Church Folk - Michele Andrea Bowen [3]
Just thinking about it, Rev. James shook his head in disgust. "You remember that mess, don't you? Little girl so young, she still had milk and cookies on her breath."
Theophilus nodded, wondering himself what would possess a grown man to even think of looking at a little teenager. But men who believed women were beneath them often didn't feel bound by the rules of decency. Putting Bishop Otis Caruthers "on location"—taking away his district—would keep him out of commission for a while. But there was always a chance that a corrupt bishop would bounce back. A few wads of bills placed in the right palms, at the right time, and a bishop was back in power. It wasn't so easy to get rid of a bishop in the Gospel United Church.
"You don't know this, son," Rev. James was saying, "but Percy Jennings asked the Board of Bishops for special permission to take you with him to his new district. Greater Hope is the only open ministry there, and he personally assigned you the pastorship. He has been watching you. He believes that young pastors like you, who are godly men, who can preach the rafters out of the roof, and who can understand what this new civil rights movement is bringing, are the future of the Gospel United Church."
Theophilus could not believe what he was hearing. Why would Bishop Jennings take a personal interest in him? He started to ask, but Rev. James held up his hand. "I'm not finished, Theophilus," he said. "You are being tested. You are being tested because it needs to be known if you can handle yourself right when in the fiery furnace. Can you be like those three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and trust that the Lord will stand with you and guide you? Then will you be obedient to do what He tells you to do? 'Cause that the kind of faith and commitment you gone need, not only for pastoring Greater Hope but when you go even farther than that. If you can't pass this test, you can't handle this call God has on your life. Don't let your flesh lead you in another direction. You hear me, Theophilus? Can you accept this call?"
"Yes," said Theophilus. "I accepted God's call on my life a long time ago—and yes, Rev. James. Yes, I will go to Greater Hope."
Now, for the first time during the visit, Rev. James smiled. "Glad you still got some gumption in you, boy," he said. "Scared me for a minute there. Thought that gal took all your strength away, just like Delilah did that fool Sampson. Now, let's pray."
To ease Theophilus's passage at Greater Hope, Rev. James appealed to Mrs. Coral Thomas, his wife, Susie's, best friend and a longtime deaconess of the church, to keep an eye on the young pastor. Many a morning Theophilus would come to work and find Coral Thomas bustling around his office, setting out a pot of delicious-smelling coffee and a plate of fat ham biscuits, saying, "Sit down, Pastor, and get yourself some breakfast. Made up these biscuits 'specially for you."
During his first year, Coral became his right hand. It was she who encouraged him to make some much needed reassignments in the church, giving jobs to the most qualified members instead of those who gave the most money. There had been hurt feelings at first, but now folks acknowledged that the choir had improved a hundredfold and that the Usher Board, which visitors barely recognized before, conducted their duty with a new pride. Now, instead of regular church clothes, the men wore dark suits, white shirts, and blue ties, while the women wore white