God's Messengers from the Mountains

Contents

About the Author

Rev. Fred B. Lunsford

About the Editor, Sharon Kephart

Introduction

Baptist Beginnings in America

The Spread of the Gospel in the Mountains

The War is Over

Mountain Baptists in the 20th Century

World War II and Mountain Baptists

Seminary Extension Classes

Baptists and Education

Baptists From 1950-2010

The Baptist Association

Rev. William Harold Anderson

Rev. M. H. (Uncle Doc) Barker

Rev. Robert Barker

Rev. Frank Thomas Blount

Rev. Paul Breedlove

Rev. Aud Brown

Rev. Henry Brown

Rev. Rondall Brown

Rev. Tommy Buchanan

Rev. Jesse Bushyhead

Rev. Robert Bushyhead

Rev. Earl Cable

Rev. Raymond Carroll

Rev. Leander (Lee) Chastain

Rev. William Andrew (Andy) Cloer

Rev. James Hamilton (Ham) Coffey

Rev. Clyde A. Cole

Rev. Donald Colvard

Rev. Alfred Corn

Rev. Armstrong Cornsilk

Rev. Oliver D. Cornwell

Rev. Wayne Crisp

Rev. Dallas Crowder

Rev. Noah Crowe

Rev. Carl Cunningham

Rev. Verl Davis

Rev. J. C. Day

Rev. J. D. Decker

Rev. Elder Thaddeus Franklin Dietz

Rev Carl Denny

Rev. Theodore Bun Denny

Rev. Thad Dowdle

Rev. Ray Dye

Dr. Philip Lovin Elliott

Rev. Clifton Elliott

Rev. Cecil Marcellus Frady

Rev. Milford Garrett

Rev. Esiah George

Rev. Roy Clifford (Cliff) George

Rev. Willard D. Graham

Rev. J. Elmer Greene

Rev. John H. Green

Rev. John Burton Gregory, Jr.

Rev. Warren Hall

Rev. Marvin Hampton

Rev. Clay Edward (Eddie) Hardin

Rev. Elisha Hedden

Rev. Leslie P. Hedrick

Rev. John Hogan

Rev. W. D. Will Hogsed

Rev. James G. Holloway

Rev. Frank James, Sr.

Dr. Chester Jones

Rev. James Paul Jones

Rev. James Kimsey

Rev. Shane Allen Kirby

Dr. Tommy D. Lamb

Dr. John Lance

Rev. David Lawhorn

Rev. Thomas L. Leatherwood, Jr.

Rev. Bert Ledford

Rev. Frank Lee

Rev. James Marion Lee

Rev. James Marshall Lee

Rev. Tommie M. Lee

Rev. William Riley Lee

Rev. Arlen Boyd Lovell

Rev. A. F. (Drew) Lunsford

Rev. Joel Rufus Lunsford

Rev. Marcus C. Lunsford (Cager)

Rev. Waymond Lunsford

Rev. Clarence Martin

Rev. Gene Martin

Rev. Sim Martin

Rev. Verlon Martin, Jr.

Rev. Harold Lynn (Mongo) Mason

Rev. Butler Matheson

Rev. Ralph Matheson

Rev. Mark May

Rev. Leonard McClure

Rev. Raymond McCray

Rev. Willard B. McCray

Rev. Kenneth Morgan

Rev. Clark Moss

Rev. Grover Moss

Rev. John Moss (Johnnie)

