The answer to that question was no, but the archivist did find a bulletin from April 17, 1927, showing that Loys Arnold had been received for and baptized the week prior. There is a mark showing where his name appears under those baptized, but his name appears in the previous section, too. Search for it. You’ll see it.
The other two pages above are also from the church bulletin. Though it is blurry in this image, you can see that the home address and phone number of Pastor George W. Truett are listed, as is the contact information for other members of the church staff, including the pastor’s assistant, secretary, and the directors of youth and children’s ministries. What a time to be in ministry. You’ll also see the church’s “Invitation,” which reads:
To all who mourn and need comfort To all who are weary and need rest To all who are friendless and wish friendship To all who are homeless and wish sheltering love To all who pray and to all who do not, but ought To all who sin and need a Savior, and to whosoever will This church opens wide the door and makes free a place, And in the name of Jesus, the Lord, says
WELCOME
I like these words quite a lot, and I wonder how they struck Loys Arnold. Notice, these people do not claim to speak for themselves. They claim to speak for Jesus Christ.
I’m also impressed by the fact that the church’s weekly meetings are headlined, “The King’s Business.” Makes you think a little differently about what you are doing when you attend a Sunday school, go to worship, or join with a group or fellowship. The title puts you in a different frame of mind.
The church continues to be about the business of King Jesus. It is good, joyous, worthwhile, challenging, and everlasting work.
This happened in a staff meeting. Our team conducted a word association activity centered on the name of George Washington Truett. Most offered words like pastor and evangelist, and one noted that he was a fundraiser for Baylor University. Someone said something like staid; one of the photos of Truett hanging in our building is of him looking serious, as so many did when photographed in the olden days.
In 1891, Truett began working for Baylor and proceeded to raise $92,000 over two years to keep Baylor’s doors open. That year, Truett was just twenty-four years old. He had been ordained the previous year in 1890 via congregational discernment by the people of Whitewright Baptist Church in Whitewright, Texas. In 1887, Truett was called to serve as pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, where he would preach, shepherd, and lead for forty-seven years.
As we discussed Truett I recalled that my great grandfather, Loys Arnold, was converted to Christianity, baptized, and received as a member of First Baptist Dallas under the pastorate of George W. Truett in the 1920s. That night, I sent a general inquiry by email to FBC Dallas, asking if the church had a record.
I received an answer within a day. There it was. Loys Arnold was received for baptism on April 10, 1927, a Palm Sunday. Baptist people waste no time. He was baptized Wednesday, April 13. It was a good week for a baptism, with Easter straight ahead. Eight months later on December 7, 1927, Loys returned to Arp, Texas, where he would operate the Arnold Garage (the phone number was “1” for many years) and oversee a small Texas farmstead for the remainder of his days.
George W. Truett and the people of FBC Dallas made a difference in the life of my family. Now, I serve in an institution that is named in honor of George W. Truett. I’m thankful for that connection.
I support life in a free society. I support religious liberty. And I argue passionately for the liberty received and experienced through Christian faith, freedom from as well as freedom for. We start with the ideas. Then we build them out!
Last summer I shared a reading list we prepared for our children and how we planned to encourage, track, and reward time spent reading.
We still want our kids to read. They enjoy reading. We’re glad! And we’re already off and running in the reading department.
But this summer we’re facing a different challenge: saccharine substitutes for social interaction that are made available through technology. We limit screen time and only subscribe to a couple of different streaming services. Television is not our greatest temptation and is far from our default activity. Instead, our biggest time vortex is text messaging, YouTube, and a couple of other social media services. In our household we’ve limited access to social media, but we encourage our children to interact with their friends and stay in touch through a messaging app. We see the connections and conversations as positive. But we’re aware of the pitfalls.
What’s our foremost concern? At Forbes, psychologist Mark Travers writes, “Social media can create a false sense of connection and belonging. Online interactions lack the nonverbal cues, physical presence, and emotional intimacy that are crucial to building and maintaining meaningful relationships.” Online interactions are illusory. They aren’t a zero calorie substitute, but they are a lite version of social interaction. You feel like you are in community, but those connections lack the depth, satisfaction, and opportunities for growth in social aptitude that in-person interactions yield. We want our children to connect with other human beings beyond the limited capacity that the online spaces allow.
Many of our summertime in-person interactions are built into the calendar. We’re participating in camps, church life, teams sports, sending our kids to the pool, encouraging play with neighbors, trips, and family time around the dinner table.
But to make sure we’re balanced, we’re adding evaluation and intention to our weekly planning conversations.
What will we track, and how? Each week, Molly and I plan to cover a recurring to-do item during our weekly family meeting: “Evaluate Kids’ Total Social Interactions for the Week, Create Opportunities.” After taking a quick tally, we’ll adjust our plans accordingly.
Routinely taking stock will help us see how we’re doing. Locking down screens is a step in the right direction. But we have to do more than cap screen time. We’ve generated a list of activities our children can choose from (with their help) during downtime. However, we’ll also proactively plan time with friends, people they’d like to deepen their relationships with. We’ll invite their input along the way.
A little bit of boredom is okay. Boredom is often the first step on the way to expressions of creativity. We want our kids to rest, unplug, relax, and find renewal during the summer months, too.
We also want them to learn the art of conversation, to make connections, practice friendship and develop social skills. The best way to do that is presence with people. As parents, we create those opportunities for connection. That’s our responsibility. Then, we cross our fingers. The rest is up to them.
