I grew up in the Reynolds United Methodist Church. My mom had her kids there every Sunday morning. We even joined the real faithful on Sunday night. We also joined the real, real faithful on Wednesday nights. When they had church we were there. It was as simple as that.
In the Methodist church, they swap preachers out at least every four years. Sometimes if the offerings were down and the preaching was boring, a preacher might be out of there in two years.
The first preacher I remember was Charles Hillis. This very popular preacher came to Reynolds in the late 50’s as a young man with a young family. I’m not sure if his flock in Reynolds had anything to do with his decision but after he did his time at the Reynolds church he left the ministry and became a medical doctor.
It was Virgil Culpepper’s lot to follow the very popular Charles Hillis. Brother Culpepper was an older man and if I remember correctly he only lasted a couple of years. I’m not sure if the offerings were down when he was in charge or not. I always figured his demise came when he got the deceased confused with one of the pallbearers on one particular funeral he was conducting. To everyone’s horror, he preached the funeral for the wrong man.
Walker Whaley took over after Brother Culpepper. Brother Whaley was the first preacher I had ever known to smoke cigars. He even smoked them in his office at the church. Brother Whaley had a son who lived in New Jersey who was a FBI agent. His son would later move back to Dublin and write a few red neck books. His name was Bo
Whaley. I shared the stage with him a few times at different speaking events in the last few years and we discussed the years his dad lived in Reynolds.
Tegler Greer came along after that. He was the preacher in charge during my very important teenage years. Father Greer, as we called him, served the complete four year term and maybe even stayed over an extra year or two. There is no doubt the congregation, the church coffers and the population of heaven increased during his tenure.
Bernard Henry came next and again he had a difficult time following the very popular Tegler Greer. Daddy made a huge mistake during Rev. Henry’s first week in town at the golf course. Daddy had invited the new preacher out to play golf on Thursday afternoon (my dad’s regular golf day) not knowing that Rev. Henry had never played golf in his life. Of course, Daddy paid for Rev. Henry’s golf and then had to go out and take four brutal hours to get through nine holes. The real challenge came the next Thursday and the next and the next. Rev Henry joined daddy every Thursday to play golf and every time he would sign up and tell the golf course manager, “Ed will take care of the bill.” Daddy never told me, but I always wondered if daddy (Ed) had something to do with Rev Henry’s short tenure in Reynolds.
Daddy and his good friend Roy Jones took Brother Henry on a dove shoot one afternoon. Like the golfing, they had no idea he had never shot a gun. The three of them drove up to the dove field and before Daddy and Roy could get out of the car they were jolted when they heard Rev. Henry’s shotgun go off. They thought he had shot himself. They jumped out of the car expecting the worse and couldn’t believe Brother Henry’s response: “I was just testing the gun to be sure it worked.”
Brother Henry’s sermons must have been pretty boring for a high school student. I remember my Mom coming out of the choir (with choir robe on) right in the middle of the Sunday sermon, grabbing me by the arm and taking be down to the front row in front of God and everybody to sit by myself. I don’t think Brother Henry missed a beat. He kept right on preaching. Mama made a spectacle out of me because she saw me laughing. Alan Whatley was sitting on the pew in front of me and during the last song before the morning sermon, I place a golf tee, sharp point up, in a perfect spot on the pew while Alan was standing. When Alan sat down he jumped right back up and yelled at the top of his lungs – golf tee snugly in place.
I don’t think Mama ever knew why Alan hollered so loud. I got in trouble for laughing…and my goodness I laughed that day.
I got in big trouble during the spring revival meeting during Brother Henry’s tenure. Mama was feeding the preacher and his wife, the revival preacher and his wife and the song leader and his wife. She had the formal dining room fixed perfectly for the dinner. I put a whoopee cushion under the seat cushion in the chair where the visiting preacher would sit. All the honored guests gathered around the table and stood as Brother Henry said the prayer. They all sat down at one time. The noise of the whoopee cushion could be heard all over the house. Nobody made a single comment about the apparent flatulence of the visiting preacher.
Mama had a lot to say about it after they left.
(To be continued)
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