06 ~ Pre-war Pastor, Husband, Student
It was on September 11, 1938, I preached my first sermon at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in view of a call. Mt. Zion was located in Cass County just over the Marion County line. On Monday September 12 I returned to the College of Marshall where Mrs. Morris and I were enrolled for the fall term. It was not until September 27 that I learned I had been called to pastor Mt. Zion Baptist Church on a full time basis. Thus I had a half time church in Angus, Texas, and full time church at Mt. Zion in Cass County. Brother James indicated that the church would call me as pastor for the coming year. Those days Mt. Zion issued an annual call. Of course I was delighted to accept the church and begin my ministry that gave happy memories to me.
~ I recall the times when on Sunday morning Mrs. Morris and I would assist in cleaning the church before the congregation got there. Being new and inexperienced about the community, I recalled that we made one grave error. We decided that the piano was on the wrong side of the church and moved it to the other side of the church, whereupon the congregation got there, and we discovered that it was displeasing to the congregation since it had always been in that spot from which we moved it. At our next preaching appointment the next month, we found the piano moved to its original place. It was a lesson that was very valuable to me. I learned early that a congregation should be consulted in each decision.
~ I was impressed with the way the people gathered early for the services. Sometimes I would have to go out to the edge of the burial grounds to remind the people it was time to start the service. They seemed to take pride in visiting the graves of their loved ones and kept the cemetery in those days in splendid order. I recall that they paid me about seven dollars a trip while I served as pastor. On one occasion around Easter 1939 because of a tragic car accident that took the lives of several in the community, Hoyett Lemmon’s brother was the treasurer of the church. He did not attend that Sunday and I was not paid on the occasion. He made a special trip to Marshall the following week to deliver the pay to me, which was a Godsend and enabled us to buy the groceries for that week and to pay other expenses.
~ Mt. Zion gave me many lessons, and since Faye had not grown up in a religious background, certainly not knowing about being the wife of a pastor, we learned many lessons. Some were very humorous. One night we were at church. Old Brother Tolson had led the singing, had become mixed up, and sang the same stanza twice. In those days the preacher was expected to furnish transportation for as many as he could to come to church and to carry home. That night we loaded several people in our car. We were driving down the road when I said, “Brother Tolson got mixed up on his singing tonight,” and there was a dead silence. Then a voice came from the back seat saying, “Well, Uncle Henry did the best he could do.” It was a valuable lesson to me, for I learned in a rural church never to talk about anybody because everyone is a relative.
~ I was married on August the 25th, and on September the 4th I had my first service as pastor of Angus, Texas, located just a few miles from Corsicana. What a grand service we had! And at the close of my first service as pastor, Faye and I received an old fashioned “pounding.” Thirty jars of canned goods and ten cans of “bought” canned goods. That very week we had a shower given us at East Tyler Baptist Church. We were well stocked with groceries by the time we moved. After the shower at East Tyler and the one given us at Angus, we were well supplied for our new home at 606 East Rainey Street in Marshall. We lived right next door to the College of Marshall mess hall.
~ We continued to grow in our ministry and learn spiritual lessons. Mrs. Morris was a good camper and adapted well. Maybe it was because of some of the early experiences. I’m thinking of one time when we were being entertained at the Emmitt James home. Early one morning we got up to eat breakfast and Mrs. Morris said, “Pass the oatmeal.” Mrs. James said, “Honey, it isn’t oatmeal. It’s gravy, it is a little lumpy.” Both of us learned the scripture admonition, “Eat that which is set before you and ask no questions.”
~ I shall never forget when before the year was out in 1939 that I was called as pastor of the Gresham Baptist Church near Tyler and offered my resignation as pastor of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church. J. Hoyett Lemmon, a small, freckle- faced, red-haired boy, rode on his horse to Brother Emmitt James’s home where I was staying and wept as he bid me goodbye. Later it was my privilege to perform his marriage ceremony when he was married at the church of Marrietta. Then it was with joy that I watched his progress through the years as he became an outstanding preacher. It was my privilege to be the guest speaker at the old Mt. Zion church when he celebrated his fiftieth year in the ministry in 1994. I shall let him tell his own story. He said, “I was saved at Mt. Zion in 1938, baptized there, and ordained there in 1946. I have asked a former pastor to be the special speaker on the day of my celebrating fifty years in the ministry.” At that time Hoyett said, “During the last fifty years, I’ve been in all the states, have been on all of the continents, and sailed the seven seas. I have been an evangelist for most of these years, and I make an average of fifteen states a year in my services. I’m hoping all of those who love old Mt. Zion will come and help a native son celebrate the milestone in the Lord’s work.” It has been a joy for me to watch the progress of this minister who was but a lad when I resigned the church at Mt. Zion.
~ Now I had two churches, Mt. Zion and Angus, and both of them had Saturday night services. I laughed about this at one time saying they wanted to get their money’s worth. So they had Saturday night services as well as Sunday.
~ On September 12, 1938, school opened at College of Marshall, and Faye and I both enrolled. I had been enrolled in the spring semester, and now the two of us living right on the campus were enrolled in the college. We attended classes, and then as soon as we finished on Friday we would take off for our preaching assignment. September 18, 1928, was to be an important day in my life, for at Angus I baptized my first candidates, Mr. Lonnie Bonner and his mother. We baptized in a “Blackland” tank. I bogged down past my knees in the process of baptizing.
~ The Blackland gave me some great experiences. When I first went to Angus, people told me, “When it rains, we can’t attend.” Well, I thought it was people like East Texans in Tyler who would make excuses not be in church when it rained. I remember carrying out my assignment. One weekend I discovered what they said was true, because I started across a road in a field toward the church and the black mud stacked up on every wheel. I found myself stranded. I had to get out and get one of the farmers who was a member of the church to pull me out. I never again doubted the people of the community when they said they couldn’t come to church when it rained.