11 ~ A Pastor Set for the Chaplaincy
Faye and I went to the home of a former church member in Corsicana to listen as the president made his declaration of war on December 8th. As we listened to FDR on the radio describing the sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor, we knew our lives would never be the same again. We were right. We moved on to Baylor University to enroll in preparation for finishing my schooling and my plans to become a chaplain. We found that things were changing rapidly at Baylor. For one thing we moved into a better apartment at 1807 South 11th Street in Waco. The very spirit of the campus had changed because of the declaration of war. All of us at Baylor in the forties were affected; many Baylor men and women were to serve bravely in far away places like Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Normandy, and almost every family had a Gold Star buddy, neighbor, son, or sweet heart. Virtually every able-bodied man was enlisted to fight for peace. At home we planted Victory gardens, bought war bonds, saved paper and tinfoil, “praised the Lord and passed the ammunition.” Like the rest of the country Baylor went all out for victory.
~ As the war deepened shortages increased. In the dorms the man-shortage was the most evident. Students gave blood, volunteered for Red Cross work, mailed packages to service men, enrolled in military training, and wrapped bandages. We were so young and so serious. There was no football at Baylor. The “Good Old Baylor Line” was on the front lines. But we went to the movies, watched the documentaries, listened to big bands on the radio, and saw Hollywood’s version of the war with Dan Andrews and Betty Grable. I was to find that the war made a personal imprint upon my life, for I learned that my friend Carl E. Webb, one of the young people in East Tyler Baptist Church, had fallen as a result of Pearl Harbor. He went down with the U.S.S. Arizona.
~ Rationing affected us all. Items were rationed only with books, stamps, or tokens plus cash. The restricted goods included meat, fat, sugar, coffee, butter, cheese, shoes, metal appliances, and gasoline. Car owners were limited to three gallons of gas a week. I went before the gas rationing board, however, and received a special stamp that indicated I could buy more gasoline because of my duties as a pastor at Cayuga.
~ In spite of rationing and other problems, the church at Cayuga continued to flourish. Our Sunday school and Training Union were growing; we were having record attendance. The Baptist Standard had a nice write-up about Cayuga, indicating we had 204 in Training Union. Only 26 churches in the entire state had more than we had. I continued to carry my academic load at Baylor trying my best to finish my work that academic year, pausing to observe the Christmas season with special programs such as Christmas caroling with the young people and a White Christmas offering. The year ended in a blaze of glory with a special watchnight service where I presented a “Review of Reviews of 1941.” I recorded the program, and others might not have been impressed by it, but it made an impression on me as I followed the various news accounts during the year leading up to Pearl Harbor and the war.
~ The New Year 1942 brought several unusual services to our little church. The government gave us a time change, so we set our watches up one hour to what was to be called “war time”. At the brotherhood meeting on the twentieth day of the New Year, I brought a message on “Christian Citizenship in a Modern World.” Because I was weary of getting out the church bulletin with a duplicating machine, I led the church to begin using the back page of The Baptist Standard for their church page. This was started February 26th. Bear in mind I was continuing to carry my load at Baylor and drive back and forth from my preaching appointments. While at Baylor I had taken a course on journalism under Professor Burckhart. It was one of the most refreshing courses I took because it was practical and pointed out the need of pastors having the right relationship with newspapers and how to write articles for the paper and get them printed. This course has been a great help to me through the years. I would say that any pastor needs to have the right relationship with the local paper and he will get a lot of publicity and can promote his church.
~ Another thing I used in that first full-time pastorate was letters of appreciation. Since I was busy with school and the pastorate, not being able to visit all the members I would write certain men in the community. For instance I would say,
“Someone has said when flatterers meet the devil goes to dinner. These were words well spoken. Someone else has said give flowers to the living. I trust that you shall not consider this letter simply written to flatter but as a deep sincere word of appreciation. Since I became your pastor, time and time again I have heard your name spoken of as being a high example of Christianity. Often when I go about doing personal work, someone has mentioned your name as being a real Christian. Even today as I visited with one man urging him to line up with our church, I found that you already urged him to do so. I want you to know I appreciate this good work that you are doing. And thank God for the influence your life has had for the kingdom cause. Often we wait too late to tell the appreciation for others. As your pastor I count it a privilege to work with men such as you. I want you to know I am praying for the loved ones you have mentioned to me. If I can be of any other service command me at anytime. I am your humble pastor, Lester Morris of Judson Baptist Church, Cayuga, Texas.”
