The Rosebud Building

      Shortly after I arrived I began to recognize the inadequacy of our building.   It was a frame structure erected in 1903.  They had a unisex rest room before that term was in use.  I wondered why there was just one.  Later, I learned that when they went through a remodeling project, two restrooms were proposed, but one brother was adamantly opposed to a toilet in the building.   The unisex bathroom was a compromise.  I guess it probably made everybody unhappy.

I took over part of a classroom for my office space.   I commandeered a work table, but I never did have a desk.  I had no telephone.  If I wanted to make a telephone call I would have to go next door or go home.  Our first “copier” was a spirit duplicator and it was terrible.   A church gave me an old “Speed-O-Print” mimeograph machine, which I thought was a step up, at least in terms of the way the church bulletin looked.   I was pretty proud of it, and I shared my elation with a fellow preacher.  He said, “I’ve heard that you cannot operate and “Speed-O-Print” and still be a Christian.  It did try one’s patience.

The building was in bad state of disrepair.  There were some huge wooden trusses over the auditorium.   They didn’t look all that bad except they sagged in the middle, which made me wonder if the trusses might cave in some Sunday.   Our air conditioning was huge evaporative cooler, which works fine in dry air of West Texas, but in the humid air of Central Texas you might as well not have it.

I kept pushing for the construction of a new building.   I managed to encourage the formation of a building planning committee, and the establishment of a building fund. The enthusiasm rose and died, but I kept pushing anyway.  I left a year or so before the new building became a reality, but was told that I played a vital role in keeping the dream alive. When it was built I was invited to participate in the dedication service. 

To me buildings are something of a necessary evil in church work. There are some churches that function without them, but they have to be creative in planning church activities.  Creativity is not always our long suit.  It also a frustration because financing, constructing, and maintaining a building consumes an enormous amount of energy and effort that needs to be spent in ministry.   But in Rosebud, Texas in the late fifties, we thought nice buildings were essential to ministry.