June 1st closed our first year here as pastor of the Morehead Baptist Church. It has been a very pleasant year with a very gracious people. A church without spirits or factions or evidence of ill feeling, few in number but above the average in many respects, the work has been conducted to the glory of God, and not with just meager results.Morehead Church is the only active Baptist church in Rowan County. In this county, only eight people out of every one hundred are enrolled in any sort of a Sunday-school. This is not a bad county when considered in the light of morality and kindness, but there is rank indifference to the appeal of the churches. We depend largely upon the aid of loyal Baptist professors and teachers in Morehead State Teachers' College here.
The giving here is what we consider far above the average. A year ago there were thirty-nine resident members. Today there are sixty-one. The increase has been mostly in membership by letter and relation, but there have been choice spirits baptised.
Prof. R. D. Judd is the Sunday-school Superintendent. With an enrollment of sixty-five a year ago the school today enrolls 141. Our attendance this year has been going right consistently above 106, except on typical "off" days in a college town. Our greatest growth is in the departments from the Intermediate down. The college crowd fluctuates.
A year ago there was no active W. M. S. There is now one with practically all the available membership, and the writer believes that in quality of membership and work it is unexcelled in the State.
There was no B. Y. P. U. a year ago. There are two now, attendance of which has ranged, on an average, around forty to forty-five. In connection with this work we have tried a very interesting experiment. College towns have their own peculiar conditions. We found the old problem of keeping the young people for the evening service. So the pastor made a bargain with these young people. As a result this is the way it works:
The B. Y. P. U's have their respective programs for forty-five minutes. Then they come together in a closing exercise, at which time they make their reports, then they ask the pastor to preach for about fifteen minutes. At this closing exercise the adult membership and visiting attendants are present. The sermon is evangelistic usually with an invitation. Of course, some of my brethren, may say I have compromised. But during the year we have had only five people leave before the sermon. Three of those were strangers who had come their first time. Have we compromised?
There are nearly 900 pupils in the Morehead State Teachers' College. Although many of them do not attend any church, we have some splendid help from some of them.
Pastor Ralph A. Herring of the First Baptist Church, Ashland, Ky., came to us for a good revival in March. There were five conversions, four baptisms, and much strengthening of the church. He is really a great preacher, and Godly to the core. All kinds of adverse conditions met his effort, but the church is high in praise of his work.
Buell H. Kazee.========== [From the Western Recorder, July 16, 1931, p. 19.]
An earlier article:
Brother Buell H. Kazee asks that we announce that he is available for evangelistic singing. He has been for the past year head of the voice department of Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Ky.Brother Kazee writes: "I'm not interested in 'pep' rallies or stunt singing. If a preacher wants the Gospel sung quietly and from the soul I believe God uses me there. I am a Brunswick Phonography artist."
========== [From the Western Recorder, July 5, 1928, page 4. Documents provided by Ben Stratton, Farmington, KY. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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