The Influence of Otis Gatewood
My dissatisfaction with church was about to undergo a radical change, however. In our Elmdale days, we only attended church on Sunday mornings and then we didn’t always make it. Sometimes it was too muddy to get out. On other days the crops would demand attention and I would imagine there were probably times when Daddy just flat out didn’t want to go. But gospel meeting time was a horse of a different color. I came up on the tail end of the great gospel meetings, known as revivals in other fellowships. We didn’t call them revivals because the Baptists had them and then also because we didn’t like to admit that the church ever needed reviving. Anyway we did the same thing and it did put a temporary shot in the arm. If it was not a revival, it was at least a stirring. We made sure we went to the revivals every night. We were attending at Northside in Abilene.
Shortly after the close of World War II Northside invited the late Otis Gatewood to preach in a meeting. Otis was convinced Germany would respond to the gospel, so he began planning to do mission work in Germany. Otis had a desire to place himself in difficult situations. He had established a church in Salt Lake City in the heart of Mormon country. According to one story, while Otis was at Salt Lake, he spoke on a lecture program at Pepperdine. Otis made an impassioned appeal for someone to take Christ to the Germans. He was convinced they were demoralized and would be open to the saving message of Jesus Christ. At the end of his sermon, he extended an invitation and asked for someone to respond to the invitation to take the gospel to Germany. No one came forward, but at length his wife, Alma came down the aisle with their children and said, “Otis, we’ll go.” Whether that happened for not, Otis and Alma went, but before he went the Northside elders asked him to conduct a meeting in Abilene.
It was probably the most exciting local church event I’ve ever seen. The attendance grew every night. In those days when a meeting was successful, the length was extended to last as long as the interest was there. I’m not sure how long this one ran, but I do remember it being extended. Both the main auditorium and the balcony were filled to capacity, and chairs were placed in the aisles. The meeting attracted students from Abilene Christian College, many of whom were World War II veterans recently returned from fighting a war and now anxious to resume their college education.
When the invitation was extended each night, people streamed down the aisles. I saw something in that meeting I’ve never seen before or since. On Sunday morning, there were no available seats. The building was packed to capacity. The guys who served the Lord’s Supper sat on the rostrum. Otis barely had a place to stand. All that got my attention. I began to think more seriously about Christ. I even liked the way Otis pronounced the word “Christ,” in which the “i” was pronounced as if it were an “a.” I thought that was the way you were supposed to do it, now realizing it was a reflection of Otis’ Texas panhandle upbringing. I thought “If I could do that I’d like to be a preacher.”
I really wanted to be baptized but I was pretty young, and I didn’t think I was ready. Within a few days my zeal began to wane. Besides I heard that Noma had recently been baptized, and I didn’t want it to look like I was doing something because she did. It would be another two years before I would actually be immersed, but the seed for preaching had been planted.
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