Those of us who are Preacher's Kids are most blessed when daddy lives the other 6 days of the week the things he preached on Sunday.
My father, now gone to Higher Ground, stood a step above many of his contemporaries. He saw fraud and pretense and told me about it. Therefore, I am sensitive to it.
My dad grew up on a tenant farm outside Athens, GA. He got his call to preach plowing behind a mule during the Depression. Despite the church ladies at the Moon's Grove Baptist Church telling him an education would ruin him, he hitch-hiked to Mercer--arriving with .10 in his pocket.
He was told by the President that a man with no funds other than .10 could not metriculate. He broke down and cried.
The President had mercy on him and gave him the name of a family who loaned money to worthy students. In addition, he got a job peeling potatoes in the Cafeteria plus cutting hair for students. He made it!
Then he went to Andover-Newton, which had a reputation for being one of the finest Seminaries in the country. Again, he made it through hard work paying his own way.
Now, comes the wrinkle: He felt called to return South where he met all kinds of subjective criticism. He had the education and preaching skills for a First Baptist Church, but he was still single and did not have the Southern Seminary Professors pulling for him.
They would simply say, "Can you trust a man who is from Andover-Newton rather than Southern?"
He had to take a job teaching school and a part time church in Pendleton, SC. Finally he married a Carver School of Missions graduate and that opened some doors. He was "safely" married. He went to the Liberty, SC, FBC where I was born. From there he went to Tryon, NC, FBC, but got pressure to leave because he ministered to everyone--even a woman dying from a botched abortion at a "Road House" outside town.
After a short time as Associate Pastor in Spartanburg, SC, he was called to the Clarkston, GA, FBC at a time of potential growth. They had built a new sanctuary and the population was exploding. He worked hard and stimulated a doubling of the congregation---BUT he was in conflict with the Town Mayor (a lawyer) / Deacon Chairman / Church Treasurer who was playing games with the Building Fund by not paying the steel bill! He had a lawsuit against the company.
Daddy told this man, "You must pay the bill by Friday or I will resign Sunday and explain in clear terms why I am doing it." It took 4 years, but they finally got him in one of the most ugly and lying scenes ever imaginable.
That was OK. He refused to hate! He started a new mission church in an unchurched area--and also became the first HMB Chaplain to the Fulton County Juvenile Court. That church started in our living room, moved to a rental house, and finally built a building after about 2 years. In addition, he was the Associate DOM for the Atlanta Baptist Association.
When he should have become the next Director of Missions, a powerful Editor of the Christian Index opposed him because he was not a "yes man" to him. To move up required a "political correctness." Still he ministered as best he could and had the undying respect of many of the Atlanta Pastors. Again, he refused to hate and did not give up when the new DOM put terrible pressure to get rid of him.
Here is what I learned:
(1) Those who have integrity sometimes are doomed to public failure.
(2) Those who maintain their integrity are provided by God with a place of service where it counts.
(3) Refusing to hate and leaving vengence to God, saves one from bitterness or ultimate defeat.
(4) Most of the early Saints, as well as Jesus, paid an ultimate price for telling the truth.
(5) Few preachers are willing to stand with integrity when their political future and retirement plans could be part of the sacrifice.
(6) Robert Frost was right when he advocated "The Road Less Taken."
I rejoice in the man of integrity who was my father. He stood in front of a hostile crowd many times at the GBC and in his church to advocate for honesty and a Christlike approach to those the majority wanted to crucify.
He is the most like Christ of any man I have ever known. Even in failure, he maintained his integrity. He refused to participate in ugly politics just to be "successful."
It's too bad men like him are few and far between, but I shall meet him one day in the Land Above for I know he walks with God!!!
Tim Tyson's Dad was another strong man of that generation, like Stewart Newman, even the President of Andover Newton, Herbert Gezork, whose story your Father most certainly knew.
ReplyDeleteI hope you and your audience will search out Gezork's story in particular, as I imagine you already know Newman's story well.
Curtis Freeman at Duke has done a piece on Newman and WA Criswell you can easily google up.
Tyson's story is told in Blood Done Sign My Name.
And of course there was Judge Frank Johnson of that era about whom Bill Moyers said had Lincoln lived in Johnson's day in Alabama, he woulda been Judge Frank Johnson, and had Johnson lived in Lincoln's time he woulda been Lincoln.
And I gather you know the stories of Stricklin in Geneaology of Dissent.
I have written a blog about my Dad as well spurred by a memory from To Kill a Mockingbird on AMC Turner Classic Last Night. Not as thorough as your blog, but my Dad, while having a feet of clay, and Like the Apostle Paul his own limits and thorns of the Flesh was a strong witness.
I guess we can say neither of our Fathers were Jesse Helms or George Wallace and there is some consolation in that; then again Will Campbell in his parable of Vernon Dahmer may have a parable for both of us that deepens the mystery.
I saw where you started your ruminations at Wade Burleson's blog. I think the story is Dan Vestal has known the family for 40 years or so, so maybe there is some light there.
One final note, as George Singleton and Ron Rash have put the world on notice, there are a lot of stories coming out of Pickens County South Carolina; and I told a fellow from Chattanooga just last night a good one from Rome, Ga.