November 17, 1999

1930-1939: Texas Baptists
refuse to give in to Depression
___By Stephen Stookey
___Texas Baptists entered the 1930s under the ominous cloud of the Great Depression. The economic crisis that gripped the nation tested the resolve of Texas Baptists.
___Facing debilitating debt, Texas Baptists rallied around their "assets," as outlined in a 1930 Baptist Standard article by L.R. Scarborough--local churches, institutions, missionary organizations, publications and people. These "assets" carried Texas Baptists through one of the most challenging decades of the 20th century and proved the mettle of

JOHN AND MARY HARDIN gave sizeable financial gifts in 1934 to both the Baylor College for Women and Simmons University. Both institutions changed their names to reflect the gifts, Mary Hardin-Baylor College and Hardin-Simmons University. (Photo: Texas Baptist Historical Collection)

Baptists in the Lone Star State.
___The most influential event of the 1930s was the Depression. Debt and budget shortfalls defined the era, leaving churches struggling to stay open and Baptist General Convention of Texas ministries and institutions fighting to survive.
___1931 closed with the convention $55,000 under budget in receipts and $1 million in debt. In 1932, W.R. White, chairman of the BGCT Finance Committee, warned the Executive Board financial collapse would occur within five or six months if the budget were not matched to income. J. Howard Williams, general secretary of the BGCT from 1931 to 1936, guided Texas Baptists through the lean years of the mid-1930s.
___Drastic measures were initiated. Program budgets were slashed, salaries cut and staff laid off. Williams did manage to retain funding for a "rural evangelist," an action that helped many rural churches survive the lean Depression years.
___So gaunt was the state budget that when Williams and George Mason, the convention's treasurer, traveled by train on BGCT business, they rented and shared a single Pullman bed. One would sleep half the night and awake to allow the other a few hours of rest.
___But by 1936, the BGCT was on the road to recovery. The Executive Board reported Texas Baptists possessed the will and the power to give. Ministries were restored to full strength.
___Texas Baptists did not let the Depression deter them from supporting Southern Baptist ministries beyond the Lone Star State. They remained strong supporters of the recently established Cooperative Program. The Depression broke neither the spirit nor the vision of Texas Baptists.
___Funding and promotion were key to the survival of the BGCT in the 1930s.
___The BGCT's vast territory created difficulties in promoting and enlisting leadership. Many churches either did not know about BGCT ministries or did not feel a sense of ownership in programs developed by state leadership. A small percentage of churches supported BGCT mission causes on a monthly basis. For example, of the 3,105 Texas Baptist churches in 1928, only 414 contributed monthly.
___Noting this disparity Williams devised a plan to place Texas associations into 17 "districts" to promote convention programs and enlist leadership --an administrative plan already employed by Texas WMU. The "Williams Plan" deployed district missionaries. Their work fostered greater participation in and sense of ownership of state ministries, fueling growth in support for the BGCT.
___R.C. Campbell, general secretary from 1936 to 1941, oversaw the BGCT's fiscal recovery and expansion of ministries at the close of the 1930s. Campbell inaugurated the annual Evangelism Conference--still a focal point on the BGCT calendar. Interest in Brotherhood, church music and heritage resulted in new organizations.
___WMU's vital role was well established by the 1930s. While Mary Hill Davis' 25-year tenure as president of Texas WMU closed in 1931, Texas Baptist men had been unable to sustain a program of their own, but a state leader of laymen was employed in 1938, when R.A. Springer added the job to his duties as treasurer. Almost 700 Texas Baptist churches had organized Brotherhoods by 1939.
___The seeds for the 1945 creation of the BGCT church music department were sown in the 1930s. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's I.E. Reynolds informed the 1934 BGCT annual meeting of the "dire need for improving the music program in the average church."
___The 1936 Texas state centennial celebrations sparked a renewed interest in heritage among Texans, Baptists included. Visitors to the Centennial Central Exposition at the state fairgrounds visited an impressive exhibit sponsored by the BGCT on Baptists and their contributions to Texas history. At least three publications also told that story.
___Building upon the wave of interest in heritage, the Texas Baptist Historical Society was organized in November 1938. Chartered with 30 members, the society continues to serve Texas Baptists by collecting, preserving and communicating cherished Baptist heritage.
___Texas Baptist schools, hospitals and Buckner Orphans' Home endured the financial pressures of the Depression and ended the decade poised for growth. The Baptist Foundation of Texas was organized in 1930 to invest and administrate trust funds established by generous donors for Baptist institutions.
___Texas Baptists operated nine schools in 1930, all of which were in need of increased funding and endowments, elevated enrollment and higher educational standards. Highlights of the period included the 1932 election of former Texas Gov. Pat Neff to the presidency at Baylor University, the renaming of Abilene's Simmons University in 1934 to Hardin-Simmons University in honor of donors John and Mary Hardin, the 1934 renaming of Baylor Female College to Mary Hardin-Baylor College in honor of Mary Hardin and the elevation of education at College of Marshall (now East Texas Baptist University) from a combined junior college/academy to junior college status in 1937.
___Southwestern Seminary, having been transferred to the SBC in 1925, continued its vital service to Texas Baptists. Allocated $152,000 in SBC funds for 1931, the Seminary received only $46,941, a pattern repeated often in the 1930s. The effective leadership of Southwestern President L.R. Scarborough, the determination of the faculty and students to stay with the struggling institution and the financial support of Texas Baptist churches and laypeople, who still thought of Southwestern as Texas' seminary, helped the Fort Worth school survive.
___The 1920s witnessed the rising influence of Texas Baptist leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention, and the trend continued in the 1930s. George W. Truett was completing a three-year stint as SBC president as the decade opened. Truett's service to the global Baptist family was recognized by the Baptist World Alliance in 1934, when it tapped the Dallas pastor as president. The decade ended with Southwestern Seminary's L.R. Scarborough serving as president of the SBC from 1939 to 1940.
___The 1930s began in the midst of the Depression, which portended a decade of debilitating despair and decline. The resilient spirit of Texas Baptists turned despair into hope and decline into advance. The decade closed with church memberships growing, finances improving, ministries expanding and institutions thriving.
___Stephen Stookey is assistant professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
___

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!