In the Ministry
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Forty three
years as an active minister of the United Methodist Church! As I look back,
that's half of my life as a minister and more when you include my earlier years
as an active member of the Church. It has been a long and productive life as I
preached the Gospel, administered the sacraments, shared in the good and bad experiences
of my flock and sought to live by the rules and ordinances of the church and
scriptures to which I committed myself at an early age. There
were mountain top experiences delineated by difficult
and lonesome valleys. Now, as an old man, I look back across those years and not
only do I sigh, I also gasp.
My ministerial journey began in the summer of 1950. I was a seventeen year old who had been in the church all my life. According to my mother, as an infant, I nursed in the church. Ours was a religious family, we supported the church with attendance on Sundays and Wednesdays and our pastors were frequently in our home to visit and for Sunday dinner. My father, the town Postmaster, at one time or another served every office in the church with the exceptions being the president of the United Methodist Women and the pastor. Dad conducted the funerals for many of the outstanding citizens of our town.
I felt the Calling very strongly and committed my life to full time ministry.
I became a licensed local preacher that winter after completing the year long
course of study in barely five months. I was totally committed. Several of the
older ministers in the area gave me opportunities to fill their pulpits
and with every opportunity, I grew in Grace. I finished high school and attended
a teacher's college not far from home. I experienced frustration for the first
time. The Korean was was in full blast and many of my friends and colleagues had
enlisted or been drafted. Two things happened about that time, I fell in love
with the daughter of a Methodist minister and my frustration with the Korean
conflict boiled over into a decision to join the military. I was accepted by the
Navy to become a Hospital Corpsman. After finishing boot camp in San Diego California,
I was transferred to Bainbridge, Maryland for Hospital Corps School. Between
completion of Boot Camp and the beginning of Corps School, Margaret and I were
married. She came to Bainbridge and I buried myself in the books. I completed
the Hospital Corps School in the top five in my class and was given the choice
of available duty stations. I chose the U.S. Naval Hospital, St. Albans, Long
Island, New York. St. Albans was somewhat of a clearing house; six months and
you were on your way to sea duty, foreign shore duty or work in a state side
Navy dispensary, or hospital. I applied for and was accepted to the Operating
Room Tech. school and completed the school sharing first place. I was at
St. Albans for eighteen months and transferred to the Field Medical Service
School at Camp
Pendleton, CA with the Fleet Marine Force. I became a FMF Devil Doc! Upon completion
of the school I boarded a ship for either Japan or Korea. We were told that the
Marine Corps would let us know when we got there! I disembarked at Kobe,
Japan and joined The Third Marine Division, Third Regiment, Head Quarters and
Service Company. I landed in the Main Sickbay. The commitment to ministry was
being replaced for medicine. I had 17 letters of recommendation for medical
school. I was doing my best to leave ministry for medicine when a strange visit
from the Holy Spirit changed my goal back to Ministry where it has been ever
since.
For 43 years I served
the following churches in the North Alabama Conference of the United
Methodist Church: Phil Campbell, Pleasant Hill, and Cherokee, all in the
Florence District. Falkville in the Decatur District. East Gadsden in the
Gadsden District. Saks in the Anniston District. Huguley in the Roanoke
District. Eleventh Avenue, Fairfield First and St. Johns in the Birmingham
metropolitan area. Finally, Aliceville in the Tuscaloosa District. eleven
churches in 43 years.
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