December 1, 1999
1960-1969: Texas Baptists
grab the Bible and hold on
___By Rick Willis
___It seemed as if nothing could be taken for granted any more in 1960s America. The country lurched across a span of extremes marked by assassins' bullets and footprints on the moon. Texas wound up tightly roped to many events of those years, so Texas Baptists did their best to grab the Bible and hang on.
___Baptists in Texas entered the decade full of momentum and commitment. Like Southern Baptists nationwide, the churches in Texas enjoyed a crest of growth during the '50s. In that triumphant, unified era after World War II, it seemed as if someone couldplant a sign on any corner in a Texas city, call it a Baptist church, then watch it take root and grow. In 1962, Southern Baptists surpassed United Methodists as the largest Protestant group in the United States--and the largest Southern Baptist church was in Dallas.
TEXAS BAPTISTS' RIVER MINISTRY got its start in 1967. This photo shows Texas WMU President Ophelia Humphrey, State Missions Commission Director Charles McLaughlin and Texas WMU Executive Director Eula Mae Henderson on one of the first River Ministry trips along the Rio Grande. (Photo: Texas Baptist Historical Collection)
___Well into the mid-1960s, the dedication of a new sanctuary or a larger educational space was depicted in the pages of the Baptist Standard almost weekly. Increases in the previous years positioned Texas Baptists to attempt great things in the "Decade of Decision," as the '60s were designated in the 1961 state convention theme. Major crusades to advance the gospel around the world and to improve Baptist higher education in the state were promoted by the newly reorganized Baptist General Convention of Texas. Fresh ministries that would long bear fruit beyond the state's borders were developed in the '60s. But the commitments of Texas Baptists did not proceed undeterred by the intense challenges of that period. It was a hard time.
___Social unrest in the whole country ripped at the seams of Texas Baptist life and likely contributed to the decade's reversals of postwar growth trends. The unresolved issues of racial segregation, which had seethed below the surface of the placid '50s, came to a head--sometimes violently. T.B. Maston observed as late as the mid-1980s that, while much progress had been made in desegregating churches in the state, the ideal of integration still had many problems to overcome.
___Another trauma of the '60s affected churches irrespective of race. The "generation gap" divided many young people from those who conformed to the moral and political mores of traditional America. Spurred by a spirit of blatant rebellion against the dubious Vietnam war, many young people made a wholesale rejection of the values of the "establishment," which led to epidemic drug abuse and sexual indulgence. Texas Baptist homes were not immune to these stresses.
___The tumult of racial, political and moral strife made church work hard. Pastors had to navigate through rough waters with much soul searching. Sleepless nights were spent praying and refining sermons that would appeal to congregations to drop racial barriers from around their churches. W.A. Criswell preached such a sermon in First Baptist Church of Dallas. Buckner Fanning, once among the Marine occupation forces in World War II, in a very different day found himself in the role of a pastor standing up for a conscientious objector to the military draft during the Vietnam conflict. He now describes the '60s as the toughest decade of his ministry.
___Divisions between conservative and liberal ideologists among Baptists in the state were clarified and widened in the crucible of the decade. In reaction to the upheavals of the day, more conservative thinkers were prone to give exclusive emphasis to evangelism as the purpose of the convention and the churches it served, and they heralded conformity in general and literalistic biblical interpretation in particular. More liberal thinkers were convinced social concerns required special attention, and they insisted that literalism obscured the real meaning and relevance of the Scriptures. While virtually all Texas Baptists could be rallied around political battles in Austin against legalized gambling and "liquor by the drink," more complex issues of racial prejudice, war and First Amendment interpretation revealed deep variances in the basic perspectives among the Baptist people of Texas.
___If high profile social issues tended to divide, high profile evangelism tended to unite. As executive secretary of the BGCT, T.A. Patterson followed through on an idea for an evangelistic crusade to Japan. The first New Life Crusade enlisted teams of Texas pastors, musicians and other church members to lead revivals across Japan in 1963. Terrific results were reported, and additional crusade tours were conducted in other countries of Southeast Asia. The Asian crusades were followed by others both in Texas and far beyond, paving the way for short-term volunteer missions programs such as Mission Service Corps and Partnership Missions.
___Readers of the Baptist Standard were reminded in 1963 that they were engaged in "another crusade" besides the one in Japan. Serious deficiencies in the resources of Texas Baptist colleges had been identified at the onset of the '60s. The BGCT attempted to boost the schools--which increased by two with the additions of Dallas Baptist and Houston Baptist universities during the period--by undertaking an ambitious $28 million development campaign from 1960 to 1965. The actual funds raised were dismally below the goal, and attempts to approve the use of federal loans to finance expansion were defeated. Many Texas Baptist leaders feared any compromise in the principle of church-state separation.
___A bright spot from the decade was the development of the River Ministry. One of the New Life Crusades, the Cruzada Bautista Nueva Vida of 1964, partnered Anglo and Hispanic leadership in Texas. Among the results of the work was a spotlight on the population along both sides of the Rio Grande boundary between Mexico and Texas.
___Hurricane Beulah in 1967 contributed to the development of a formal program of River Ministry, begun when Elmin Howell was appointed director of the work. The River Ministry has given incalculable progress to church work along the border, and it has given countless church members a way to reach beyond the offering plate and pick up Bibles, hammers and stethoscopes for first-hand involvement in missions.
___A similar highlight of the decade came from the launch of Texas Baptist Men. A study committee comprised of 50 ministers and 50 laymen presented a number of recommendations to the 1967 convention. One of the approved recommendations called for the Brotherhood department to be reorganized as Texas Baptist Men and relate to the state convention as an auxiliary. The change moved men's ministry in Texas from "meals and speakers" to mission action in building, Lay Renewal leadership and disaster relief.
___Some of the fissures opened in Texas Baptist life during the Decade of Decision would only grow wider. But the great contributions of River Ministry and Texas Baptist Men surely move a long way toward proving in practice that evangelism and social ministry can and should coexist.
___Rick Willis is pastor of First Baptist Church in Roscoe
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