His ministry spanned 70 years. Even as a teenager, before he ever stepped into a pulpit full time, he was already leading. He served as student body president during his school years and built a lifelong love of music that stayed with him, playing cello, accordion, piano, organ, and viola, and singing in the choir.
Sheats earned his B.A. From Texas Tech University, then went on to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for his M.Div. And D.Min. He authored five books over the course of his career, building a body of written work alongside decades of preaching, teaching, and mentoring.
For the people who sat in his congregations, took his classes, or called him a mentor, his death marks the end of an influence that started when he was still a kid himself. Family remembers him as a husband, father, grandfather, pastor, teacher, mentor, musician, and friend, a full list that says something about how many roles one person can hold over a lifetime devoted, as his family put it, to God, family, and people.