A Brief History of this Local Church

So they said, "Let us rise up and build!" (Neh. 2:18)

On two consecutive Thursday evenings, May 4 and May 11 of 1961, the following group of twenty men met in the home of Roy E. Shilk at 910 Pauline Street of Pasadena, Texas to discuss the prospect of beginning a new congregation in South Pasadena: Rex Cottle, Chester Gage, Noble Cayton, Leo Dickey, Austin Harris, Etzel Henson, Norman Henson, Crawford Jackson, Charles King, Lloyd Kirksey, Emmet Pryor, Roy Shilk, Frank Shinn, Thomas Shipp, Howard Spradling, John Straughan, Carl Walker, Charles Walker, T.C. Weatherly. These men and their families, and several others who joined them later, left the Central Church of Christ because of the rift caused by discussions over the issue of church-sponsored institutions. Among other matters decided in the first of these organizational meetings, the group fastened upon the name "Southside" as a designation for the infant church. In the second meeting final arrangments were made to secure Southmore Junior High School as a temporary meeting place until a piece of property could be purchased and a building erected. Leo Dickey and Wilson Usrey were appointed to supervise arrangements for bible classes. Norman Henson agreed to function as "temporary" treasurer.

Then they set their hands to do this good work...(Neh. 3:18)

Sunday, May 14, 1961, the Southside Church of Christ assembled for the first time in the cafeteria of Southmore Junior High. One hundred twelve were present for the first bible class and one hundred fifteen for the first worship service. The first contribution was $784.54. Charlie King was the first song leader. A. P. Jones, who was already working two other jobs, preached the first sermon and continued for fifty dollars a week until a full-time evangelist could be located. Six of the families that participated in these beginnings are still represented at Southside: Chester and Margaret Gage, Etzel and Elizabeth Henson, Norman and Naomi Henson, Juanita King (widow of Charlie King), Howard and Bea Spradling, Wilson and Mary Lou Usrey. All recall with amusement the inspection of cafeteria chairs for spilled condiments, the sensation caused by an occasional visitor, and the hurried explanations given to those same visitors that the holiday decorations adorning the cafeteria were put up by the school, not the brethren.

So it pleased the king to send me...(Neh. 2:6)

Brother Leo Dickey knew Robert Goodman from Madison County and some of the men traveled to Cleveland, Texas where Brother Goodman was preaching to talk to him about the work. Brother Goodman agreed to come after an interview with the brethren which he describes as understandably candid and thorough, cautious but lively. He was age thirty-four in January 1962 when he entered the pulpit at Southside. Those that audited his weekly preaching were young "boomer" families between thirty and forty years of age. Jeanna Gray (Baker) and Rob Henson were the only pre-school age children at the time. Many of the men, as now, worked for the area's petrochemical plants before the introduction of the twelve-hour shift.

So we built...for the people had a mind to work (Neh. 4:6)

On Sunday, March 18, 1962, only ten months after the group's formation, the Southside Church of Christ met for the first time in her new building at 808 Fresa Road. Fresa Road was South Pasadena at the time. Spencer Highway was undeveloped and Southmore was at the heart of town. The building site had been purchased the previous July of $8,000 and, shortly afterwards, the pews for $15,000. Pews and property were placed as collateral and leading men of the congregation signed letters of security to obtain the loan for the building. Both the building program and the selection of two men to serve as elders, Rex Cottle and Austin Harris, were accomplished with uncommon peace. Brother Robert Goodman characterized the people at that time as "generous," "unusually stable," and no "mere spectators," but possessors of a "volunteer spirit" and a "wonderful spirit of unity" forged by the birth pangs of division from which they were begotten. He recalls several men of the congregation tending all night to the building's "green" slab when cold weather threatened its ruin. However the brethren were not so cooperative when he requested that a clock be hung in the back of the new auditorium to help him pace his preaching. The matter was curtly dismissed, the men telling him to just mind his preaching.

"Will they complete it in a day?" (Neh. 4:2)

Southside was the unknown congregation in these early days, Red Bluff being the influential conservative church in the region. Central had been identified as middle-of-the-road regarding institutional matters up until the time of the split. Having alienated themselves from the left these new kids on the south side of town were also viewed with a watch-and-see suspicion by the right. Many a visitor and new arrival passed by on the other side and found a pew at Red Bluff giving audience to the preaching of Brother Luther Blackmon. Brother Goodman preached on the issues and urged the brethren to patient continuance. The group patiently doubled from an average attendance of about ninety to one hundred sixty-five when he left Southside fourteen and a half years later in June 1976.

