Altar
Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter
Albritton
May
22, 2016
Homecoming Sunday
still means a lot to some folks
Homecomings are for old-timers. Young folks could care less; they just go
along for the ride. Yet an annual Homecoming Sunday still means a lot to the
older generation.
Old folks enjoy seeing old friends and
laughing about the changes the years have brought on. But young and old enjoy
the food, a gracious spread of mostly delicious covered dishes, everything from
black-eyed peas to banana pudding.
I don’t remember my home church growing
up ever having a homecoming Sunday. But the country churches I served as a
young pastor introduced me to the importance of this special day. The plan
included inviting an old former pastor back to preach. He would spin yarns about
the good old days and exchange war stories with the old codgers. Kids stared at
him, asking their parents who the old guy was.
Kinfolks who had moved away drove back
to the old home church for homecoming. They reminisced about how things used to
be and remembered friends who had died. Often there was a cemetery near the church
where people strolled around reading grave stones.
After church people gathered outside
under big oak trees where several long tables were laden with food. You fought
flies with one hand while eating with the other. A gentle breeze brought praise
for the Lord’s kindness. Everybody ate too much but nobody was ashamed of it.
And there was enough food left over “to feed an army.” Caring women fixed
plates of food to share with homebound persons or the sick.
After lunch we returned to the sanctuary
to enjoy some gospel music. A quartet would shake the rafters with some
foot-tapping singing while Mama banged away on the old piano. Soon everybody was
smiling, singing and sweating – all the while stirring the air with a funeral
parlor fan since there was no air-conditioning.
The gain may have been modest but those
old-fashioned homecomings did make a difference. With the church full of
people, folks took pride in the progress they had made – perhaps a new air-conditioned
fellowship hall or a newly renovated sanctuary. These days we don’t fight flies under oak trees.
We eat just as much but we do it in air-conditioned comfort.
On the first Sunday in June Dean and I
are going to an old-fashioned homecoming at the country church where it all
started for us in 1953 – Neal’s Chapel United Methodist Church. I am eager to
find out how this small congregation is doing – and wondering what changes have
occurred in 63 years.
We moved into the parsonage of the LaPlace Circuit on September 5 and I preached my first two
sermons at Neal’s Chapel the next day, two because they had both morning and
evening services back then. In addition to Neal’s Chapel, the circuit included
four other churches – Bradford’s Chapel, LaPlace
Church in Shorter, Union and Mt. Meigs. Except for
Mt. Meigs, near Montgomery, the churches were all located
in Macon County. Our mailing address was Route 1, Milstead,
Alabama.
We began our ministry in September
rather than June because the pastor of the circuit suddenly resigned in August
and moved away, without I was told even saying goodbye. I was a junior at
Auburn University at the time and given this awesome responsibility by the
presiding elder, Dr. W. F. Calhoun. I knew absolutely nothing about being a
pastor, nor did I know how to write a sermon, conduct a worship service, a
funeral or a wedding. That did not deter the good Doctor Calhoun. I guess he
figured I could learn on the job as most student pastors did in those days.
I began printing bulletins on a
mimeograph machine on Sunday, October 25, which was my Sunday to preach in
Bradford’s Chapel. My sermon that morning was titled “All the Way In.” It was
probably a sermon I had “borrowed” from Clovis Chappell.
To this day I remain overwhelmed by the
kindness and patience of the people in those churches who put up with a poor
student pastor who had so little to offer them. So on June 5 I will be thankful
once again to express my gratitude for the dear saints whose love and
encouragement motivated me to learn at least a little about the role of a
pastor. + + +