Granny Atkinson

The first great influence on my life was my grandmother, Granny Atkinson, as she was known to her 20 grandchildren. Granny was my day-care provider until I started school and my after-school-care provider until I was old enough to fend for myself. To the five youngest grandchildren (myself, my brother Tracy, our three cousins Ronnie, Scott, and Steve) Granny was the axis that our world revolved around. Our parents worked in town. Granny’s house was our home from morning until night. The five of us were as close as brothers in our pre-school years and in the summers.

It amazes me when I think back to my childhood and realize just how much our world has changed in the last forty years. Granny and Granddaddy were farmers in a poor, rural, South Georgia county. They farmed 140 acres of row-crops, cows, and hogs with the help of my Uncle Junior. They lived in a four-room frame house with no indoor plumbing except for a sink in the kitchen. As I got older and saw the homes of folks in town I thought that my grandparents must have been extremely poor to have still been using an outhouse in the 1960's and 70's but as I think back, I realize that of our nine closest neighbors only four had indoor bathrooms; those four being the houses that were built in the early 60's and financed by the Farmer’s Home Administration which would not offer financing unless the home met their specifications.

Granddaddy had suffered a severe stroke when I was around two years old leaving him nearly blind and with limited hearing. When we came into the room he may confuse me for Scott or Ronnie for me, but we would walk him across the road when the cows came up to water and he could tell you exactly which cows were his and which were Uncle Junior’s. One of his favorite things was to watch wrestling on TV. He would pull his rocking chair up to within an inch or two of the old RCA black-and-white set on Saturday afternoons and watch Florida wrestling on channel 6 right after lunch and Alabama wrestling on channel 4 later in the afternoon (right after the Gene Reagan Farm Report and just before Lawrence Welk). There was never more physical activity in that house than when Granddaddy got that chair rocking as Terry Funk and Jack Briscoe or Dick Dunn and The Wrestling Pro went at it. As weak as he was, I would have pitied The Masked Yankees or their manager J. C. Dykes if W. C. Atkinson, Sr. could have gotten his hands on them.

If I were in charge of dictionary illustrations, there would be a picture of Granny Atkinson next to the entry for "saint". Granny raised seven children and most of her grandchildren, keeping the house in order, feasts on the table, and doing whatever she could on the farm. Our first real jobs was helping Granny pick up pecans. I don’t know how she persuaded five pre-school boys to help, but we did.

Every day after lunch (dinner is what we call it) Granny would lay out quilts on the floor and five boys would nap. As we napped, Granny read her bible. I don’t believe there was ever a missed day. She would underline scripture. Practically her entire bible was underlined. It would take me nearly 40 years to learn the value of daily bible reading.

In those days visiting was still a regular practice. It seemed that everyone who passed by on the road would stop for a while and visit on the front porch. Many people stopped to buy some Watkins products. The Ladies Auxiliary of Hebrew Freewill Baptist Church sold these products as a fund-raiser. Granny kept cases of Vanilla Extract and Lemon Flavoring at her house and folks would come by to get some when they needed them. She also used those flavorings in the magnificent cakes that she would bake from time to time. I would love to have one of her Lemon-Cheese cakes right now. I have the recipe, but when she wrote down the ingredients, she didn’t write down the quantities, so I have not had much luck at replicating exactly her recipe.

Granny was what we call in our church a "quiet disciple". Full of faith and humility, she quietly witnessed to her children, grandchildren and everyone she met. Several cousins and an aunt are still active members of Hebrew Freewill Baptist Church. My daddy was baptized and joined that church just weeks before he died. I am sure that Granny cried tears of joy in heaven that day, just as we did here.

The Heroes of Prevenient Grace

The Grace of our Lord finds many paths into our lives. The method most common to all is probably our conscience. Everyone has an inner awareness that tells us that some things are right and others are wrong. We also are aware that failure to do certain things or to act in certain ways is wrong.

Another pathway of grace is through our experiences. The Spirit can be seen in both good and bad experiences. We may not always recognize the workings of the Spirit at the time, but many times, looking back, we can plainly see that certain experiences point us toward God or bring us closer to dependence upon God.

But to me, the most obvious tool used by the Spirit to bring grace into our lives is through the people who influence our lives. Not only the folks that we normally consider to be Christian witnesses, but everyone who has an impact on our life.

I am going to begin with my very next post a series of essays about the people who have had a hand in making me who I am today. My heroes.

Sunday School Lesson: Saying Goodbye

Purpose: To help us embrace the joy and grief of ministries completed and the anticipation of ministries to come.

Scripture: Acts 20:17-38

What are some of the events of life that you think would be the most stressful?

Psychologists have a list. It is called the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale. This scale lists 43 common events in most people lives and places a score on each. This scale can be used to gauge the amount of stress in a person’s life at any given time.

What do you think would be the top ten?

1. Death of spouse – 100
2. Divorce – 73
3. Marital separation – 65
4. Jail term – 63
5. Death of close family – 63
6. Personal injury or illness – 53
7. Marriage – 50
8. Fired from work – 47
9. Reconciliation – 45
10. Retirement – 45

Of those in the top ten, how many relate in some way to a separation from those we love or a goodbye?

