DOWN HOME: Never too late to do something new

Posted: 10/27/06

DOWN HOME:
Never too late to do something new

When you get to be my age (late-late-late young adult; OK, middle aged), you don’t get to do many things for the first time.

But last week, I did something I’ve never done before.

Months ago, I received an invitation to preach in chapel at Howard Payne University, one of our Texas Baptist schools, in Brownwood.

I quickly accepted, although some people would question my logic.

You see, chapel is mandatory at our Texas Baptist schools. If you go there, and you want to graduate, you’ve got to get so many “chapel credits.” At most of the schools, maybe even all of them by now, students scan their ID cards to get credit for attending chapel. Some schools, I am told, even require the students to scan their cards when they leave; they can’t sneak out.

So, some people say preaching in a Baptist college chapel service is sort of like prison ministry. You’re working a captive audience. But the good thing about a captive audience is that it’s at least a large audience. Crowds are good.

I like college crowds for several reasons.

First, they seem to appreciate my humor. Some parts of the Bible are deadly serious, of course. But many parts are funny. I like those parts. And I’ve discovered college students usually do, too. So, we tend to have fun in chapel.

Second, I love to preach out of the Old Testament, which is full of interesting stories about people who mess up their lives and find grace and redemption in the arms of God. And here’s the good part about that: Many college kids don’t know those stories, so they listen to find out what happens.

Third, if any part of one of those stories happens to be about sex, then the college boys will wake up and pay attention.

Anyway, back to Howard Payne: I arrived late on a stormy night and followed printed directions through the campus to the parking lot behind Veda Hodge Hall. Then I got my luggage and walked, as instructed, around to the front of Veda Hodge Hall and found Shawna, the resident assistant, in the office where I was told she would be.

When I mentioned my name, Shawna said, “I’ll show you to your room.” We walked down a hall and through a couple of doors, past two signs that said, “No men beyond this point.”

When I arrived at Hardin-Simmons University, another of our Texas Baptist schools, in Abilene 31 years ago, the rivalry between Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons already was generations old. And through the subsequent decades, I can’t tell you how many of my wonderful Howard Payne friends have called me by their nickname for Hardin-Simmons students and grads—Hardened Sinner.

But by the time Shawna showed me to the guest suite in Veda Hodge Hall, even a naive Hardin-Simmons grad like me had figured out the first time in my life that I would spend the night in a women’s dorm would be on the historic and sacred campus of Howard Payne University.

–Marv Knox