Rev. Randal Moss

Rev. Calvin Murphy

Rev. John Newman

Rev. Beuford Owenby

Rev. William David (Willie) Owl

Rev. Ronald Lee Palmer

Rev. Theodore J. (Jack) Palmer

Rev. James M. (Bo) Parris

Rev. Elwyn Hugh (Buddy) Pittman

Rev. John Platt

Rev. Elder Humphrey Posey

Rev. David Ray Postell

Rev. James France Postell

Rev. Jimmy Wayne Postell

Rev. Ralph D. Postell

Rev. Elder William (Bill) Andrew Pruitt

Rev. John Douglas Reid

Dr. Ike Reighard

Rev. Herman Roberson

Rev. Julius Erois Robertson

Rev. Jessie Robinson

Rev. Glenn B. Rogers

Rev. James Ricky Rogers

Rev. James R. (Jimmy) Rogers

Rev. Oda Rogers

Rev. Carroll Dwight Roper

Rev. James Carl Roper

Rev. Scott Roper

Rev. Darrel Rose

Rev. Thomas Matthew Rowland

Rev. Charlie Sexton

Rev. Hadley Shields

Rev. Burder Shope

Dr. Roy J. Smith

Rev. W. T. (Tom) Smith

Rev. John Stansberry

Rev. Daniel Stewart

Rev. Gurley Stewart

Rev. Mickey Larry Stewart

Rev. Billy Stiles

Rev. Fred Stiles

Rev. Harold Charles Stiles

Rev. Lester Stowe

Rev. Glenn Tanner

Rev. Hubert Tipton

Rev. Freed Townsend

Dr. George W. Truett

Rev. James L. Truett

Rev. W. T. (Tom) Truett

Rev. Jimmie Doyce Waters, Sr.

Rev. Thomas V. Wells

Rev. Weldon West

Rev. Algia West

Rev. Sammie Wheeler

Rev. Homer Wilson

Rev. Joseph Trotting Wolfe

Rev. John Moses (Mozze) Woodard

Rev. David Yonce

Rev. Harley Ervin Yonce

Rev. George Younce

Rev. Ernest (Ernie) Young

One More Story

Credit Page

About the Author

Rev. Fred B. Lunsford

1925-

As editor of this book, I take this privilege to dedicate this book in honor of Fred Lunsford. First time I ever remember meeting Fred, was when some youth from our church went to an Association Youth Meeting at Marble Springs Baptist Church on one Sunday afternoon. He was the Director of Missions of Truett Baptist Association. Since that time, Fred has been my mentor and close personal friend. If I ever need someone to talk to or to pray for me, I know I can depend on Fred. I have had the privilege of helping him in getting his previous two books, Golden Nuggets From the Mountains, and Glory in the Mountains written and published. They have done much better than we ever dreamed they would. God has blessed and used them. Words really can’t say how much Fred has meant in my life. I have grown as a Christian and person tremendously as a result of meeting Fred Lunsford. I thank God for this man. Only God knows what has been accomplished as a result of his ministry through the years.

By: Sharon Kephart, Editor

Fred Lunsford was born on March 7, 1925 to Pearlie and Inez Lunsford at Marble, N.C. He attended Andrews High School, Mercer University Extension Classes, Seminary Extension Classes, University of West Virginia Church Leaders School, Southern Seminary conferences, seminars, and is an Alumni of Southeastern Seminary.

Fred was licensed and ordained to the Gospel ministry in September, 1950 by Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, after struggling with his call for about two years. He surrendered to his call in 1949.

He pastored Friendship Baptist Church in Hiawassee Georgia, and Little Brasstown Baptist Church in Brasstown, NC. He served as Director of Missions for Truett Baptist Association for over twenty-six years. He has led in revivals all across the United States. He has led Bible conferences, World Missions Conferences and served on North Carolina State Convention Committees. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Baptist State Paper, the Biblical Recorder. He also served as President of North Carolina Directors of Missions.

After retiring, Fred continued to pastor. He pastored at First Baptist Church, Robbinsville, NC and Vengeance Creek Baptist Church at Marble, NC. Currently, he is Director and Founder of Christian Lighthouse Ministries, Inc.

In 1980, Fred was awarded the Seminary Extension Award of the Year. In 1987, he was awarded the Director of Missions of the Year for the Eastern United States. He received the Life-Long Award from Seminary Extension Department in 1987. Fred was named Director of Missions Emeritus for Truett Baptist Association in 1991. For many years, he served as a Church Growth Multiplier for the NC Baptist State Convention.

His hobbies include reading, hunting, fishing, gardening, and writing.

