Bob In Ministry Chapter 1 Hollister, NC 1978 ~ 1992 ¶July 30, 2004 I am now without my computer since Friday, last... Going through withdrawal. Can't stand it! I am now trying to create a document with my old Epson Apex 4880 computer. It still works while I have now gone through 4 different computers using Windows. This document is quite difficult to construct in that the keyboard is more sensitive than one would wish. It creates many duplicate letters causing me a nightmare/day-mare. When one is using a computer that double types letters one has to pay so much attention to it and it is nearly impossible to concentrate on thee purpose of the document being created. The intent here is to place my thoughts following a call from one of the members of my fist pastorate in Hollister, NC... Sibyl Williams called to speak to Glenda today but she is in Carolina visiting Wanda, her cousin. Fall 1978 Following Sibyl's call (August 6, 2004) my mind began recalling my first pastorate at Harris Chapel Baptist church and the influence it had on all of my ministry. Harris Chapel is a Southern Baptist Church and my studies at the South Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary was the overwhelming influence that took me to Harris Chappel. So many things that happened at that time affected more than myself. It had a resounding effect on all my family. Just going to seminary at my age with two boys in school caused drastic changes in their lives. Jeff survived the changes quite well . . . especially considering he only had one year left in High School and had to pull up from friends and classmates and go with us to Wake Forrest. It seemed to cause Roger more difficulties however and because of all that followed ended with him dropping out in his senior year. He has felt the effect of that all of his life. My calling to ministry was at a very early age. I was a sophomore in high school at the time (1952). After that undeniable call upon my life everything life seemed to be directed toward that goal. I left home the same week of graduation from high school. My bags were packed and I left for Philadelphia, PA. I had been accepted at the Philadelphia College of The Bible and would need to go to work immediately to have any hope of paying the fall tuition at entrance. I was at that time of my life that I first became aware of the temptation of evil. More of this part of my biography has been recorded in a document called "The Walking Man." (A link to this is provided at the end of this text area.) One has to really get down to a self retrospection to do justice on any theory of weather I was "running away," or "running to" this calling all of my early life. However, Hollister, NC, and Harris Chapel began my ministry of the Gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ. This beginning was accepted with great passion and conviction. That may well explain my slow acceptance of the feeling of failure and distress. I didn't' understand it in that way early on and continued ministry with great determination from 1979 up until my disability retirement in 1992. Harris Chapel, as its name would indicate, was begun by a family of the last name, Harris, years prior to my calling there. I came to learn that a church that is named for a family usually belonged to the family. That was beyond my comprehension when I began to serve in that community and it became an impossible mission for me in that I served believing it was for the Lord Jesus Christ whom I served. Prior to Harris Chapel it was my occasion to have preached at least two other trial sermons at churches needing a pastor. One of them was just north of Wake Forrest on the Virginia line. I especially recall that sermon. It was one I had preached at Arcadia, PA, not far from the church of my youth. Indeed, I was but a young lad at the time it was given. At age 15 Bob Leasure and myself went each Sunday afternoon to this little store front church on the corner of this old mine town in which the main employer had long closed -- a coal mine. The fact that all industry or employment in the area had long left the town was populated by very poor people. I shall never forget the sermon given at that time in the early 1950's to these folk. It was mostly about salvation and baptism by water. It comes to me that even in that early day it was thought by many that there was two baptisms . . . one by water and another by the spirit. During the preaching of that sermon one small young girl felt like giving her testimony. As she went on it was told by her that she and a neighbor had traveled to Pittsburgh, Pa, and she had been healed completely by Catherine Coleman, a spiritual healer of the day. Hear ailment was that she was severely cross eyed. She stood there, encouraged by a friend, and told us how it was that she was completely healed. The only problem was that she was just as cross eyed as she spoke as she was a week earlier in our service. I was so amazed by this. She was so deceived as to believe that she was healed when physically it was obvious that she wasn't. That imputes gave me the momentum in my sermon that Sunday to feel much passion as I preached before them. That sermon was given with energy and results in Arcadia, PA. However, the morning before I was to preach my first trial sermon on the Virginia - North Carolina border I was inflected with laryngitis and was barely able to preach at all. It fell flat and I returned to Wake Forrest with a great realization of how finite I was. When I was called to preach a trial sermon at Hollister and Harris Chapel Baptist Church I left Wake Forrest with great nervousness and apprehension. I was completely healthy in voice but quite nervous in the mission I was on. The circumstances were different and instead of preaching in front of a normal worship service it was instead to be before eight or nine members called a Pastor Search Committee. It wasn't on a Sunday but a Monday evening. I prayed long and hard as to what I would preach. At the time I had been sitting under the teaching of Leo Green at SEBTS and he had not long before taught us through the Bible Book of Hosea in Old Testament History. The story and teaching of Professor Green in the book of Hosea had affected me spiritually quite a bit. I finally decided to convert my notes on the book of Hosea into a sermon. The closer I got to preaching this sermon the more nervous I had become. I shall never forget the time and moment. The folk looked quite stern and serious and I was unable to get into a preaching mood in that there were no hymns or pre-sermon trappings. It was hello, how are you, a brief introduction of myself to them and then I was to begin preaching. That was the