Lacy Milton Ritter was painfully young in June 1906 when he began his pastorate of Blackstone Baptist Church in Southside Virginia. The young bachelor came with limited pastoral experience; and within a week of the new beginnings between pastor and people, the church voted to erect a new church house. In a few months a groundbreaking occurred and the building program was underway.
Fred Anderson
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As for his age, time would take care of it. As for bachelorhood, he soon married, and his bride, Georgia, quickly adapted to the life of a pastor’s wife. The construction program took a while because Blackstone Baptists, though small and struggling, were determined to build a worthy house which would stand for the ages. It was to be two stories with brick trimmed in Kentucky bluestone. Imposing columns and pitched roof would give it the appearance of a Greek Ionic temple sitting on the Main Street of the farming community.
The people gave sacrificially. Some subscribed four times. There were about 100 members and only about 25 heads of household with steady incomes. Others who gave included Catholic and Jewish friends. A little boy in Waco, Texas, sent five cents!
Lacy Ritter
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Yet the naysayers doubted that the building could be realized. Pastor Ritter later recalled that “many outsiders said that the task was impossible but the insiders never doubted that it could be done.” He insisted that Blackstone Baptists “remembered Nehemiah’s experience and said, ‘The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore, we — His people — will arise and build.’ The people had a mind to work. They had both faith and works. They regarded this as an investment.”
The total costs of construction and furnishings came to $11,000; yet by the time for the building’s dedication on June 19, 1910, there was a remaining debt of $2,700. The young pastor invited one of Virginia Baptists’ senior statesmen, the celebrated William E. Hatcher, to deliver the dedicatory sermon. By then, Hatcher was living at his home at Fork Union where he was raising funds for his academy. Even at age 76 (which was considered old age in those years) Hatcher was out and about almost every Sunday, preaching, fellowshipping and fundraising. Every church wanted Hatcher to come and raise money for some project.
Robert Brown
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When he arrived for the dedication, Hatcher learned that the building which he was about to dedicate did not belong to the Baptists of Blackstone. It belonged to the bank down the street. He thought it was hypocrisy to dedicate God’s house knowing that it was in jeopardy to the mortgage holder. He proposed that they pay off the debt on the spot and then he gladly would dedicate the house.
Hatcher had sent for a powerful singer from his former church, Grace Street Baptist in Richmond; and Haddon Watkins sang “sweetly and effectively, ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters.’ ” Hatcher wanted Blackstone Baptists to cast their cash into the plates. He sent the plates out and then peered into them, realizing that there was not enough to remove the debt. He sent the plates out a second time and again he knew that it would be demoralizing to announce the results. He made a third appeal, “stationed his lieutenants in different parts of the audience,” and sent the plates out a third time.
And on the dedication Sunday the people did not disappoint God or William E. Hatcher. There was enough collected on that one Sunday to remove the debt and to rejoice in the dedication of the magnificent new building. The passing of the plate had resulted in a triumph.
For over a century the grand building has stood as a testimony to the faithfulness of God’s people. In its missions program, the church also has been a testimony of compassion and caring.
There have been many new beginnings between pastors and people since Lacy Ritter’s time. And it is happening again.
On the last Sunday of January, a new pastor was installed. Robert Fitzgerald Brown and his bride, Karen Vassar Brown, have joined Blackstone Baptists in yet another new beginning. It is the first pastorate for the young minister who is the product of a Virginia Baptist upbringing and a graduate of William and Mary and Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, where he was awarded the W. Landon Miller Medal for Academic Achievement. Karen also grew up in a Virginia Baptist family in Southside Virginia. While a student at William & Mary, she was appointed a Heritage Fellow of the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies. She researched and wrote a paper on the missions work of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and Virginia WMU which was published by the Heritage Center.
For his installation service, Robert Brown chose Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus’ parable about the final judgment and the admonition to care for the needy. The Scripture reading came from the actual Bible which Blackstone Church had given Lacy Ritter exactly a century earlier. It was as if an earlier young pastor was reaching out across the expanse of time and blessing another new beginning.
Robert Brown selected the passage in Matthew because he felt it was “good advice” for him as pastor as well as for the church “as we remember what it is that we are called to do.” Brown already has been responding to that call. He served as the field coordinator for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s partnership in India and personally has ministered to the children at the Precious Children’s Home in India. He was among the many Virginia Baptists who responded to the disaster relief effort following Hurricane Katrina. He also served as a mission intern at Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond and as a chaplain volunteer at a Richmond hospital.
He and the good people of Blackstone Baptist Church are ready for a new beginning.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.