I would like to share the following story written by Pauline Binkley Cheek in 2006:

The right story, well told, is essential to the ministry of Fred Bruner Lunsford. Even his name bears a story. On a stormy March day, Fred’s father met the Doctor who had been summoned to assist in the baby’s birth and drove him the last two miles over a muddy road. In payment for his services the Doctor was given ten dollars and the honor of having the baby bear his first name, Fred. Bruner, the name by which Fred was known in school, came from a local horse trader, Bruner Axley. When told of the baby’s name, Fred’s paternal grandmother protested; That’s no name for a baby. I’m going to call him Cooter, after Uncle Cooter Lovingood. Fred replaced the other two names when he was drafted into the Army during World War II.

Fred was the oldest of four children, reared on a little mountain farm on Vengeance Creek at Marble, NC. In recalling those depression days, Fred tells of hoeing the corn which the family ate, fed to the hogs and mules, and made into liquid form. When asked about his childhood, Fred begins with the declaration, I loved my daddy with a passion and wanted to be like him. I eat chicken gizzards today because he ate chicken gizzards. But, when he was drunk, he was mean, and he was not a Christian until I was in service. Therein lies another story.

Fred was with Patton’s army, sitting with some buddies on a railroad track in France when he was handed an accumulation of mail. Flipping through the letters to find the latest from home, he discovered the only letter he ever received from his father. Written on one sheet of paper, the message was, I love you very much and know that you have been praying for me. I want you to know that I have given my heart to the Lord. After a moment of silence, Fred comments, I got right up and preached to those boys.

Fred credits his maternal grandmother with his own spiritual nurture. She was sickly and lived with us during her last years, Fred says. She couldn’t read or write, not having had an opportunity to go to school, but she took me to Sunday School and taught me to be a Missionary Baptist. Rocking her little grandson on her lap, she would sing, Amazing Grace, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and The Great Physician Now is Near. When asked one time what she would be if she were not a Missionary Baptist, she replied, Ashamed.

Ministers were frequent visitors in the Lunsford home during two-week revivals or spending the night before preaching on Sunday. Deep inside, I held preachers in high esteem, Fred confesses. As children, we played church, and I was always the preacher. When our puppy died, I preached the sermon and my sister sang. At age thirteen, Fred was baptized in Vengeance Creek, which had been pond up for that purpose. The same year, he met the girl who would become his wife. Time has not dimmed his memory of the occasion. The Greene family had recently moved into the Vengeance Creek Community, having lost its former home in TVA’s construction of Hiawassee Dam. On the first day of school, eleven-year-old, Gladys Greene, wearing saddle oxfords, knee socks, and a toboggan, boarded the school bus and attracted the attention of thirteen-year-old, Fred. They have been companions ever since and are the parents of two sons, Dan, who is President of Mars Hill College, and Tony, Director of Medical Imaging in Marietta, GA.

Fred’s call to the ministry was cumulative and met with resistance. So horrible were conditions during the Battle of the Bulge that Fred prayed, If you will get me home, Lord, I’ll do anything, ANYTHING. Back home, Fred picked up work to support his wife and baby, Dan. The couple bought a house near Murphy and joined Pleasant Valley Baptist Church. He was ordained as a Deacon, elected Sunday School Director, and taught a Sunday School Class, which grew in membership from twenty to one hundred and twenty in Sunday School. But still I resisted, he admits. I wanted to be sure. Then one night my wife got sick. She was breathing hard, turning blue, and we had no idea what was wrong. I prayed, Lord, I need her to raise this baby. If only You’ll make her well, I will do Your will." Immediately, she sat up in bed, breathing easily. The next Sunday, he dedicated his life to preaching the Gospel.

Experience, inspiration, and instruction have all been involved in Fred’s training. For a while, he rode with Preacher Morris to take courses at Mercer. In 1951, he enrolled in what may have been the first Seminary Extension Class in the Southern Baptist Convention. There were sixty-five enrolled, he recalls. I’ve been involved in Seminary Extension all these years, and I have all the diplomas that are available.

