A wonderful pastor and preacher
March 4, 2008 (Tuesday)
A little more about Groesbeck. I told about the baptism service at Prairie Point yesterday. Olen Waldrip, the pastor at First Baptist, Groesbeck, had attended the revival meeting that week and asked me to consider becoming the “Associate Pastor” at his church. The duties were simple: lead the singing, sing solos, and do some work with the youth of the church. So I accepted. I was a freshman at Baylor.
I rode the bus back and forth to Groesbeck for about a year and a half, doing mostly music ministry. I had no clue about music. All I knew how to do was sing, and that from memory, not from notes. I learned a lot from Brother Waldrip, and that was a great reason to have accepted the job.
Olen Waldrip was about 35 years old at the time, I think, and had been an army chaplain during World War 2. He was one of a very few male graduates of Mary Hardin Baylor, an all-girls college, at Belton, Texas. The school is coed today, but not at the time he attended. He went on a scholarship with very few other boys, who were there to milk cows, mow grass, do manual labor, etc. to earn their scholarship.
Bro. Waldrip was responsible for my being called to serve in at least three churches. He asked me to serve with him at Groesbeck, as I said, and then recommended me to become the pastor at Oletha Baptist Church, 15 miles southeast of Groesbeck. Later, when I completed the seminary, he recommended me to the First Baptist Church of Kosse, south of Groesbeck. I owe very much to Bro. Waldrip for his confidence in me that motivated him to give my name to the churches. After his pastorate at Groesbeck, he became “Associational Missionary” (now called “Director of Missions”) of Limestone Baptist Association. He moved to the country west of Groesbeck on the Mart Highway, with his wife and two children. After a while, he also became pastor of the Oletha Baptist Church.
Mrs. Waldrip became a professor at Baylor University, and Bro. Waldrip became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Robinson, just outside the southern Waco city limits, on Highway 77. They remained in their respective positions for a number of years.
The last I heard of this couple who influenced me so much was that they had moved somewhere on or near the East Coast. I owe much to him for taking an active interest in an inexperienced 18-year-old boy in 1950.