15. Until the summer before I turned 14, my pastor was my brother-in-law, Dennis Waymire, my sister Patricia's husband. [1] He is a smart guy and through him I grew up with the holiness preaching of the early twentieth century Pilgrim Holiness Church. By the 70s, a good deal of the Wesleyan church had been changing. Women were increasingly wearing pants and cutting their hair. Younger Wesleyans were going to movies even though it technically was against the rules.
I grew up with the values of the earlier Pilgrim Church. I felt like I had an old soul. I felt awkward around my own generation. My parents were older when they had me. Their friends and heroes tended to be older. Three of my grandparents were born in the 1800s. I have sometimes thought of myself as a religious bridge to the early twentieth century.
There were some older Wesleyans in my home church. Fort Lauderdale was a place where some Wesleyans were going to retire. There was Clayton Luce, who was the brother of the founder of the Bluebird Bus company. He was an old time Methodist pastor deeply connected to places like Asbury College and Indian Springs Camp meeting. It was a treat to go out on his boat once. From him I believe I inherited some old volumes of Adam Clarke.
There were the Bradleys, another old time Wesleyan Methodist couple. My dad would become the executor of his will. From him I inherited some of the old time Methodist classics by Daniel Steele and other holiness writers of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
My brother-in-law's preaching was the preaching that these retired preachers remembered from the days of their youth. His library, rooted in the texts of Frankfort Pilgrim College and then Hobe Sound Bible College, were the classic holiness texts. It was in his library, I believe, that I was first introduced to the three volume H. Orton Wiley series on Christian Theology. From my mother's library, who had herself a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Frankfort, I was first introduced to Ralston's Elements of Divinity.
Another couple that attended our church in their retiring years were Ken and Marceil Bostic from Indiana. They would end their days at Colonial Oaks in Marion, where I got to see them in a different phase of my life. They were long time benefactors and supporters of Indiana Wesleyan and were delighted when I went to teach there.
16. I remember my sister telling me at the dugout of the 13 year all star baseball game that she, Denny, and my two nieces were moving to Lakeland to pastor there. That was a little sad. We had every Sunday lunch together with them. Every Sunday night we ate together after evening church, often at our house. I have good memories of the nights my dad would deep fry tacos.
Of course I can also imagine it is nice to have independence. I can imagine it would have been nice to have some Sunday lunches when it was just them.
Baseball was my go-to sport from farm league to little league. It was four or five years of baseball. I was all star every year. My first year was in farm league, and I played catcher all year. Then I played little league for three years, I think. One of my coaches called me "lightning" because I could often make it to first on a line drive to the left side. If they bobbled the ball at all or hesitated in the slightest, I was on base.
At some point I played every position. I only did pitcher one game in farm league. I may have experimented with the infield my second year but I was mostly a left or center fielder. I could get anything anywhere in my zone. One time a ball bounced off the left fielder's mit and I caught it between my legs. Another time in left field I lost it in the sun and got hit in the head.
My mother has memories of her father playing baseball at the property of R. G. Flexon outside Russiaville with all the Frankfort Bible College students there. He apparently had played baseball at Wabash College in the 00s.
17. After Denny left, our next pastor was Bob Weaver. He didn't stay too many years, but our church grew significantly. And he modernized us significantly too. Those were the years of Evangelism Explosion out of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Those were the days when John Maxwell began to dance with the Wesleyan Church.
I remember Maxwell coming to the Minister's Retreat while he was still in the Church of Christ in Christian Union. He made a joke about how much easier it was to say "Wesssleyan" than "churchofchristinchristianunion." We would use his materials that divided up the church into:
- Andrews - the evangelists
- Timothys - the disciplers
- Barnabases - the encouragers
- Abrahams - the prayers
I think I may have heard that this was originally an idea of Keith Drury. I could be wrong. I participated, going door to door evangelism with a mentor. "If you died tonight, would you have the assurance of going to heaven?" I don't know that we got a lot of results from that approach.
Weaver started a bus ministry. At its peak, we had two buses going on a Sunday morning. I became involved with one of them. We would do door-to-door visitation on Saturday on eighth ave. Eighth ave was a very poor, mostly black neighborhood at that time, as I remember. On Sunday mornings I was a runner. I would run to the door, knock. Then run back to the bus.
We sang all sorts of fun songs in those days. "Oh, you can't get to heaven... on a 747... oh, you can't get to heaven on a 747. Oh you can't get to heaven on a 747, aren't no airports up in heaven. All my sins are washed away I've been redeemed." We had a pretty vibrant children's church too.
I remember going skating once. Going to a skating rink was a little controversial, I guess mainly because of the kind of people there. I remember them playing secular music at the rink--"Kiss on My List." I remember one time he had a contest and the winning team--maybe whichever group of kids brought the most visitors--got to throw water balloons at him dressed up like a clown.
Bob was also CCCU and from Ohio. I have little doubt but that he had taken a few lessons from John Maxwell. There were of course comments about how the church declined in attendance after he left. Some would say you shouldn't build a church on gimmicks or around a personality.
Of course God gives us all different gifts. He had gifts. I don't think he did anything wrong. There are likely people in the kingdom of God today because of his ministry. He was probably more of a salesman than I would be as a pastor.
But there were other pastors after him under whom the church dwindled to almost nothing. Did they serve God better? Whether we like it or not, some people are more gifted at attracting people to church than others. That doesn't make them more or less spiritual, but their ministries will generally grow more.