Indeed, I also continued the work...(Neh. 5:16)

In July, 1976, Dee Bowman came to Southside from the Auburn Street church in Lubbock. He has labored as the local evangelist ever since, save the period between 1985 and 1990 when Don Truex served as the local preacher and the church supported Brother Bowman in full-time meeting work. Two works which have been important to the enthusiasm and vitality of the congregation were put in place shortly after Brother Bowman's arrival: the preacher-training program and the Southside Lectures.

I positioned men...with swords, spears & bows...(Neh. 4:13)

In 1977, the congregation began a preaching-apprenticeship arrangement fashioned after the Paul-Timothy model of the NT. Since that time eight young preachers--Randy King, Fred Gore, Chuck Durham, Marty Pickup, David Curry, Russ Bowman, Lawrence Kelly and Jason Moore--have been initiated to gospel preaching under the tutelage of Brother Bowman, and two others Tony Mauck and Mike Thomley--under the supervision of Don Truex. The preacher training arrangement in imitation of a biblical precedent has not only served an important role in equipping tomorrow's preachers, but has fueled the enthusiasm and love of the people for preaching and for preachers. Southside has always been generous in its support of preachers abroad. But the fervor and jealousy of the people for the young preacher arrangement illustrates the wisdom of N.T. churches like Jerusalem and Antioch whose confidence in their supported missionaries and whose enthusiasm for evangelism was partly due to their intimacy with the men they supported, the preachers they sponsored being sent out from their own midst.

The ears of all the people were attentive to the Book (Neh. 8:3)

In 1980, Southside began an annual lectureship program and featured as its first speakers Connie Adams, Homer Hailey, Ed Harrell and Harry Pickup, Jr. with R.J. Stevens leading congregational singing. For seventeen years the summer lectures have provided a point of focus for the local church, a means of attacking local needs with forethought, intensity, and the varied skills of a host of godly preachers, and an opportunity for the local members to unite their energies as a local body in an intense program of local edification at a time of the year when people are easily distracted. Though the lectures as well-attended by brethren abroad, special care has been taken to plan the lectures, as well as gospel meetings, the Reminder bulletin, Bible classes, weekly preaching, and all other endeavors to address local needs. A fierce dedication to the principle of local autonomy and the concerted use of the pulpit and pen for local needs and issues has been a chief factor in Southside's growth and stability.

And the leaders were behind all the house of Judah (Neh. 4:16)

Since the mid-seventies Southside has again doubled in size to about three hundred in weekly attendance. Four men presently serve as its overseers: Glen Bollman, Norman Henson, Bill Lowe and Wilson Usrey. Their influence will be preserved like that of past shepherds--Austin Harris, Rex Cottle, Charlie King, Leo Dickey, G.W. O'Neal, Jim I'Anson, and Billy Stover--in the wording of public prayers, amusing anecdotes, colorful aphorisms, precious memories, and that most treasured commodity of a local church--saved souls. Innumerable others, godly men and women, have in various and even indiscernible ways left the impress of their character upon the church. Thirty-five years--not all pleasant, not all perfect, not all peaceable--have passed since the work began. At the time of this writing a new meeting facility is nearing completion which, it is hoped, will ensure the continuance of the congregation for another thirty years. The same climate of unity which accompanied the construction of the first meeting place has charaterized the building of the second. A sacrificial spirit on the part of the people and their patient reliance on God's providence has permitted the work to be done without diminishing their support of spiritual endeavors.

All of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work (Neh. 4:15)

In this writer's assessment, several virtues have contriuted to the growth and stability of Southside through the years. They are not sensational, but rather ordinary, as seems the case for most sage and sound achievement: (1) an indefatigable devotion to the Bible and to the uncompromisingg but practical exposition of it message, (2) wise and patient leadership of which Brother Wilson Usrey is the personification, (3) an aggressive pursuit of unity and its antecedent, biblical love, (4) a firm dedication, and not just lip-service, to the principle of local autonomy, (5) a "forward" prospect, not in the sense of innovation, but in the sense of deliberate planning for the spiritual maturation of the people. Lord willing and free wills permitting, it is hoped that these same uncomon common-sense virtues will underlie the future of this community of believers.