God Our Keeper

Chapter III

It is known for certain the original name of our church was Ebenezer, which appropriately means 'God our Keeper', and that the church was organized prior to October 10th, 1845, since Ebenezer was represented at the Concord Association on that date. ¹ Unfortunately, many of the records of the Concord Association are now missing and this is the only record since 1841, when Ebenezer was not mentioned, of the specific churches represented. The representatives of the Claiborne parish churches, Rehoboth (Mt. Lebanon), Saline, Gilgal, Ebenezer, Holly Grove and Walnut Creek, were Richard A. Hargis and Arthur McFarland. It is quite likely these two served as pastors for all these churches, including ours .²

The 1840's proved to be an exciting decade. In 1845 Asa Whitney proposed the construction of a transcontinental railroad to connect the coasts, though soon the approaching shadows of civil war would halt the project for years. ³ In the same year the first mention of 'manifest destiny' was used by John O'Sullivan in calling for the annexation of Texas. The notion that we, as a nation had a right, a duty, to spread democracy across the North American continent gained wide acceptance and the move to the West began to increase. ⁴ More personally to those in this area, however, was the growing dissension between Baptists in Northern states and those in Southern states.

By this time, the various Baptist sects had more or less made peace with each other, agreeing to live and let live. Missionary Baptists had previously asked for and received financial help and missionaries from cooperative societies such as the Triennial Convention and the American Baptist Home Mission Society. ⁵ Though over half the Baptists in the nation were residents of Southern states, organization and authority generally remained in the North. Financial support for missionaries in the frontier areas began to dwindle and suspicion that funds were being diverted to less urgent causes in the North arose. This was soon coupled with the rising controversy over slavery and increasing reluctance of non slave owners to send funds to churches whose pastor or members might own slaves. From these controversial roots was born the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. Our own area remained suspicious of the new convention for some time and many area churches refused to support it due to the fear the convention would usurp their local authority.  

New churches continued to form, sometimes with as few as five or six members. Obviously, such tiny congregations would not be able to support a pastor alone and often shared pastors with other churches in the area. These new congregations were generally members of an extended family or close neighbors who were unable to travel to an established church for worship. As a result, believers would band together to form a new church. Eventually, the new church would seek recognition as a body and a presbytery of ordained men would visit the church to determine whether the new congregation would be invited to associate with its sister churches. Many new churches had no pastor at all to begin with and often went years before a pastor accepted the call of the church. In these cases, preaching would be done by various church members and visiting preachers. From these humble beginnings, however, came many fine preachers, among them Joseph Cox and Richard Hargis, both pastors of First Baptist Church, Homer.  

This period of time was a critical one for the new churches and many ceased to exist after a few years. It is not known how long Ebenezer church had been organized prior to the 1845 meeting of the Concord Association. The identity of the first pastor of Ebenezer church is not known, but evidence suggests George Washington Bains was probably the organizer of the church and possibly its first pastor. He was probably assisted in the early days by his brother-in-law, James E. Paxton and by R. A. Hargis and Arthur McFarland. ⁶  

During the period of time from 1845 to 1848, services for Ebenezer church were conducted in the home of John Murrell, Sr. After the move to the new town of Homer in 1848, services were held in William H. Maxey's Cheap Cash store, a log cabin erected on the southeast corner of the square. ^{7, 8, 9} The first church building was a log cabin erected in 1849 on East Second Street in Homer. This tiny building served many purposes for the growing town and even was the site of the organization of the Homer Presbyterian church. ¹⁰ In 1850, the church house served as host church for the annual Red River Associational meeting.  

Even though the new association was begun primarily as a Missionary Baptist organization, the delegates voted not to join the new Louisiana Baptist Convention. This unusual action was due to the fact some of the member churches were anti- missionary congregations and others felt churches should be responsible for their own mission activity. ¹¹ Instead, individual churches were encouraged to send delegates to the Louisiana Baptist Convention if they wished. This desire to avoid open conflict proved to be a wise one and gradually opposition to the Convention evaporated. By the end of 1851, the Red River Association was able to unanimously vote to associate with the State Convention.  

