Big D
SEPTEMBER 4, 2007 (TUESDAY) – We have been retracing our steps through all the churches of which we have been a part. Yesterday we recalled the First Baptist Church of Kosse, Texas, the first full time pastorate after graduation from the seminary. From there we moved to the Vickery Baptist Church in Dallas in April, 1961.
We discovered there is a vast difference between a small Central Texas town and “Big D.” In Kosse, we were like the only grandkids in a town full of loving grandparents. In Dallas, we were like the new kid at school in the sixth grade; we were on our own and had to make our place. This was the last stop on our way to the First Baptist Church of Rockport, and one more preparation step for us. Of course, we didn’t think of it that way. As far as we knew, we would be in Dallas the rest of our lives, and we tried to do our work with that thought in mind.
The section of the city known as “Vickery” had been a small town of about 500 people for years and years. Through the years the church had had pastors who had become well known in Southern Baptist life, including Hyman Appelman and J.D. Grey. It was the first of such towns on old Highway 75. As you moved north, the next was Richardson, then Plano, then McKinney, with some smaller towns along the way. That was all in the past by the time we arrived. Vickery had been swallowed up by Dallas, bypassed by suburbia because so many large tracts of land were not for sale by the owners. Richardson was growing like crazy, and Plano was beginning to grow, too. Today you have to have known they were once there and pay close attention to the signs or you would never know it wasn’t all Dallas, and I mean the big city, skyscrapers and all, with freeways crisscrossing each other. When we arrived, however, growth had not become so rampant. Vickery was like a little oasis in the midst of the bustling city.
The church had a beautiful building, only a few years old, with an 85 ft high gold steeple and a front wall of solid stained glass. The parsonage was directly behind the church.
When the community finally did begin to grow, it was in the form of apartment houses and commercial development. We had missed our chance to see the landscape filled with single family dwellings. However, today, the Google Earth program shows houses everywhere. But by the time that happened, stronger churches had fled the inner portions of the city and moved into the growing areas, so the Vickery congregation had shrunk to mission status as a congregation.
While we were there, there were the strong Richardson churches just north of us, Park Cities Baptist to the West, Wilshire just south, and several strong churches to the east. Our church had suffered a split two years before we moved there, and we felt crippled and outgunned. But we did our very best with all the obstacles I have described. The many factors worked against our ability to see great growth. It is of no comfort to me to know that those pastors who followed me (and they were strong men, such as Tom Elliff, who became well-known leaders) were also unable to cross the barriers to church growth. We had a good ministry there, preaching in a very beautiful auditorium that seated 600 but rarely had more than 135 in attendance. We made some very good friends, and found good fellowship with people our age while living in the city. Our personal lives were fulfilled. Dianna was born while we were there, bringing great joy to our family and to the church. We brought people to Christ and helped many in their spiritual growth. It was a good ministry, but did not see the growth that all the large churches close by us were experiencing. After three and one-half years (which, by the way, was the longest tenure any pastor of the church ever had), I got a call from A.G. Gardner in Rockport, who was chairman of the pulpit committee, asking me if I was interested in preaching for their committee. Our life was about to change forever. We were about to make the move to Rockport. More about that tomorrow.