Planting Churches in the Late 1930's
How Tents Helped Plant Churches in Colorado
It was 1938 and I was using a 30 foot by 50 foot tent because I had not yet been able to purchase a larger one. However, I was certainly glad it was no bigger for the meetings we held in Brush, Colorado. In the weeks we were there, we had enough storms producing rain and hail to last a lifetime. The rips and tears in the canvas simply rendered the tent unusable.
How sewing and ripping led to sowing and reaping
One lady volunteered to bring her sewing machine to the tent site to try to repair it. The damage was too great for only one lady, so God provided four other machines and operators to assist her. We let down what remained of the tent, and they went to work. They started at 10 a.m. and finished in time for us to set it back up for the evening service. Two more storms passed through the next week and I had to put that tent “to rest” after that campaign. It just could not take any more wind.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit operates like the wind—invisible but real. Thank God. He did enough work in hearts there to provide a nucleus of saints to start a sound Baptist church to carry on the work of Christ. From that time of sewing and ripping, God gave us a true time of sowing and reaping!
Making and caring for tents was serious business
Tents were a labor of love for preachers of that era. Each had to make and tend their own. Not only were tents vulnerable to elements but they were quite a job to make. Before World War II, it was necessary to waterproof a tent by either hiring someone to do it, or doing it yourself. Depression economics meant I had to do it myself (with some volunteer help, of course). These were the steps we used: First, we dug a trench about two feet wide and 4 to 5 feet long. Second, we built a roaring hot fire in the trench. Third, we covered the trench with a piece of sheet metal and set a large washtub of gasoline on top, bringing it to near boiling point. Fourth, we mixed in two pounds of beeswax with three pounds of pine tar and stirred until everything completely dissolved. Then we boiled and stirred that whole concotion for about ten minutes.
Next came the application. We filled a large sprinkling can with the mixture and sprinkled it on the canvas in rows about three inches apart. As this was being done, the mixture was swept into the tent fabric with a large heavy broom. We were sure to sweep both directions to coat all the fibers and cover the three-inch dry area in between the rows.
My smaller tent required two tubs of this boiling mixture. One time a spark came out of the trench, ignited the mixture and it sent flames 50 feet high. I couldn’t afford to lose a tub full of gasoline (about 35 gallons), so we had a piece of fireproof canvas (about 10 foot by 10 foot) we used to put out the flames. It was an exciting and somewhat scary time.
How a tent fire helped plant the Greeley Baptist Temple
After this treatment the tent would not leak, but it could burn quite easily. Once our big 60 foot by 120 foot tent did burn! I was holding a meeting in Greeley, Colorado, in May, 1938. It had been very warm for early spring. It appeared summer was nigh. However, after starting the meeting with two warm nights, the temperature fell low enough to bring snow.
Harvey Springer and I alternated preaching during this meeting. Because of the unemployment of those depression years, we had large daytime crowds, too. Both of us had started preaching in 1933, and we often preached in each other’s pulpits until his death in 1966.
I installed three 55 gallon steel barrels filled with burning coal. They would supply some heat so the people could be somewhat comfortable. On the 10th day of the meeting at 6:50 p.m., while we were practicing special music around the piano, my tent man was toward the back stirring the fire, when a spark rose to the canvas.
He yelled at me, “Preacher, the tent is on fire!”
The fire cut like a knife to the top ridgepole and began spreading both ways! We called the fire department and within 15 to 20 minutes, hundreds of people crowded around to see the sight.
While the firemen were putting out the fire, I went to a telephone to call the superintendent of schools to ask for the use of the high school auditorium that was close by. He had already heard of the fire by radio and gave permission.
The people of our troop made sure everyone knew that the meeting was transferred to the high school. That night we had double the attendance compared to what we had had in the tent. Volunteers were asked to meet the next morning so we could build a wooden tabernacle.
The tent site was cleared off by 10:00 a.m. the next day and construction began. Thirty-three men came to give their service and do the work. So well did they all work that we had a grand opening on Tuesday night in the new 76 foot by 126 foot tabernacle.
The house was packed from that time on for the next four weeks. Great crowds attended every service. Weeks later my good friend, Dennis Brown, held another meeting there and with the converts from both meetings, the Greeley Baptist Temple was established. It continues to this day giving out the gospel, getting folks saved, baptized and growing in the Lord. It is also involved in missionary work and is itself a center for church planting.
*Adapted from Art Wilson with Jonathan Stewart, Duty Not Preference, (Springfield, Mo.: Self published, 1996) pp 84-87
