Dad’s Last Sermon in Memphis

It has been over two years since I last wrote about my dad’s sermons.  I have mentioned in previous posts that my dad over his lifetime wrote over 750 sermons and that I am on a multi-year pilgrimage that I started in 2017 to read through them all in chronological order, one each Sunday morning.  And thanks to my dad’s organizational skills, that has been an easy task.

My dad was very organized indeed (one of his traits I am proud to say I have inherited from him)!  Dating back to his first sermon in 1949, each sermon he wrote was safely ensconced inside a numbered manila folder.  On the outside, he wrote the date, location, and time he preached that sermon, always at a different location (he apparently had no reruns, never giving the same sermon to the same congregation).  Over his lifetime, he served as a full-time Presbyterian pastor at seven different churches, thus the reason some of the sermons were given multiple times over his career.

You may recall at the time that I published that post in March 2024 (Dad’s Last Sermon Preached), I had recently come across his last preached sermon—the one that had been waiting for me since I began this pilgrimage.  As soon as I saw the date on the folder (2-3-2002), I suspected this might have been his last given sermon as its last date was barely a month before he died.  But I knew I had a second source where I could confirm if this was in fact his last given sermon.

I texted my siblings of my discovery and got responses from my sisters that it was around the 6^th of February 2002 that his health had dramatically deteriorated and by the 11^th he was heading to the hospital.  It was not long after our mom had died in 1999, that he had been diagnosed with melanoma cancer and had been battling that for almost three years.  He finally succumbed to his cancer on March 7^th, 2002.

Memphis was the next to last church that he served fulltime.  We moved to Memphis in July of 1970 and I have been reading through the ones he wrote for that Memphis congregation over the last several years.  In February of this year, I read the last one he gave in Memphis the same Sunday there was an afternoon reception for our family before my parents moved to Dad’s last church in Choudrant, LA.

Over the more than 10 years Dad served this Memphis church, he preached over 480 times.  Dad’s last day in the pulpit was November 9^th, 1980.  And the sermon he wrote and gave was one specifically for that congregation.

When I came across this one entitled “A Vital Church,” I wondered if I had heard it before.  In 1980 not long after our marriage, I became a Catholic, my wife’s lifelong religion, and we typically attended a Catholic mass near our midtown apartment.  But given that according to the church bulletin, there was a reception that afternoon at the church for Dad, I suspected I might have made a special effort to hear his last sermon there.

It was interesting that Dad started off this sermon about when he told the Associate Pastor about his decision to leave the church.  One of the questions he asked my dad was, “What do you think will be the reaction of the congregation?”  Dad’s response surprised me when he replied, “Some will be sad, and others will be glad.”

Dad went on in the sermon to explain that no pastor could expect to be very close to every member of the congregation.  While striving to show no partiality, Dad admitted that the needs of one family or individual were often different from others thus resulting in different ministry relationships.  Dad went on to explain that the ministry of the Associate Pastor was different from his and that he had become closer to some of the families and individuals my dad had not.

After his personal narrative, Dad turned to the main focus of his sermon on the Apostle Paul and the challenges he faced in establishing a church in Thessalonica (first and second letters to the Thessalonians).  Dad then pointed out and discussed the three key marks of a vital church: 1) a strong faith, 2) a growing love, and 3) a faithful endurance.  Dad closed the sermon by saying that his prayer was that this congregation would continue to cultivate these marks of a vital church.

Returning to what surprised me about this sermon in his saying there would be different reactions to his leaving, I don’t think I was aware of this.  Being a lifelong PK (preacher’s kid), I suspect these sentiments would never have been expressed in my presence as for fear of them making their way back to Dad.  But somehow, Dad learned of other member’s less favorable feelings towards him.

To my knowledge, this was the largest congregation Dad ever served so it no doubt presented its own challenges ministering to so many.  And it was also the longest time he had served a single church in his entire career.  So, staying for over 10 years, presented even more opportunities for difficulties to arise.

With me having been a member of that congregation for nine of Dad’s ten years, it was sad to read his response in this sermon and think about it.  But I do know that Dad enjoyed his last church in rural Louisiana.  And in some of his spare time there, he had the opportunity to cultivate some land for growing crops returning him to some of his roots growing up on a farm in rural Texas.

One last thing of interest to note is, as can be seen on the folder, Dad gave this same sermon to his last church just three years later.  Dad retired from full-time ministry at this church in 1989, but he must have recognized some similar trends and thus gave the sermon to that congregation to maybe head off the potential.  Or maybe to set expectations that he would likely minister to each family and individual differently as their needs dictated.

And with this being his last sermon in Memphis, I was entering the last leg of my multi-year pilgrimage in which I would be reading the sermons he wrote for that last rural congregation before retiring.  My family traveled there to visit them on occasion so some of these I may have heard before.  But for the most part, they will almost exclusively be new to me.

So, Dad I look forward to sitting with you each Sunday and reading your words from your last full-time pastorate!