In 1950, Fred accepted his first pastorate, a half-time position with Friendship Baptist Church. Later that year, he became Pastor also of Little Brasstown Baptist Church. Two years later, he moved to the house where he and Gladys live today in the Vengeance Creek Community. In September 1950, he was licensed and ordained as a minister.

In recounting the fourteen years he was at Little Brasstown Baptist Church, Fred manifests the sense of satisfaction one experiences when he knows that he is acting within the will of God. In 1954, I attended one of the Farmer’s Federation picnics in Murphy and heard Dr. Dumont Clarke talk about the Lord’s Acre Plan for strengthening rural churches. At Brasstown, we were meeting in an old frame church house, and I had a dream of constructing a new building. Brasstown was a farming community and money was hard to come by. But, when I heard Dr. Clarke’s appeal, I was confident that the dream would come true.

At this point, Fred opens a packet of snapshots, beginning with pictures of the site being cleared for a sanctuary. I knew we had to have the approval of an old patriarch, Bill Clayton, a strong Republican; so I went to him and asked whether he thought we needed a new building. This one will do me the rest of my life, he replied. So I took him down to the basement and showed him the termites in the Sunday School rooms and talked about leaving a good building for the young folks. He said, We don’t have any money, but you’re my Pastor, and if you think we need a new building, we’ll build one. In church the next day, he told the people, Our Pastor says we need a new building. Then he laid a one hundred dollar bill on the communion table. There was a strong Democrat in the congregation and he got up and said. If Bill Clayton can give one hundred dollars, so can I. By 1958 we had a new brick building. It cost twenty-four thousand dollars. Lord’s Acre provided most of the money but people provided the labor; stone masons, brick layers, and one man donated fourteen thousand feet of lumber.

Now, Fred pulls out pictures of Lord’s Acre Projects and explains the process whereby people dedicated to the Lord’s work; the produce from an acre of land, the sale of a hog or calf, and the eggs laid on Sunday. In a picture of the dedication of a corn field, a little boy shades his eyes from the sun. Years later, that boy, Dennis Myers, graduated from Mars Hill College. Several pictures show Fred with people who were raising a calf as a Lord’s Acre Project. In one, the church people have gathered around the calf to be dedicated while Fred leads in prayer. One dear sweet lady Fred recalls, Loyal Jones’ mother, Cora Jones, gave her Sunday eggs to the Lord’s Acre. She claimed that her hens laid more eggs on Sunday than any other day in the week. When she heard them cackling, she would say, Praise the Lord."

At cattle sales, the auctioneer would identify a cow that had been dedicated, and bidding would be higher. In October, there would be a Harvest Day at church on which people would lay their proceeds on the altar. As important as the money was to the life of the church, Fred asserts that it’s value as a means of outreach to the community was greater. It got children involved in a community project and got them excited about building up the Kingdom. In the first revival after we moved into the new building, I baptized twenty-eight people in Brasstown Creek. Thus excitement may have been a factor in qualifying Little Brasstown as a five-star church (one with Sunday School, Training Union, WMU, Brotherhood, and contributing to the Cooperative Program). Lord’s Acre money also added to the Lottie Moon Offering.

Fred became so enthusiastic in his support of the Lord’s Acre as a means of revitalizing churches, that on several occasions Dumont Clarke called him to present the plan at area churches. One time when Clarke wrote from Vermont asking Fred to represent him at a speaking engagement, he enclosed a blank check with instructions that Fred should fill in the amount for expenses and honorarium. I trust you anywhere, wrote Clarke. Fred often had an opportunity to introduce people to Clarke. He recalls that whenever Clarke encountered someone on the street, even someone he had just met, he would conclude the conversation by grasping the person’s hand and offering a prayer.

After fourteen years as Pastor of Little Brasstown Baptist Church, during which time he had baptized over three hundred people, Fred agreed to serve as Director of Missions for Western North Carolina and West Liberty Baptist Associations. He did so on the condition that he be allowed