Tag: george w truett

Family Connection

Membership Record for Loys Arnold, First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas

Back in August I made a connection between my family history and my current place of service with Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

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.

“Learn to do well.”

Photo by ActionVance on Unsplash

This is how we are to learn to live. We are to have the right pattern. That pattern is Jesus. We are to have power, and that power comes from Jesus. And then we are to take the light and leading that Jesus gives, and we are to act up to the last limit of it, we are to practice it to the last chapter, and then we will learn to do well, and we will be doing well.

George W. Truett, “An Essential of Victory,” from On Eagle Wings: Fourteen Messages on Old Testament Themes

Truett’s text for this sermon was a select portion of Isaiah 1:17, which in the King James Version is rendered, “Learn to do well.” Other translations say learn to do good, or right.

Truett observes that we must not only learn to avoid evil, but to enact the good. He says, “There are two great aspects to the religious life. The one is negative and the other is positive.” We can mistakenly emphasize one over the other, obsessing over the avoidance of evil and refraining from actively doing good, or zealously seek to do what is right, while neglecting the renunciation of actions that run contrary to God’s will. In choosing the way of Jesus, we remain on his path. Other avenues are forsaken. Learning to do well involves gaining wisdom to distinguish good from evil, and to consistently desire and choose that which is of God, rather that that which is not.

Like many good preachers, Truett helps us remember how we are to learn to do well by using alliteration. Learning to do well involves a pattern, power, and practice. We look to Jesus as our model, but he is also our teacher and our helper, and we, being his students, are given opportunities to put what we learn into action under his loving and watchful eye.

Jesus made a claim in the gospels, spoken in various ways, that after he died and was raised from the dead, he would remain present with his followers. He will be with us always. When he departs, the Spirit would come. Jesus is the pattern. He supplies the power. We take up the practice. Let’s add one more word that starts with “p.” In learning to do well, his presence remains with us. For that, we can be thankful.