The year 1852 marks the first minutes of Ebenezer Church which are available for study. It can be seen that from the very first this church was strongly in favor of missions and supported the infant State Convention and Southern Baptist Convention both in prayer and financially. Along with these early, incomplete minutes can be found the articles of organization of the church along with the rules of decorum for members. At this time, Samuel Harris was the pastor and J. A. Millican the clerk.

In September of 1852 the name of the church was officially changed from Ebenezer Baptist to Homer Baptist Church of Christ, a name which continued to be used for many years. During the early years of the church, preaching was scheduled only once per month and a good portion of Saturday afternoon and Sunday given over for that purpose. This was necessary due to the fact most churches, ours included, had very small memberships and the pastors of those churches served simultaneously as pastors of other churches in the area. These part-time pastors generally served for little pay and had to hold full time jobs in addition to that of pastor so that they might support their families.  

In December of 1852 one of the members of the church, Dr. William B. Knight, a physician, asked for and received permission to preach a sample sermon to the congregation. This common practice of the day allowed a layman to "exercise his gifts" as a preacher before the congregation which would ordain him to preach. The congregation must have been satisfied with his sermon since he was ordained immediately thereafter. Dr. Knight later moved to North Carolina and retired from medicine so as to devote all his time to the ministry. He was a well-known missionary in that area and organized and supported several churches and associations. One great service Dr. Knight performed for his church was to chase the hogs out from under the church and build a barrier to keep them out!  

Richard F. Fancher served as pastor from 1853 to 1859 and was followed by W. C. Crane from 1860 to 1861. Encouragement of mission work through the State Convention and education through Mt. Lebanon University became a priority of Homer Baptist Church during this time probably because our pastor, Dr. Crane, was the president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention and president of Mt. Lebanon. Mt. Lebanon University served a vital role in the education of many people during this time. William M. Reese, Joseph C. Cox, William Carey Crane and William P. Carter, all pastors of Homer Baptist Church, served as presidents of that institution. J. U. H. Wharton and William Carey Crane received their doctorates from Mt. Lebanon.  

Temperance gradually became an issue in the association during this time. In 1854, a resolution was passed deploring the sale of intoxicating beverages for purposes other than 'sacramental, mechanical and medicinal purposes,' though moderate use was accepted and even expected. ¹² Moderate drinking was not yet officially frowned upon but public drunkenness could result in temporary expulsion from the church. In these cases, a committee of several persons would visit the culprit to determine whether that person was truly penitent. If the fallen one appeared to be repentant and promised to sin no more, he would be allowed to apologize to the entire congregation. At that point, the congregation would vote whether or not to accept the apology. In most cases, the vote allowed full fellowship to be re-extended, but in some churches the sinner had to return again and again to apologize before being reinstated. Interestingly enough, the same persons appeared to have fallen victim to overindulgence. Again and again, however, they were forgiven and returned to the fold. In some cases, the indulges were deacons of the church who had previously lectured others about the demon rum!

Women of the church did not seem to fall victim to this particular indulgence, but seemed to have a hard time staying away from dances. Several young woman were excluded from fellowship for dancing, but forgiveness was swift in the face of true repentance. If a person had been excluded for any reason, dancing, drunkenness, immoral conduct, refusal to attend services regularly, swearing, fighting and so forth,  the excluded member would not be given a letter to take to another church.  

It was not a simple matter to change membership in churches in that day, because an actual letter of recommendation from one's present church had to be presented to a new church. Accepting a person by promise of a letter simply was not done. If a person did not have the letter in hand, he was often required to wait for full fellowship until the letter arrived, often months. Churches recognized this terrible limbo, however, and would generally accept a person until the church's watch care. This meant the church encouraged the attendance and worship of the potential member and would intervene in his behalf to try to obtain a letter. Watch care was often granted by our church to those excluded from other congregations. On some occasions, Homer Baptist Church would plead with the excluding congregation to forgive the culprit, citing exemplary behavior and repentance. Usually, however, the excluding church would insist on an in person apology from their straying member, even if the member now lived hundreds of miles away. The minutes of Homer Baptist Church show a forgiving membership, one that accepted the first apology made. In addition, the church often spent months counseling the excluded members and seemed to give up on them only after the person stated he wanted to withdraw entirely from the church.  

The church continued to support missions and the State Convention with frequent contributions. It must have been difficult for the members to find the cash to offer for many sums sent were specified to the penny. This leads to the sobering conclusion many pockets must have been emptied for the Lord's service in that day.