hardest sermon I had ever endeavored to give. It was such a surprise to me when I got the call. It was even more amazing that it was my text and sermon that had convinced them that I should be called to minister to that congregation. As I later came to understand it was indeed the text and subject of the sermon that attracted this pastor search committee more than I myself that had caused them to select me out of others they had thus listened to. They felt that I had a real feeling for thee text and message that would enable me to identify with conditions and situations that had existed in the weeks, months and years that preceded the event in relationships in the congregation. Indeed, the moral situation there was really vile in that husbands and wives were divorced and remarried within the congregational families and was causing so much pain and sorrow. They felt that they needed a pastor that was understanding of the situation and would deal with it successfully. As it turned out there was no way anyone could have dealt with the infection as it was. And, they were not willing to hear from the Lord or anyone else. It might be inserted here that during the annual (so called) revival service that one husband and wife (second marriage) came to the service and sat immediately in the pew behind the other (second marriage) couple that had previously been married and during the standing and sitting between hymns the folk behind would hit the wife on the head with a hymnal each time they arose or sat before and after each hymn. What a desperate situation to agonize over. Everyone knew the couples and were anguished in heart because of the situation as it continued. In fact, the church was so caught up in the situation that ministering to them was a fanciful imaginative nightmare and my ministry at that church was a failure in a great measure because of it. With all of that said we now direct our attention to Sibyl and how her call today caused me to reflect back to Harris Chapel. Sibyl and her husband were both as dedicated to the Lord and His work in the church and community as any other I have ever known. Both were highly active in every aspect of the church and they were a great inspiration to Glenda and I as we gave everything we had to serve our Lord in this new vocation that I had spent my life to fulfill. Glenda has been at my side at every turn and Sibyl was such a great pillar of strength to her. Harris Chapel was located in the middle of a mixed community and one could not drive to and from the church without traveling through surrounding populations of was is known as the Halawah Indian tribes. I will do a search on the WWW to see if there are any listings of this group of natives on-line. Today, as then, they are a mixture of the original Indian Tribe and now include a varying mixture of inter-racial including white farmer descendants, blacks and others. Harris Chapel had unused Sunday School Classrooms -- built during the early years of the church and with an aging congregation they no longer were needed. I found it so difficult to drive by so many young children every day as I drove through the community. It was even more difficult to drive to church on Sunday mornings and pass these children playing outside their farmer provided huts and not stop, pick them up, and take them to Sunday School. It seems that this had been on Billy and Sibyl's mind for some time as well. In my second year as pastor Billy, Sibyl, Glenda and myself decided to use the Southern Baptist Summer Bible School to start a "Big A" club and reach these children for Christ. It was exciting. However, when we approached the church Deacons concerning using the facilities of the church for this purpose they vigorously declined with very indignant attitudes. As I reflect over their reaction to this possibility it occurs to me that it may well have been denied because some of these children could well be theirs. I say this with the conviction that this was indeed fact. With direction and assistance from the Southern Baptist Convention it was suggested that we organize the "Big-A" Club at Sibyl's home. We agreed, apart from the church, and began what became a great and wonderful experience in all of our lives. The four of us spent that summer with these despised and decadent children teaching them about Jesus and leading them to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. Oh, how many times my mind returns to those precious children and the moments in time that we spent with them. Finally my ministry had led me to circumstances where I was able to be blessed and used of Christ to bring the lost to Him. Of about 40 children that attended the "Big-A Club" that summer nearly half of them had made confessions of faith as we were able to lead them to Christ. The next step, of course, was baptism. We again appealed to the "Church Fathers" to baptize these new Christians into Christ's Church. With great amazement we were denied the request. Everything I felt in my experience with Christ told me that it was all wrong. The Harris (Owned by the Harris') Chapel was unwilling to enjoy this great and wonderful blessing of baptizing these innocent children into the Body of Christ. They did agree though to allow us to present their end of summer exercises at the Sunday School opening the next Lord's day. The result however was anything but the Lord's day! As these children filed in and up the isle of the church many of these old saints (?) got up from their seats and left the church. I knew then, although it wasn't until later in the fall, that my time there was over. I would not long be pastor of Harris Chapel Baptist Church of Hollister, North Carolina. As of this writing most of these folk have left this earth and are at their reward. I often wonder what reward they received. When I soon will die will I see any of them where my journey on earth ends? We solved the baptism problem by immersing them in the outdoor swimming pool in Sibyl and Billy's back yard that fall. It was difficult to explain to them that we were unable to do it in the church. However, we promised them that we would do everything we could to see that they had a church of their very own one day. It is a blessing to me to report that this has indeed happened and in Hollister, NC one can find the Trinity Baptist Church just one quarter mile from Harris' Church in Hollister. It is a wonderful (vibrant) and active church that ministers to the community and Billy and Sibyl are members and active every day seeing to the needs of this wonderful mission among the needy that has now become one of the Southern Baptist Convention's proudest achievements! The Lord moves in wonderful and mysterious