A Texas Baptist History Sourcebook: A Companion to McBeth's Texas Baptists

Chapter 11. NEW DIRECTIONS, 1953 - 1960

357 11.1 Forrest Feezor Following the resignation of J. H. Williams as Executive Secretary in 1953, Forrest Feezor, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco for the previous seven years, was elected Executive Secretary on the third ballot. During his seven-year tenure, the most important survey in the history of the BGCT, the Booz, Allen & Hamilton Report, was taken, the Wadley Memorial Hospital became a BGCT institute, and another five-year plan was implemented . Executive Secretary for Texas Baptists After going to Waco I was elected and served as a trustee of Baylor University, a trustee of the Baptist Hospital, and a member and chairman of the one-hundred and ninety-three member Executive Committee of the Convention. One year I preached the convention’s annual sermon. Once I served as president. The pastorate at Waco involved me deeply in the work of the denomination. The Baptist General Convention of Texas was to replace its Executive Secretary, Dr. Howard Williams, who had resigned to become president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was a practice of the Executive Board of the Convention to select a leader without using a nominating committee. They would meet and pray about it. Then each member would vote for his choice. At C H A P T E R 11 New Directions, 1953–1960 358 ⁄ NEW DIRECTIONS, 1953–1960 that meeting we had more than one hundred and fifty of the one hundred and ninety-three members present. After a first ballot all nominees except the three getting the most votes would be dropped from consideration. That day I was one of the three getting the largest vote on the first ballot. On the second ballot only Dr. E. S. James and I were in the running . On the third ballot I was elected. I stood up and asked permission to withdraw my name. Dr. W. R. White responded, “You ought not to do this.” We were sitting together. I prayed. I decided to accept the responsibility of becoming Executive Secretary. The decision by the members of the Executive Board had been made on a high spiritual level. I had never sought the office. Jessica’s first response was, “You can’t do that. You can’t even keep your own checkbook straight.” Then Jessica and I prayed about it, and we agreed that it was the right thing to do. I believed that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in this and that I could count upon the Holy Spirit for whatever help I would need in making wise decisions. I knew that I must be always on the alert about how to deal with sensitive issues. One of my first tasks was to lead in the reorganization of the Executive Board’s work. Some agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention had employed a professional research group, Booz,Allen, and Hamilton of Chicago, to assist in planning ahead. We were favorably impressed with their studies and reports. So, at a cost of $90,000 we contracted with them to study our colleges, missions activities, child care programs, organization of the Board, welfare plans, and Christian Education Commission —everything we were undertaking. They would make practical suggestions about how we might improve the work. There were many questions at first about getting an outside firm to do this study and about spending so much money. But, Dr.Wallace Bassett explained to the members of the Board how they would work and what good results we might expect. After his explanation there was no opposition on the part of Board members. When the study was completed, a report was made with practical suggestions. We studied each item and debated it thoroughly. With the exception of the title for our program, we adopted the report in full. In the 1940s and 1950s there was a great deal of discussion about the term “social gospel.” Some Baptists came to be afraid that we would substitute “social” for “spiritual.” The report of Booz,Allen and Hamilton suggested that we refer to our hospital and children’s homes as “Social Welfare Division.” I suggested that we create a “Division of Human Welfare.” That was satisfactory. The work of our convention was duly reorganized along lines which have been in effect, for the most part, to this day. When he was secretary, Dr. Williams had started a Christian Life Commission. It proved to be so helpful and...