# 23, January 2, 2003

Twenty-seven Shepsons Celebrate the New Year

Members of the SSBSC began gathering at 9 PM on December 31 at PH and Brenda's home. One of the first members to arrive was Wayland Andrews. Wayland must be a Virginia Tech (Hokie) fan as he watched the Tech vs. Air Force Bowl Game from 10:30 PM until the start of the fourth quarter. He had other male Shepsons to join him at various times to watch the game. There was a lot of delicious food and tasty beverages brought by many Shepsons. One highlight of the evening was the playing of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant. Some Shepsons worked on a jigsaw puzzle and others just talked and talked. Teacher Bob and Julia were present for the entire celebration. Also we were honored to have Pastor Jim and Lee in attendance for most of the evening. Many were brave enough to take PH's SSBSC 2002 Trivia Quiz. Others took John and Margaret Oliver's Older Than Dirt Quiz. Appropriate beverages were served just before midnight and we watched Dick Clark describe the dissension of the ball at Times Square. At the stroke of midnight, Shepsons shared the moment with enthusiasm. Thus, PH believes that the fourth annual SSBSC New Year's Eve Social was a success.

The SSBSC 2002 Trivia Quiz will be sent via a separate E-mail as well as some photographs.

SSBSC Missionaries Bill and Charlotte Announce Goals for January '03

JANUARY IS ISH EMERGENCY DUFFEL BAG TIME.

EVERY SUNDAY MORNING IN JANUARY OUR CLASS WILL PROVIDE FREE DUFFEL BAGS AND SHEETS WITH SIZES FOR EVERY AGE BOY AND GIRL FROM INFANT THROUGH 17 YEARS.

CHOOSE A CHILD, ANY AGE, ANY SEX, TO HELP. IF YOU WANT TO TEAM UP WITH A FRIEND, PLEASE DO.

PURCHASING CLOTHES AND TOILETRY ITEMS AT FAN-TASTIC THRIFT, DOLLAR TREE, AND TARGET USUALLY RUNS $30-35 A DUFFEL BAG.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO SHOP, CHARLOTTE AND BILL WILL SHOP FOR YOU, BUT THE HANDS-ON EFFORT IS WHAT BRINGS THIS PROJECT TO LIFE. IT IS ONE OF THE MOST URGENT NEEDS, WHICH ISH FACES.

Bill and Charlotte Announce SSBSC Missionary Goals for 2003

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND!

The ISH Duffel Bag Campaign in January will be followed by:

An Easter Basket Campaign from mid-March through mid-April

A Wal-Mart Emergency Certificate and Diaper Campaign in June

A School Supplies Campaign in July and August

A Winter Coats and Jackets Campaign in October

Coordinating an ISH campaign provides a great opportunity to experience first-hand the widespread generosity of the River Road Church family.

If you would enjoy coordinating an upcoming campaign, please see Charlotte and Bill for information and heart-warming stories.

Prayer Rounds

PH has received a request from Margaret Phelps to place Chester's father on our prayer list. A portion of Margaret's letter reads:

Dear Henry,
"I would like for the class to add Chester's father to the prayer list. He has Parkinson's and is in a nursing home in New York. At age 87, he has stopped eating and drinking, and there are to be no extraordinary measures taken (feeding tube). We believe that he is tired and has decided to leave on his own terms. We don't know how long it will be - we were told of his condition on the 4th of Dec. and nothing seems to have changed much. So, we are in that place that most of us face, knowing that sooner or later we will get the phone call. I would appreciate prayers on behalf of the family as this progresses. Becoming the senior generation is not easy."

PH also received a grateful letter from Linda Mears.

Linda's letter to the class reads:

"We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and we pray for a wonderful 2003 for each and every one of you. You will never know how much your love and prayers have meant to us both. Rick is having a very good week and we are extremely hopeful and excited to see what 2003 holds for us. May God bless you all,"
Linda Mears

SSBSC Tar Heel Missionary Mel Has a mild disorder. He got a new laptop and now has tendonitis.

Sheila Marsh communicated last Sunday that Terry's mother has made an amazing recovery, but that the rest of Terry's family could benefit from prayer.

Dorcas Fowler returned to our class last Sunday. PH learned recently that Dorcas had polio while she was in nursing school. She is having some signs of Post Polio Syndrome in left lower leg. She is improved from her recent injury and had a unique walking stick with her last Sunday.

Please remember Chester's father, Rick and Linda Mears, Mel Torstrick, Terry Marsh's family, Dorcas Fowler and those only known to you in your prayers.

Near New Year's Babes

Donna Brown and Judy Morris are twenty-nine today (January 2) and Judy Morris will be twenty-nine on Saturday. Judy brought her wedding photos to the New Year's Eve Social and PH can testify that she looks the same today as she did on December 26, 1959. And Dick looks almost the same.

Pastor Jim Retires in Four Weeks

After thirty-one years and two months of devoted service, Dr. James H. Slatton will retire as the pastor of River Road Church, Baptist. Our church will be fifty-seven years old this spring. Our church was only twenty-five years old when Jim became our pastor. PH has enjoyed a friendship with Jim all of these years and PH is sure that most of your have had the same experience.