Why are goodbyes so stressful? What are some ways we can cope?

If you knew that today would be your last day with a person or group whom you love very much what would you want to tell them?

As Methodists with our itinerant preachers, this lesson may remind us of real-life goodbyes. Think about the ways that our churches say goodbye to leaving pastors as well as how we welcome new pastors. Many churches face similar situations as members are called into ministries or missions that take them away from the home-church that they know and love, but also the church that may have nurtured their faith to the point of being called into ministry.

Do we normally have some feelings of grief when we have to say goodbye to a popular pastor or loved member who leaves our fellowship to follow a call to ministry?

What about when we lose a member for some other reason? Suppose a member chooses to leave our fellowship for some reason that we may consider trivial. Do we grieve over those goodbyes?

What kind of send-off does your church give to a leaving pastor or to someone on his or her way to the mission field?

Background:
Paul had completed his third missionary journey and was making his way back to Jerusalem, wanting to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost. Paul wanted to visit with the elders of the church at Ephesus, but to save time he had them to meet him at Miletus, a port city approximately 30 miles from Ephesus.

Paul’s ministry in Ephesus is recorded in Acts 19. His stay in Ephesus featured both successes and failures. When Paul arrived at Ephesus he found "disciples" there who had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul preached in the synagogue there until forced out by detractors. After that Paul taught the disciples for two years in a lecture hall at a local school. During this two years "all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord." Paul performed many miracles during this time. At the end of this time Paul decided to travel to Macedonia and Achaia, then to Jerusalem prior to going on to Rome. Before Paul left there was some rioting in the city. The riots were started by silversmiths whose profits had been declining because of the preaching of Paul. The silversmiths main product was idols of the goddess Artemis. As the people of Ephesus learned the Gospel and the dangers of idolatry, the demand for silver idolatrous ornaments was greatly lessened. The rioting may have also led to the meeting at Miletus instead of in Ephesus.

Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
(Act 20:17-24 ESV)

Paul says that he served "with humility and with tears". Why does serving God involve tears?

Several things about this speech from Paul stand out:

• This is the only example in Acts of Paul’s pastoral teaching to Christians. All other speeches in Acts were evangelical speeches given to non-believers.
  
• Due to the nature of the audience, this is one of few speeches given to a totally friendly crowd. The non-believing crowds ranged from keenly interested to greatly offended.
  
• This speech is amazingly consistent with the content of Paul’s epistles. Luke makes no mention of the epistles in Acts. Some similarities between this speech and the epistles are: Paul acknowledged the criticism he received from the church; suffering that he had experienced; his concern for the poor and needy; the fact that he had been self-supporting through his trade of tentmaking.
  
• This speech also has parallels to the final words of Jesus to the disciples as recorded in Luke and John: they will soon be separated; they will experience sorrow due to this separation; God’s Word and the Holy Spirit will them to carry on; they will experience problems from within and without; they both predicted their own future suffering; they both blessed those gathered around for their farewell.

From The New International Lesson Annual ed. by Nan Duerling:

When a pastor leaves a flock, there is always a momentary concern: Will there be faithful leadership for the congregation? Whether a new pastor arrives immediately or a lengthy delay separates the time between pastors, congregations are equipped with leaders. Frequently these leaders have a blessed opportunity to receive their new responsibilities and authority directly. That’s what happens in this farewell speech: Paul hands over responsibility and authority to the elders from Ephesus. This transformation is graceful, yet firm. Grace abounds as Paul acknowledges the spiritual maturity of the leaders. Have you ever noticed the tendency of contemporary leaders to notice their (elders) deficits rather than their attributes? Imagine having a beloved pastor shaking your hand while saying, "I’ve shared the whole purpose of God with you!" Surely, such knowledge is sufficient for the leadership challenges ahead.

And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
(Act 20:25-28 ESV)

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
(Act 20:36-38 ESV)

What most saddened the group of elders?

How did they display their love for Paul?


Then Paul went down on his knees, all of them kneeling with him, and prayed. And then a river of tears. Much clinging to Paul, not wanting to let him go. They knew they would never see him again--he had told them quite plainly. The pain cut deep. Then, bravely, they walked him down to the ship.
(Act 20:36-38 MSG)

From the "Wesleyan Christian Advocate":

Paul’s closing act of ministry with the Ephesian church was to kneel and pray for the people who came to be with him. They embraced Paul, and Paul embraced them. They Ephesians wanted Paul to feel their love and support for him in the future, and Paul wanted them to know of his continued love and concern as they carried on the ministry of Jesus Christ.

"They walked him down to the ship" (Acts 20:38, The Message). One can imagine that long after they could hear the shouts of farewell as the ship moved away from the port, there must have been hand waves shared until they could only see a speck of the ship moving completely out of sight. All that remained were the memories of times shared together and feelings that each one cherished. Those gifts were blessings that would continue to empower the church and the people of Ephesus.