Thirteenth Graduation Week – Great Blessings

Joy abounded during the thirteenth annual Alumni/Graduation Week at Heritage Baptist College. The theme this year was “Revealing Light in a Darkening World.” The 9 different messages, the various events, and the special fellowship blessed the hearts of all those who participated.

This was the tenth year that the Graduation Week was held on the campus at Hopewell. All in attendance experienced the Lord doing a special work.

The Highlights:

Alumni Fish Fry

The Alumni Fish Fry was moved to Wednesday lunch this year, following the morning preaching in the chapel.

After the services, the special meal delighted everyone. Brother Harvey Shilling with helper Leethon Rexroat, fried 300 Indiana crappie fillets. Brother Shilling not only fried the fish, but earlier he had caught and cleaned them too. Mrs. Tootie Vaughan and Carol Kelley added to the fish with the extra fixings to form a delicious meal.

Pictured also is Dr. Clyde Billingsley (GA), who began the Alumni Fish Fry 25 years ago.

Graduation / Alumni Banquet

Gray Brother’s Cafeteria catered the Spring Banquet for Heritage Baptist College. For the fourth time, we held this banquet on a Tuesday evening, with this being the first banquet that we have held indoors in a year and a half.

The Alumni Banquet featured a cameo performance by the Heritage Harmonica Boys (Russ Dennis III, President Dennis, and Daniel Dennis). The auditorium was spaced out and filled as Dr. Tom Wallace, from Murfreesboro, TN, delivered a special message that set the atmosphere for the banquet offering.

The banquet goal of $12,000 was generously reached during the closing offering. To God be the Glory!

Wednesday Combined Church Rally

For the fourteenth year, Heritage Baptist College sponsored the Wednesday night local church rally.

The preacher of the evening was Dr. Garvan Walls of Oliver Springs, TN. Brother Walls brought a wonderful Bible-centered message laced with his own “down home” stories.

Graduation

On Thursday night, May 6th, we enjoyed a wonderful concluding service. Friends and family gathered to witness the graduation service and to hear Dr. Bill Blakely of Greenwood, IN deliver the commencement address. Brother Blakely challenged those in attendance with his message and his passionate testimony.

His Last Message - Eternity

One hundred years ago, on the corner of Meridian and Vermont St. in downtown Indianapolis, stood the First Baptist Church. (present day - Indiana War Memorial)

The pastor was Frederick Taylor. After serving as an evangelist with Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Rev. Frederick Taylor accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis in 1906.

Pastor Taylor promoted reaching the lost, and even wrote a book called The Evangelistic Church. Over the 25 years that he pastored, he averaged about 100 new additions to the church every year and he would regularly preach to 1400 in his congregation. Focusing on young people, he began a Winter Night College. Pastor Taylor also challenged his people to sacrifice for the Lord, and following WWI he led his congregation in giving a one-time gift of over $300,000 for foreign missions (present day $4,000,000), which was three times the yearly budget for the church.

The First Baptist Church had a practice of advertising the title of the pastor’s upcoming sermon. One spring day in 1932 the Sunday information board had just been completed which read:

Sunday, May 1

Dr. Frederick E. Taylor

11: A.M.

“Eternal Life”

Minutes later, a phone call was received telling the office that Pastor Taylor had just passed away at home from a stroke.

Instead of preaching on eternal life, Pastor Taylor was experiencing it that very next Sunday. (Hoffman, Harold, A Light in the Forest, A History of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. Joseph C. Collins & Co.: Indianapolis 1966. pgs. 57 – 60)

Closing Thought

My family and I have so enjoyed the past fourteen years of training students at Heritage Baptist College. From humble beginnings to our campus at Hopewell the LORD has provided. We feel blessed. We serve a great God, and we love to instill that thought into each of our students.

Thank you so much for your love, your prayers, and your support, especially during the days of this Covid Crisis.