James Hoyt Slatton was born on January 15, 1933 in Fort Worth Texas. A sister was born fourteen months later. When Jim was four and a half years old, his mother died from pneumonia in the years just preceding the discovery of antibiotics. He lived with his maternal grandmother for a short time and eventually went to live with his paternal grandparents. Loving extended family members surrounded him. He could go from relative to relative and get a "meal or a spanking." His grandparents' home in Cisco Texas initially did not have electricity. Jim did have the experience of riding a lot of horses. When he was nine years old, Jim's father remarried and he went to live with his father and his new stepmother in Greenville, Texas. When he was twelve years old, the family moved to Dallas Texas. His father was in the funeral home business. In Dallas Jim met Jerry Gilmore who would become a life long friend. Jim and Jerry "threw papers" together. In high school they both became members of the Adamson High School debate team. They both were on the national champion high school debate team. In a sermon earlier this year Jim mentioned with honor the high school teacher who was the debate team coach. His name was Carl Nutley. Jerry Gilmore became an attorney and is now a mediator in Texas. Because of his success in debating Jim earned a debate scholarship to Baylor University.

During his Baylor years in the summer of 1953 Jim accompanied a revival team to the Ocean View Baptist Church in Norfolk Virginia. Jim and Lee first met at this revival. Lee attended her first year of college at Greensboro College and then transferred to Baylor. Jim earned his bachelor's degree from Baylor in the spring of 1954. On October 13, 1954, Jim and Lee had a date. They went to a football game. On July 21, 1956, Jim and Lee were married. After graduating from Baylor Lee taught music which she continues to do to this day. During his student days Jim was a monthly preacher at the Fate Baptist Church in Fate, Texas. Jim earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree (now called a Master of Divinity) from Southwestern Seminary in 1957. He served as pastor of the South Lancaster Baptist Church in Dallas until 1960 when he accepted the call from the First Baptist Church of Alta Vista Virginia. Jim and Lee worked together at this church from 1960 to 1967. During these years their three children Stewart, David and Elizabeth were born at the Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg. While serving in Alta Vista Jim completed his doctoral work and earned the Doctor of Theology degree from Southwestern Seminary in 1965. His thesis was on the separation of church and state including work on Roger Williams and Isaac Bacchus. While living in Alta Vista Jim found time to serve on the volunteer fire department. In 1967 Jim and his family returned to Texas where Jim became the pastor of the Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas. In 1971 the Search Committee of River Road Church, Baptist called Jim as our pastor. Thus, this Texas native who married a Virginia native returned to Virginia and preached his first sermon at RRCB in late November 1971.

How could PH or anyone begin to summarize what Jim Slatton has done in his service to this Body of Christ? PH cannot remember even one boring sermon. The level of intellectual, scholarly, and spiritually challenging sermons over these three decades plus is beyond measure. If your religious pilgrimage has been molded by Jim's sermons, then you are a better follower of Christ. Jim seems to always be available. His energy is immense. The number of weddings, funerals, memorial services, baptisms, devotionals, counseling hours, and church meetings is beyond comprehension. Despite his accomplishments over all of these years Jim has been a shepherd to his flock and done so with great humility. Jim and Lee have lived in the same house for thirty-one years. Lee has taught piano to countless students over all of these years. Throughout the years of Jim's pastoral career, Lee has assisted behind the scenes. She has taught children and adults, played the piano for various church activities, and has been her own person.

We will all join in celebrating Jim and Lee's service to RRCB during this month. We will likely also experience a rare form of mourning. There really is no replacement for Pastor Jim but our hope, faith and prayers are with the Pulpit committee to find a new and worthy Shepherd for this flock. PH believes that you would all agree that Pastor Jim is a deserving Shepherd for Eternity. Words do not provide enough recognition, but a simple "Well done, good and faithful servant and Thanks Be to God" for Jim Slatton.

As you all have probably learned by now, PH saves a lot of E-mail letters. A little over a year ago when RRCB was acknowledging Pastor Jim's thirty years of service, PH first learned about Jim's early experience at Fate Baptist Church in Fate Texas. I wrote Jim an E-mail and he responded with candor, humility, and some humor. I hope he will forgive me for sharing this letter with PHA readers. Jim's E-mail of 12/11/01 reads:

"And yes, I remember Fate. It was a "once a month" charge with a union church. Each of the four denominational sub-groups, Presbyterian, Methodist, Disciples, and Baptists had a pastor who came one of the four Sundays of the month. I was a student at Baylor and generally went home to Dallas and rode out on the bus or train to that cotton-growing farm community on Sunday morning early. The standard drill was a morning and evening service. The evening service occurred at "dark-thirty," i.e., fluctuated as to time of gathering with the season; later in summer, earlier in winter. In other words, church had to take place after milking time. They paid me a little stipend. I usually ate and spent the early afternoon with one of the farm families, and on rare occasion I spent the night before with a family.

Fate was northeast of Rockwall, some twenty or thirty-something miles or something like that from Dallas. Now it is more or less a suburb of Dallas--Rockwall I mean--and there is a lake out there. Years later, Marina Oswald, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, married one of those Fate farm boys. That's the last time I remember seeing Fate in the newspaper.

I had that "pastorate" from about my sophomore year at Baylor until sometime during my first year of seminary when I took charge of a church in south Oak Cliff, another Dallas suburb. Of course, the charge included the very occasional wedding or funeral. Fifth Sundays there was Sunday school but no worship service. The congregation was pretty well mixed among the four denominations almost any Sunday. One had to be a little ecumenical not to run into the sensibilities of the non-Baptists, so maybe that was a good preparation for River Road much later.

Those good people out there must have put up with some pretty sophomoric elements in both the preaching and every other aspect of the ministry. I've often thought of the debt most Baptist preachers owe to the long-suffering people in the little churches that are served by such incompetents as I surely was. That was the Baptist way...most college and seminary students headed for ministry held revival meetings and took on pastoral charges wherever we could."

Jim

The source of information regarding Jim's life before coming to RRCB is his spouse of forty-six years. PH apologizes for any possible errors in gathering this brief piece.

Poor Henry's Archives

December 26, 2002
December 19, 2002
December 12, 2002
December 5, 2002