~ I also wrote in the pages of The Baptist Standard,
“Dear fellow church member: Just a moment–may I express to you my deep appreciation for the privilege of serving you as pastor? You have helped to make this the most useful year of my life. As I view my first year, I feel that you as an individual member have helped me perhaps more than I shall ever be able to help you. Due to the fact of a busy pastorate and a growing church, added to my duties of attending Baylor University, I have not had the privilege of visiting in many of your homes. This I hope to do in the near future. If I can serve you in any way I trust that you will feel free to call on me. Not being a pastor, you will never know the joy that he has when he sees his congregation gathered for worship on Sunday. When you are not there he feels your absence. Won’t you this Sunday be among those who are present for all the services of the church? The year has been a happy one. Personally, I am looking forward to even a greater year. May God’s blessings be upon you.”
~ On April 16, The Baptist Standard back page of Judson Baptist Church had this headline, “Sunday School breaks all records attendance last Sunday.” The article included these words,
“With a record breaking crowd Sunday morning for Sunday School, the Judson Baptist Church began one of the most outstanding Sundays we have witnessed in a long time. There were 165 present in our Sunday school. The services continued with greater numbers coming in all the while. At the preaching service almost every seat in the house had been filled. The power of God was with us in the preaching service as the pastor preached on the subject, “A Love Letter from a Missionary.” Our people were helped. At the close of the service several of our members decided to join the great number of tithers in our church and have a greater part in the whole program of Christ.”
~ I learned in my journalism class at Baylor that people delighted in seeing their name in print. Therefore I tried in The Baptist Standard each week to carry some paragraphs with the names of people I had visited and a few words about them. For instance,
“We visited a while in the W. D. Durham home last week and found Mrs. Durham suffering very much with her recent illness with the mumps. Mrs. Durham had previously thought she had had the mumps. Now she knows it. She is able to be up and plans to be at church next Sunday. We visited a while last week in the Will Fitts residence. I am sure that every member of our church will join in praying with the pastor for Mrs. Fitts recovering in her hour of illness.”
~ Many good comments were made by our members in this our first church. My journalism course at Baylor was helping me with insights and information. I used the back page of The Baptist Standard sometimes to do a little preaching. For instance, here is a column that I wrote on a Sunday night after a day at the church:
“It is Sunday night as I write this. The last car has left our church service long ago. Silence sits upon the darkness of the night. I sit alone in my study. As I glance to my left, only the dark outline of the Cayuga public school can be seen. To my right is the giant outline of the trees that grace our church lawn, but as I glance in my heart I can see without obstruction the events of a great Sunday. What an abundance of God’s blessings have been ours! What a delightful fellowship existed in our Sunday School! Not as many present as we might have had, but a good school. Started well–a great crowd was on hand for preaching service. At first we wondered why some of them could not have made it to Sunday school. Yes there were visitors with us. Glad to have them. Especially glad to have one of the boys who is fighting for our country. Always glad to have visitors. And in the preaching service we preached on Barnabas, a good man. His spirit—Christ’s—walked the aisles and mood in one.”
~ I actually wrote the names of people that I had visited with during the week, and I also wrote names of some of the men that were absent. I had great boldness and sometimes in my zeal I failed to realize that sometimes listing the names when people were absent from church was not a good thing. I closed the paragraphs in the paper by saying,
“The crickets have stopped now. I just hear the sound of my typewriter as it clicks over the page. It has been a good day, a good service. When Van Deman told us he had to go back to Ft. Seal, Oklahoma next Tuesday, we were anxious to baptize him into our church before he left. Baily Brunts was baptized too. He told me yesterday that he had been called for his first physical examination for the Army next Tuesday. I sure was happy to baptize both of these fine young men.”