A few weeks ago our family visited a nearby church on a Sunday morning. Following the service of worship, we were delayed long enough in the foyer/lobby/narthex area to catch the eye of one of the ministers serving on the staff. This person approached us, smiled, and introduced themselves. This is a very large congregation, and, as such, the greeting was hedged softly by an acknowledgement that we might have been around the church for a very long time and had not yet met, or maybe even that we had met, but the meeting was not recollected. But if we were new, this person would help us get connected, and by connected, this person meant involvement in a Sunday school or a small group.
At this time, our family had only recently entered a change in circumstance where we are no longer tethered to a local congregation. Molly nor I are on a church staff. We’re now free to visit congregations as we decide, and so far, we’ve chosen to visit friends serving in various places throughout our community (we enjoy encouraging pastor friends) or attend a service of worship where our children will see their friends. Molly is an elder in the United Methodist Church, and though she is not appointed to a pastorate, she is a member of the Central Texas Annual Conference, and soon she will join the membership of a local Methodist church.
Back to our Sunday morning visit. The minister greeting us asked us, repeatedly, if we had a “church home.” We evaded. We dodged. We dipped and sidestepped and deflected and qualified. It was only later we realized we didn’t have an answer, and that our lack of an answer yielded a lot of confusion.
We do have a “church.” But we do not have a “church home.” We are not members of a local fellowship. Not at present. We have not been in this position in twenty years, where we were actively discerning with whom to join in ministry apart from a designated or assigned or appointed pastoral leadership position.
I think church membership is important, even if the meaning of church membership is seldom explained or considered in depth. Anyone who professes Christ, who is a Christian, is a member of the body of Christ, and is, therefore, joined to his body. Membership formalizes what we believe to be true through faith.
Membership carries with it not only certain rights, such as the ability to vote on congregational decisions, but responsibilities, such as demonstrating maturity in Christ, evidenced by humility, servitude, gathering with the fellowship for worship, giving generously of one’s resources, practicing hospitality, knowledge of the Scriptures, engaged discipleship, fervency in prayer, passion for evangelism, fruitfulness in ministry, and more. Formally joining a local body is aligning oneself with a theological reality. When I have met a Christian person who is a consistent visitor in any congregation where I’ve served, I have encouraged them to join, not only as an encouragement to the existing membership, but as a means of accountability and edification for the person yet to join. Strengthen the tie, and you up the stakes.
As we look ahead, I am resolved to be prayerfully discerning, seeking, and focused regarding church membership. We are not looking for a “church,” or even a “church home,” even though I know what is meant when we are asked such things. Rather, I am looking to join a membership. I am looking to be a participant in congregational life, not a resident, or, worse, a consumer. What am I looking for?
Christlike character displayed by those in leadership.
An inner confirmation from the Spirit of God.
A commitment to discipleship among congregants and pastoral leaders.
Humble sharing of the gospel, and a desire to see others come to faith.
Preaching of the Word.
A love for children, and a respect for the aged.
A worship leader wearing trendy sneakers, a tastefully untucked flannel shirt, and a ball cap with appropriately worshipful tilt. Very low on the list of priorities. So low as to be nearly imperceptible. (I jest. I jest. About which part? I’ll leave you to wonder.)
Other things. Many other things.
Finding a church is easy. There are many churches.
Belonging to a church isn’t hard. There are many degrees of belonging. You can visit and be welcomed. You can become a longtime attendee and feel you belong.
But committing to a church, and serving in a way that builds up the body, that’s a challenge.
Our family longs for stability. We seek consistency. We want to be rooted. We even want a faith community that feels like home, even while we’re contented with having a church.
Wherever we land, if that church is to become a home, it will need ministers (and members) like the one I described in my opening paragraph, people who are courageous enough to walk up to a stranger, extend a hand, share a smile, offer a greeting, and serve as a shepherd. Churches cannot become homes, for anyone, without hosts, without those who in small ways image forth the Christian conviction that God came in Jesus Christ to expand the household of faith, and that Jesus went to his death, and was resurrected, to go and prepare a place for us, to claim and welcome us, to embrace us as God’s beloved, members of an eternal family, companions on the road leading to the New Jerusalem, and citizens, now, in the kingdom of heaven.
This past Monday morning my son went out the garage door to shoot hoops before school. As soon as he exited the door, he re-entered the house, and shouted up the stairway, “Dad, we got a breeze!” After playing an early afternoon soccer game with temperatures in the upper 90s on Saturday, and enduring another warm day on Sunday, cool air settled over Central Texas Monday during the overnight hours. During my morning walk, it was 57 degrees. I wore a vest for the first time this fall.
David’s eruption of enthusiasm for the change in weather has remained my favorite moment of the week. I already knew the weather was cooler before he announced the fact. But his discovery and declaration warmed my heart. It is as though he walked into something that was too good not to share with another, and the other he chose was me.
I found this moment an entryway into meditation on praise and celebration and gratitude, on awe and wonder and childlikeness. We had found ourselves in a prolonged heat wave and then woke one day to find moving air that no longer felt like a blow dryer but instead relieved and refreshed our bodies. Without announcement, conditions changed. The realization was felt before it was thought. I wonder if that is what it was like when a lame person Jesus commanded to stand up and walk stood up and walked, or a man with a withered hand stretched out his arm and found strength, or a blind person commanded to see opened their eyes and perceived. First, incomprehension. Then delight.
The day’s graces are not always a cool breeze, so evident you cannot miss them. But sometimes they are. And when they are, we not only invite others to share in our joy. We return thanks to the gift giver. We praise the Lord.
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