17 Sep 07 Preaching V (More of the college years)
It was during my freshman year that I, along with my roommate, attended a Wednesday night church service at the invitation of some friends. The 5th and Grape Church of Christ was having a singing night and they invited anyone who wanted to come up and lead a song to do so. My roommate and I had met at the Firm Foundation School of Church Music so we naturally accepted the invitation and each led a song. We received the weekly bulleting from this church a few days later and discovered that by leading a song we had "placed membership" which was news to us. I guess we didn’t read the fine print.
We would have ended up there anyway because we wanted to be part of an outreach team that was based out of this church. Led by Dr. F.M. Churchill, the outreach team would travel all over Texas conducting weekend youth rallies and youth programs. On Saturday, or Sunday afternoon as the schedule dictated, we would perform skits and other dramatic presentations, a group would sing, and someone would speak. On Sunday morning the service would be led by the college age guys.
When my time in Robert Lee came to end I joined this group and had the privilege of traveling all over the state of Texas and speaking / preaching for a lot of churches. Some of the more interesting town names included: Kermit, Fluvanna, Spur, Battle Ground, and Old Glory.
I stayed in this group and consider it a defining event in my college experience my entire time at ACU. We always have some new people join each year but we had a core group that stayed together the entire time. The experience was great. Dr. Churchill would provide direction and would take charge of scheduling and travel arrangements and we would take care of everything else. Deciding on the skits to be done, the program format, who would speak, who would lead singing, who would preach and so on.
Around the end of my sophmore year Dr. Churchill moved the outreach group from 5th and Grape (also known as 5th and Gripe) to the16th and Vine church (what is it with these church names?) and we hardly seemed to miss a beat. Between the outreach group, the bible department at ACU, and word of mouth I was busy preaching in quite a few places. Whenever possible, I’d always have a car full of people and we’d head out for some memorable experiences.
Like the church that had 6 people - 5 of whom were women. Our posse double attendance that morning. The one man in attendance didn’t want to do anything publicly so my roommate led the singing, prayed and served the Lord’s supper, while I preached, prayed, and served the Lord’s Supper. The church ladies were very sweet and hospitable. After the service the leading lady came up to me and said something like "now you all go on down to the gas and sip, fill up your car and eat lunch have them put it on (and she gave her name) ’s tab. Cuisine at the gas and sip consisted of fried chicken and potato wedges. Yes, it’s true! I once got paid in chicken.
One Sunday, I think it was in Coleman, Texas our posse arrived at the church I was supposed to preach after some struggles with the map and difficulties finding the place. Every church in town seemed to be a nondescript red-brick building. We found the street and found the church on the corner and started to head in with the other members right before service was getting ready to start. A person, who now I believe was probably the preacher, met us at the door and welcomed the sight of college age students coming to church. I introduced myself and said, "I’m here to preach this morning." I didn’t catch it at the time but the look on his face was one of extreme confusion. We made our way inside, picked up a bulletin that I scanned for the order of service (to see if the sermon was before or after communion) sat down in a pew and looked up. There in the front of the auditorium was a massive pipe organ. We all looked at each other and it we all knew - we were in the wrong church. As the service began to start we quickly got up, shuffled out the back and made a run for the car. It turns out the church we were supposed to be at was on the other corner of the street. I’ve always wondered what happened when we exited and what happened with the person whom I informed I was there to preach.
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I hope Josh doesn’t read this … he’ll be packing up and headed for that church in Texas that pays in chicken! That would draw him into full time ministry like nothing else!
The first church I preached for on any kind of regular basis (7 years) started with mostly women and five men. Two were elders, two deacons, and one came regularly but had no involvement in leading anything publicly. There were more than a few Sunday nights and Wednesday nights when I was the only guy in the audience and had to “do it all.”
Do you still bully other preachers? I don’t remember you ever walking into Long Beach and announcing “I’m here to preach” but I’m sure you wanted to!!
Good memories.
Wife’s dad had the same experience with the organ, somewhere in TN when he was at Lipscomb. He asked the preacher where the coc was, and made his way to the right speaking engagement.
So, you are not alone…
I organized a trip from our church to raft the Ocoee River in TN. We went to church in Bryson City, NC. As I was leading a caravan of cars to church I pulled into the wrong parking lot belonging to a Baptist Church. Our caravan made a U-turn in the church parking lot, waved at the Baptists sitting outside the church smoking cigarettes, and drove across the street to the Bryson City coC.
When I went down to Texas to “audition” for the youth minister, we pulled into the lot where we had been the day before of the church and parked. We got out and walked into the side entrance and walked toward the great music we heard.
We entered the auditorium where their “praise band” was rehearsing and kept walking right out the front entrance.
We were in the Baptist church…it turns out that all the churches are built by the same architect. It made for a wonderful opening joke for my sermon that Sunday and I got the job.
What great stories…………..yours and from those who’ve commented!
The church in my home town of Corning, Arkansas, as I recall the story, was begun by women only. With no men present, the women DID do it all.
This post made me think and smile about a recent occurrence at my own congregation. We were planning a Ladies’ Breakfast, and the speaker is a friend of mine and Doris’ whom we’ve known for many years. She’s the wife of a preacher who served at a congregation where we attended for a long, long time. Well, some of our men planned to serve at the breakfast and hang around and clean up while Peggy spoke to us. (The kitchen and fellowship area being all right together, they couldn’t clean up without being in the same vicinity with us once the devotional part began.) I spoke up and told them that she would not open her mouth and say a word as long as a single one of them was within hearing distance! I don’t think some of them believed me, but our preacher checked with the other husband/preacher, and I received affirmation!!
:)