One of the more pleasant of church crises had developed by April of 1856. The building was simply too small for the growing church and a new one must be built. A happy flurry of activity saw the purchase of a plot of land on South Main for the new building and genial arguments as to the size of the sanctuary and addition (or not) of a cupola. Reality soon set in when the Treasury Committee reported on the state of the church's finances. Though the pastor had made no fuss about the fact, it was discovered the church owed him a year's salary. Other debts brought the total indebtedness to $411.34, a horrendous amount. Strict measures were called for and strict measures taken.  

It was determined to sell the present building and lot to liquidate debts and to hold meetings in the local hotel till the new building was ready. When the pastor, Rev. Fancher, saw the determination of the church he quietly insisted the church owed him no money for past services and that he would continue his ministry free of charge for the coming year. The offer was gratefully accepted for the duration of the emergency since no buyer for the land could be found immediately, but the church eventually repaid him all the salary he was due. By September of 1857, the financial situation had stabilized somewhat and plans were drawn for the new building and bids were let.

Only the pews, pulpit and bell were saved from the old building to be moved to the new one. The new church house was to be forty feet wide, sixty feet long and not less than eighteen feet in height with glass in the windows and shutters to protect the glass. Of course, two entrances in the front would be built, since men and women sat on opposite sides of the church. Finally in February of 1858, the old building and its lot were sold to James A. Brown for $350.00 and enough cash was in hand to proceed. The first action of the church was to insist Brother Fancher receive $200.00 of the amount in partial re-payment for his services. Soon payments for old debts left a grand total of thirty cents in the treasury and the budget was so tight the church had to debate whether or not to buy a new broom. (They did.)

The selling of the old church building and lot left the church without a meeting place. James Brown agreed to permit the church to meet in its old building until torn down and after that time the church met both in the Methodist church and in the wooded area the new church building would occupy. Services may have been held in Cunningham's hotel, though no further mention is made concerning this. This was an especially bad time to be without a church building, because the associational meeting was to be hosted by the church that year. The church decided the best thing to do was to put a notice in the Baptist paper for all delegates to first go to W. H. Maxey's store for directions to whatever meeting place the church would be able to offer at that time!  

Quite obviously, Rev. Fancher was embarrassed by the lack of support the congregation showed by poor attendance at this associational meeting because he decided to resign in protest. This sent the membership into a flurry of self-recrimination and members were bullied and shamed as necessary to produce satisfactory attendance. Charges of nonattendance and drunkenness were brought against several members. One case of intoxication presented found the culprit plaintively pleading he was "sick and hardly drunk." Three members then replied they had seen him drink and that he staggered. Case closed.

By February attendance was once again up and the public behavior of the membership was better. The church then "most respectfully, kindly and earnestly requested our pastor to withdraw the proposition to resign." Rev. Fancher was not easily convinced, however, and made the church wait a month before he decided to stay. This must have been just what the church needed since the membership voted to have services twice a month instead of only once. 

The teachings of Alexander Campbell continued to split Baptist churches and groups who became known as Campbellites, or as Church of Christ congregations today, drifted away from the traditional beliefs regarding baptism and salvation. This touched our church in 1858 when a question arose regarding accepting letters of potential new members who had been baptized by a follower of Alexander Campbell. Finally, it was concluded such a baptism was indeed valid and several members of Churches of Christ were subsequently accepted into membership by letter.

Footnotes:
1.  Paxton, p. 253.
2.  Ibid., p. 255.
3.  Whitney, Asa.  "A Railroad to the Pacific," Annals,   Volume 7, p. 272.
4.  O'Sullivan, John L.  "Our Manifest Destiny,"  Annals,   Volume 7, p. 288.
5.  Greene, p. 29, 97.
6.  Paxton, p. 242.
7.  Adkins, Zacheus.  "Claiborne Parish,"  Biographical and   Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, p. 396.
8.  Hawkins, Margaret.  "First Baptist Church of Homer   Celebrates 125th Anniversary,"  The Ruston Daily Leader,   July 2, 1970.
9.  Ola Allen interview.
10. Presbyterian minutes.
11. Paxton, p. 306.
12. Ibid., 313.

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