~ My appetite for being a chaplain was whetted when I received a letter in October 1942 from the headquarters of the 57th Signal Battalion, Office of the Chaplain, at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts. The chaplain told of a young man who had been converted whose relatives were a member at the church at Cayuga, and this Baptist chaplain had been asked to perform baptism. He wrote,
“I talked to him and I am certain that he has found Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord. He is one of the most sincere young men in his faith that I have ever seen. Therefore on the basis of his profession of faith and of his baptism which took place in Massachusetts October 25, 1942, I recommend him to the fellowship of your church for membership. These grown men who are making their decisions for Christ while they are in the Army need your help and your encouragement, and I feel sure that you will extend the right hand of fellowship to this young Christian since it is impossible for him to present himself in person.”
~ The chaplain signed his name to the letter, and of course our church was happy to receive the soldier into the fellowship on the basis of his public decision to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. The idea stayed in my mind and as I say whetted my appetite to become a chaplain. Now I discovered that to be a chaplain you had to be twenty-four years of age. That shook me up a little bit because even after I finished the current year’s work at Baylor I still would not qualify because of my age—just 22 years old.
~ The year 1942 rushed by as I continued to drive back and forth to Baylor and kept a busy schedule. Then, during the summer months, we discovered that we soon would have a baby moving into the parsonage. This meant that during my last term, the fall term of 1942, Mrs. Morris would have to stay at the parsonage while I drove back and forth to Baylor. We rented out one room to our music teacher in the local high school, Miss McGowin, who kept Faye company during the days when I was not there.
~ As the year 1942 came to a close, I received a surprise letter inviting me to preach at the First Baptist Church of New London. D.W. Honeycutt had met me when I was pastor of my first church, at Angus, and through the years he told me he had wanted me to be his pastor. So as chairman of the pulpit committee he asked me to come and preach in view of a call. On the sixth of December 1942 I preached at New London, Texas, on the subject “Amazing Grace.” That was the morning service and that night I preached on the “Prayer of David.” The Lord gave us nineteen decisions on that Sunday. Evidently he was putting his blessings upon the call, for on the following Wednesday New London called me as pastor. As I struggled with this decision, I came to the conclusion that New London was in the will of God and that I would accept the call. World War II was raging, and I felt this was an opportunity for me to work in the Lord’s vineyard until I came of age for the chaplaincy.
~ On the very day that I preached at New London for the first time, the air forces of eight allied nations struck Nazi-occupied France in the greatest daylight bombing raid of the war. On that Sunday evening as I sat in my study listening to the night’s sounds, the distant oil well pump, a far- away cow bell, and several crickets outside the window winding their watches. There in the silence I realized I was resigning my first full-time church. I slowly typed this letter,
“As you know my ministry at Cayuga is about to come to a close. I cannot let this happy fellowship come to an end without expressing to you my deep appreciation for the many happy moments that I have spent serving this church as pastor. As I leave it is my desire to urge you to be faithful to your church. The future indeed is bright for its continued success. In order for Christ’s kingdom to continue to grow and win souls, it is necessary in these days for you to give your wholehearted support to the church. The Lord is counting on you to be faithful in your attendance, financial support, and most of all your prayers. I am sure you are vitally interested in your church going forward and will want to do your best to see that it continues to grow. With the closing of my twenty-one months with you, I have no regrets, but the very deepest of love for the people of Cayuga. I have made mistakes, many of them, but if I know my own heart they have been mistakes of the head and not of the heart. As we approach this particular season of the year, when we celebrate the birth of our Lord, it is the desire of Mrs. Morris and I to wish you and yours a Merry, Merry Christmas. As the New Year comes may it bring victory for you. It is our wish that you enjoy good health and the presence of Jesus in your daily life.” Your Pastor, Lester L. Morris
P.S. My farewell message to the church will be delivered Wednesday night December 30 at 7:30 p.m. I am hoping you will be there.
~ For my farewell message I used Acts 20:17-38, which is Paul’s last address to the church at Ephesus.