ways so as to bring the Gospel of Christ to those in need. The evangelistic fervor that I felt in ministry was used of God to reach many in and out of the church there in Hollister and a majority of those I was blessed to baptize during my complete ministry was done there. It seemed that as I moved from church to church and parish (UMC) to parish each year became less and less. I to this day don't know why that was. Did I loose my fervor? Not that I am aware of. However, it became almost impossible to reach those one is convinced that were lost in any life-changing way. Indeed, I am convinced that this fact had more to do than anything else with my becoming dismayed and disillusioned with ministry. I came to the place where I finally told my District Superintendent that I "Simply couldn't handle it anymore." He was instrumental in ushering me into Disability Retirement. (Thomas H Holstclaw, The United Methodist Church, Williamston, NC) I didn't succumb to this defeat easily though. I was called to another church in Darlington, SC. Faith Baptist Church. It became obvious soon that the word "Faith" in the church name was in name only. There was no "FAITH" visible there. Faith Baptist Church was a break-away branch from another old family church not far away and that church as well was a family owned building thus leading to my church breaking away with another disputing church. I had a drug addicted man as a Sunday School Superintendent and after more than one and a half years I knew there would be little if any movement of Christ in their midst. I was faithful though and did all humanly possible to serve my Lord there. Difficult as it was to minister to people who had hate in their heart for others I was taught patience and endurance in the service of Christ to these congregations. It was most difficult for my wife and I to see how the actions of these church members had severe influences upon our two boys. Considering all they both endured these years of ministry Glenda and I are most pleased that they have turned out as well as they have. PKs (Preacher Kids) don't have an easy time of it at all. Indeed, if anyone should have great rewards in heaven it should be those that have lived as Preacher Kids here on earth! I am also well aware that God blessed me with a beautiful and wonderful woman to be my wife. She too has had to endure so many darts of hate over too many years. However difficult these experiences were at the time only a stronger and more enduring love has bound us together over the years. Going back to the Hollister event for a moment: Roger was on the minds of those of the Pastor Search Committee. As we discussed my calling to Harris Chapel it was of concern to them that the minister's son should not be forced to go to the integrated High School and that they would provide the added benefit of paying the tuition for him to attend a nearby academy. Being innocent of the activities of church members at the time Glenda and I agreed to the arrangement and Roger was sent to a special school made up of only white children that could afford the expense. The attitude and treatment he received at the church and the up-scale church caused him to drop out and quit school all together. I am so proud of Roger and how he as grown over the years. He is no a supervisor at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock. He has made me proud. However, it is difficult for me to believe that he doesn't harbor some hurts in his heart for all that my life and endeavors have caused him difficulties in his life. I don't blame him at all if he does. And, no less, I believe with all my heart that Roger loves his Lord beyond measure. And, as with Glenda an myself, he has had all the church people he can stand for one lifetime. All of us owe Christ as our saviour everything we have and are and will see Him face to face at the conclusion of our lives on earth. The fact that we have extreme difficulty going to or identifying ourselves with any earthly so-called-church our separation from such organizations will have nothing at all to do with where we will spend eternity. To conclude some remarks and remembrances of Faith Baptist Church of Darlington I would like to include some circumstances that occurred prior to our leaving there. As with every church we were privileged to serve we have many friends we have left behind over those years. This includes many friends of Faith there. I don't recall any other church where I worked any harder to serve God in His ministry than this church. Our service there was not all difficult and there are many wonderful memories we hold dear. One couple especially comes to mind and has provided us with a special remembrance as we worked together in God's purpose. One funny but serious recollections come to mind as I recall Mike and his friendship. We were blessed there as well with many souls brought to salvation through ministry. One Saturday Mike went to the church as was his duty to fill the baptismal pool in preparation for a Sunday Morning Service Baptism. He filled the pool and turned on the heater to warm the water and left intending to return later to test and if satisfactory turn the heater off. Something came up that evening and Mike forgot all about the heat. In the morning when we went to the church we found all the ceiling tiles around the pool and pulpit on the floor. The water had become so hot that the humidity had loosened the glue and they had fallen. It was quite a mess but everyone was happy there was no more damage than that and after cleaning it up we went on with the service as planned. During my second year of ministry there I began to become disillusioned with some things that were happening as well as the church opinion that some of the families living near the church were not welcome at Faith. Having a strong evangelistic fervor I found it difficult to deal with that attitude and began to become anxious to move on. The Southern Baptist Convention publishes a monthly Mission Magazine and one especially caught my eye. They were putting out a message that bi-vocational ministers were needed out West. Medicine Bowl, Wyoming was one such place. Glenda and I had very early in our marriage lived in Leadville, CO, and were quite cognizant of the need there for missions and churches. We never did find a church of the Gospel in the years there and were well aware of the climate and needs of the region. One of the things that were causing such great need was the then need of people in that part of the country to develop "oil-shale" into oil. So many people from all over the United States were moved there by the companies they worked for and the need was so grate. TO BE CONTINUED