"Principled" people often complain about them. "People shouldn't come to church to be entertained." No, but don't complain that no one comes to your church if it's boring. If your services are boring, chances are your church will dwindle. Just the facts, ma'am. Complain to God all you want as your church dwindles and dies.
18. My dad was a little off put by the fact that the pastor mowed his lawn in shorts, but he always cooperated as treasurer with whoever the pastor or district superintendent was. My dad was not someone who particularly liked change. As I've said, like his mother he was a book-keeper by personality. In the army he had ended as a Sergeant Major.
It was always amusing on trips when my mother would see something and suggest a side trip. He was much more interest in staying on task and getting to the destination. But he always did whatever she wanted. He might grumble about going to visit someone out of the way, but he was always glad after he did. In that regard my son Tom is a little like him, although Tom as yet is not a book-keeper. :-)
18. My education from middle school to high school was an incredibly exciting time of learning for me. In the next chapter I'll talk about how much I loved high school. I soaked up everything I could. My brain was a sponge, I remember such incredible stimulation with exciting new idea after idea. After the initial "I want to be a fireman." There was a brief "I want to be a nuclear physicist" then "I want to be a doctor, maybe even a thoracic surgeon."
My Christmas wishes were often books. Gray's Anatomy, The Anatomy Coloring Book, The Unabridged Webster's Dictionary, The Great Ideas set.
I worked in the office in the seventh grade at Sunrise Middle School. I did Junior Achievement (didn't enjoy it as much--we made and sold "frustration pencils"). In the summer after the seventh grade I took violin lessons at Sunrise. In middle school my mother continued to drop me off to school. They didn't want me to have to ride the bus.
Weaver started a bus ministry. At its peak, we had two buses going on a Sunday morning. I became involved with one of them. We would do door-to-door visitation on Saturday on eighth ave. Eighth ave was a very poor, mostly black neighborhood at that time, as I remember. On Sunday mornings I was a runner. I would run to the door, knock. Then run back to the bus.
We sang all sorts of fun songs in those days. "Oh, you can't get to heaven... on a 747... oh, you can't get to heaven on a 747. Oh you can't get to heaven on a 747, aren't no airports up in heaven. All my sins are washed away I've been redeemed." We had a pretty vibrant children's church too.
I remember going skating once. Going to a skating rink was a little controversial, I guess mainly because of the kind of people there. I remember them playing secular music at the rink--"Kiss on My List." I remember one time he had a contest and the winning team--maybe whichever group of kids brought the most visitors--got to throw water balloons at him dressed up like a clown.
Bob was also CCCU and from Ohio. I have little doubt but that he had taken a few lessons from John Maxwell. There were of course comments about how the church declined in attendance after he left. Some would say you shouldn't build a church on gimmicks or around a personality.
Of course God gives us all different gifts. He had gifts. I don't think he did anything wrong. There are likely people in the kingdom of God today because of his ministry. He was probably more of a salesman than I would be as a pastor.
But there were other pastors after him under whom the church dwindled to almost nothing. Did they serve God better? Whether we like it or not, some people are more gifted at attracting people to church than others. That doesn't make them more or less spiritual, but their ministries will generally grow more.
"Principled" people often complain about them. "People shouldn't come to church to be entertained." No, but don't complain that no one comes to your church if it's boring. If your services are boring, chances are your church will dwindle. Just the facts, ma'am. Complain to God all you want as your church dwindles and dies.
18. My dad was a little off put by the fact that the pastor mowed his lawn in shorts, but he always cooperated as treasurer with whoever the pastor or district superintendent was. My dad was not someone who particularly liked change. As I've said, like his mother he was a book-keeper by personality. In the army he had ended as a Sergeant Major.
It was always amusing on trips when my mother would see something and suggest a side trip. He was much more interest in staying on task and getting to the destination. But he always did whatever she wanted. He might grumble about going to visit someone out of the way, but he was always glad after he did. In that regard my son Tom is a little like him, although Tom as yet is not a book-keeper. :-)
18. My education from middle school to high school was an incredibly exciting time of learning for me. In the next chapter I'll talk about how much I loved high school. I soaked up everything I could. My brain was a sponge, I remember such incredible stimulation with exciting new idea after idea. After the initial "I want to be a fireman." There was a brief "I want to be a nuclear physicist" then "I want to be a doctor, maybe even a thoracic surgeon."
My Christmas wishes were often books. Gray's Anatomy, The Anatomy Coloring Book, The Unabridged Webster's Dictionary, The Great Ideas set.
I worked in the office in the seventh grade at Sunrise Middle School. I did Junior Achievement (didn't enjoy it as much--we made and sold "frustration pencils"). In the summer after the seventh grade I took violin lessons at Sunrise. In middle school my mother continued to drop me off to school. They didn't want me to have to ride the bus.
19. My final memory to mention in this period is my attendance of the 1978 youth conference in Urbana, Illinois. I hung out a little with the group from Trinity because my cousin Carl Shepherd was a youth sponsor. I remember Jimmy Johnson talking about what to do when you were tempted to lust after a girl. He suggested praising God. :-)
But as usual I felt rather alone for most of my time there. I think I rode over with the Trinity group and felt really out of place. My parents must have been in Indiana for Christmas, probably staying at my uncle Paul's house. He had a great house with woods in the back.
It seems to me I heard some more secular music I liked on that trip.
[1] For a short time, a man named Richner had been our pastor in Fort Lauderdale. I believe he was a Wesleyan Methodist originally who had been the founding pastor.
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