I visited today with an old friend who shared a picture from my past. It really reminds me of a lot of pictures that have been taken over the years while members of my family are shown constructing a church. That's much of my personal Christian history. We were always "building" another new church.
I don't think I ever really talked with my parents about "why" they enjoyed starting and building churches. I've thought a a lot about it, and I really believe it must have started in California. My parents headed to California at the beginning of World War II so my Dad could work in a defense factory in Long Beach. Since he was too old to join the army, it was just the correct thing to do. He wanted to help in the war effort, and California offered that great adventure.
One thing it didn't offer were Southern Baptist churches. My parents had to look for a good church, and they found one in Calvary Baptist Church of Long Beach, an American Baptist Church where I was saved in 1944. They arrived back in Texas following the war, and I believe they always remembered the lack of churches in California. So they gave a lot of energy to starting and building new ones.
This picture was taken in 1950 when First Baptist Church of Weatherford built the new Eureka Baptist Church. My family later helped in 1955 to begin Ball Street Baptist Church, now Community Baptist in Weatherford. And we were an important part of the new Emmanuel Baptist Church in Weatherford in 1957.
My Dad and Mother began to travel all over the United States helping to build new churches, and they spent many years in retirement as a part of the Texas Baptist Men building group. My brother Gene and his wife Geraldine followed in their steps, and they spent many weeks each year finding a new spot to work. Both of those families literally wore out their travel trailers in serving the Lord.
If you'll notice in the picture, I seem to be doing a lot of supervising. That was obviously my early training for a lot of job sites. If you don't believe it, just ask some of the people who worked with me over the years.
2 comments:
Supervisor - indeed! For many of those years I was one of those being supervised (and helping supervise too..) Those were great vacations and the kind my family remembers from back when gas was in the "cents" instead of "dollars" - God is Good! Thanks for your service, Sam - it was well spent! Terry
My thoughts after I read Sam’s BLOG.
Sam you raise an interesting point, why we did the building we did. I never really thought a lot about it, it just came naturally. It was an opportunity to serve and do something that I could do.
The first time I remember working on a church was when I was in high school. It was with a group from ‘Youth for Christ’ we went out to Dennis on a Saturday and helped them clear space for a new building. Some of us dug up a big tree stump out in the ditch in front of the building.
I remember when Eureka was built, but I don’t remember what I did except leading singing at a Wednesday night service. I remember we sang ‘The Love of God’.
Of course Dad and Mother working on churches was a great example and influence.
When we went to Hannibal with them it was one of the 1st away from home jobs I worked on.
While we were in Craig Ed Gatlin preached a sermon on God’s Will, He said that when an opportunity presented itself you needed to recognize it. God has never spoken to me audibility but doors have opened that I believe were His invitation to a place or time of service.
Some of the best years of our life were the 10 years we spent full time working with TBM building for the Glory of God. It was rewarding to me personally and I believe is it was a blessing and a help to the churches where we worked.
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