As one gets older, especially when one considers how much time has passed compared with however much time is left, it is, for me at least, profitable to reflect on one’s journey through life. It may not be interesting to anyone else, but it is to the one doing the reflections. Hence, this brief series of autobiographical columns.
When I left the Marine Corps and returned to East Tennessee State University, classes had already been in session for a week, so I had to scramble to catch up. My wife was caring for Jason, our one-year-old son, so we needed income. I had the G.I. Bill, but it was sufficient to pay only for tuition and books. I returned to work at Long John Silver’s Restaurant as a cook.
After a few months, I was offered a summer internship as a youth minister at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Johnson City, TN. I was a declared ministerial prospect and had earlier done a similar internship in Bristol, VA.
After the summer was over, the pastor, The Rev’d Peyton (Pete) Rowlett, offered the opportunity for an additional nine months on a part-time basis. I accepted and he became a great mentor. Our second son was born during our tenure at Wesley, and we named him John Peyton Epps. John would later name one of his daughters Peyton.
The spring of my senior year, the District Superintendent, James Green, appointed me as the student pastor of N.G. Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, not far from the campus of ETSU.
Even then, Taylor was an old church named after a Revolutionary War hero. The church was founded in 1892 and, on my first Sunday, in June 1974, there were twenty-three people in attendance. It was a perfect church for a 23-year-old pastor who knew almost nothing about “pastoring.” The people were friendly, encouraging, and affirming.
I had taken two speech classes, one in high school and one in college, but I was totally unprepared to do two sermons a week and, frankly, my sermons were terrible. But I did work on them and read the sermons of preachers such as Billy Graham and others to get a sense of what a good sermon was. I visited the people, went to the hospitals, and tried to do a respectable job, even though I was carrying a full course load.
One of the greatest moments during that year was when George Thompson, an elderly retired coal miner, and a man who knew his Bible backwards and forwards, stopped me after church one Sunday.
He came up to me and said, “Son, you keep it up. You’re going to be a fine preacher someday.” I knew that “someday” was not yet, but I knew he thought I was improving. It was one of the highlights of that year.
University life for me was difficult. I had drifted through high school without cracking a book and, though I passed, I had no true study skills. I had to take as many classes as I could, and I had to work my entire way through. I was so ignorant that I did not know that the Financial Aid Office was not about charity or welfare, so I never applied for financial aid.
My college social life was mostly time with my wife and two boys. The Marine Corps had instilled some discipline in me and had given me the determination to not quit when the going got tough, when it often did.
When I started college, I knew there would be no scholarships and no parental funding. I also knew that none of my high school teachers thought I had the seriousness to apply myself and finish school. But the experience of being a Marine and having responsibility for a family changes things.
As far as I know, I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I received a Bachelor of Social Work degree with the designation of Cum Laude — with honors. Except for a few hundred dollars, I had no college loan debts.
I was scheduled to go to seminary at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in the fall of 1975. It was not to be. Life was about to take a dramatic turn.
To be continued …
[David Epps is the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King (www.ctk.life). Worship services are on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and on livestream at www.ctk.life. He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South (www.midsouthdiocese.life)]
