Lampasas
AUGUST 30, 2007 (THURSDAY) – More on the churches that have been a part of my life.
Wanda and I married October 3, 1953 and moved to Lampasas at the very end of that year. We had been married less than 3 months, I was weary of going to school, we were expecting a baby, and a church wanted us to move on the field and be their pastor. So we went. It was a mission of the First Baptist Church, and had had only one pastor. The mission was his first church. He had started it from scratch, and had built it into a congregation of more than a hundred people in a few short years. He had been a worker at Fort Hood along with some other men from Lampasas. He increasingly felt the call of God to preach, and with the help of the Lampasas men with whom he worked, began the new mission church under the sponsorship of the First Baptist Church of Lampasas. He led the church to reach out to others, to grow and to build a beautiful little building. Then he moved on to another city to which the Lord called him. He was dynamic, forceful, a sort of father figure to many, and, as they say, was “a hard act to follow.” In the place of the larger than life founder of the congregation, came the young preacher fresh out of college, with a lot to learn. We lived in a house rented for a parsonage by the church. We did our best, made many friends, won some folks to the Lord, preached and sang our hearts out, and pastored the people. The pastor of the sponsor church, G. M. (“Mack”) Cole, was a real friend to the new pastor and his strong supporter. We soon organized the mission into a self-supporting church, with Mack’s encouragement and guidance. He and I are friends to this very day. Mack is a great preacher, and it wasn’t long before he was called away to a much larger church in West Texas. The pastor who came in his place was somewhat distant and a little harder to befriend. As I attempted to adjust to a full-time pastorate, I became aware of how much I did not yet know, and felt the need of whatever the seminary had to offer me as further preparation for ministry. Gene McCombs, pastor of the School Creek Baptist Church nearby, and his wife, Mary, became good friends with Wanda and me. He, too, felt the need of going back to the seminary, so we signed up for six two-hour courses, which meant we commuted the 370 miles round trip to six classes in Fort Worth every Tuesday and Thursday, throughout one full semester during the 1954-1955 academic year. We went in his car one day and in mine the other. We left home long before daylight and got back long after dark. But we were very young, and able. When the summer of 1955 rolled around, I resigned the church and Wanda and I moved to Fort Worth, a few blocks from the seminary. I worked in several revival meetings that summer, before seeking employment, which I found right away at the General Motors plant in Arlington. Recent blogs have detailed events around that time.
God had more than one reason to send Wanda and me to Lampasas. If I had never met Gene, I would not have met his wife, Mary, or Mary’s brother, W.D. Broadway, who became pastor of First Baptist, Rockport, in 1955. W.D. and I became friends and we both later worked together in Dallas Baptist Association. Because we had already met, our friendship and mutual respect was strong. When the time came, W. D. recommended me to become the pastor here, and the church called me, in 1964.
God taught me much during my stay at Lampasas, and the pastorate there ultimately led to my move to Rockport. More about the churches that have blessed my life, tomorrow.
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Tidbits: Mack Cole has remained a close and wonderful friend. He pastored great churches and became a vice president of the state convention. He is now in his eighties and in poor health, but still serving the Lord in a church he started in Montana. His father was pastor in Refugio and Mack graduated from high school there, I guess around 1944.
When W.D. moved from Rockport to Lancaster, the church called C. Wilson Brumley as pastor. I had known Wilson when I was at Groesbeck, and he was pastor at Point Enterprise near Mexia. While I was at Groesbeck, he became the “Associational Missionary” for Limestone Baptist Association. The position is now known as Director of Missions. He made the decision to get back in the seminary while attending a worship service at Oletha, where I was pastor at the time. Our paths crossed again when we were both in the seminary and worked together at Vandervoort’s creamery, helping to create ice cream specialties. After leaving Rockport, he became a denominational leader, at the Home Mission Board and in Union Baptist Association. He and his wife Ruth were always great friends to Wanda and me.
W.D. and Wilson both received honorary doctorates from the University of Corpus Christi. Gene McCombs (from an earlier blog) also was awarded a doctor’s degree by the university, which later merged into what is now Texas A & M at Corpus Christi, but not before the school made quite an impact upon the Lord’s work through the people who graduated when it was still a Baptist university.
Gene pastored some great churches and one of his last pastorates was the Second Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, and after that moved to Memphis to work with Adrian Rogers and the seminary there. Gene’s brother is Red McCombs, the well-known philanthropist. I never met Red. Gene had a powerful personality and presence all his own. He went home to be with the Lord about seven years ago. I considered his being my friend a great gift from God.
In fact, now that I’m old enough to see the big picture, I know that every friend the Lord gave me through the years was a magnificent gift and an expression of his love. I’m very thankful for each and every one, including each of the friends who takes the time to read these blogs.