nashville]], Tennessee|Nashville]], Tennessee, [[Harding University]] of Searcy, [[Arkansas]], Lubbock Christian University, and [[Pepperdine University]] in [[Malibu, California|Malibu]], California.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1969, Paden was named one of the first "Distinguished Alumni" of Abilene Christian University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acu.edu/alumni/awards/past_recipients/recipients_dac.html
|title=Distinguished Alumni Citation|date=1969|publisher=acu.edu|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
Paden was referred to as "The Gray Eagle", presumably for his keen vision and wisdom. Truman Scott, a Sunset administrator, penned a 2000 [[biography]] of Paden entitled ''The Gray Eagle,'' in which Scott documents Paden's impact on many people, particularly young ministers and missionaries whom he trained over the decades.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-gray-eagle-truman-scott/1009163943?ean=9780976869870|title=The Gray Eagle|publisher=Sunset Institute Press|location=Lubbock, Texas|date=September 5, 2000|author=Truman Scott|isbn=9780976869870|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paden, Cline}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:Educators]]