CENTER HILL

Last week (May 6-9), I preached in another gospel meeting (some of you will better understand that as a revival) at the Center Hill Church of Christ nearFlorence, Alabama.  This was my thirteenth such effort with this fine congregation of God's saints.  I conducted my first meeting there in 1958, returned the following year, and have been going back every four to five years since then.

My relationship with the Center Hill church now extends to some 58 years.  I began preaching there (two Sundays a month) in 1954 when I was in high school at Mars Hill Bible School in Florence. Beginning the first Sunday of January 1955 (the middle of my senior year of high school), I began preaching every Lord's Day for the church.  This continued through the end of 1955, at which time I was one-third of the way through my freshman year at Freed-Hardeman College in Henderson,Tennessee.  My first quarter at Freed-Hardeman, I drove back to Florence each weekend to fill my appointment at Center Hill.

When I began as a "boy preacher" at Center Hill (and for the first three or four meetings I conducted there), the church met in an old white frame building. Sunday worship attendance ran perhaps 50-60 back in those days, though we always had large crowds for the meetings, with many visitors.  Over the years, the church has grown, a "new" auditorium has been constructed (though it is now over forty years old), and it has been periodically updated and maintained in a wonderful way. The old building was bricked, the inside completely re-worked into classrooms, a sound room, and an office. An additional wing of Bible classrooms also was added.  Several years ago, the church built a very nice minister's home on a spacious lot east of the building, and in more recent years a large fellowship building has been constructed between the church building and the minister's home. Ample paved parking surrounds the facilities. Worship attendance at Center Hill now runs around 200 on Sunday mornings.  The Sunday the meeting started (Homecoming Day) we had 329 present.  The meeting was well attended throughout its duration. (The Center Hill church still believes in gospel meetings, and has two more scheduled for this year—one in the summer and one in late fall.)

A nicely maintained cemetery lies behind the church building.  It was a moving experience to walk through it and to read the headstones of members past—people who were of such great encouragement to me as a young preacher.  Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are part of the church today.  As I began my morning sermon, I was touched to see a few hands go up of those who were members at Center Hill when I began preaching there nearly 60 years ago (including one of the elders and his wife and one of the deacons) as well as to see the hands of those I had baptized in the various meetings I have conducted there over the years.

Following a wonderful fellowship meal Sunday at noon and a time of visiting, we had almost an hour of singing before I brought the afternoon message that completed the activities of the day.  I sat and listened and absorbed the words of such great old gospel songs as This World is Not My Home, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be, I'm in the Glory-land Way, Peace in the Valley, Hide Me O Blessed Rock of Ages, We'll Soon Be Done With Troubles and Trials, I Walk With The King, I Believe in the One They Called Jesus, How Great Thou Art, and so many others.  Visitors came from 50 to 60 miles away for the singing.  Young boys—8, 10, 12 years old—led several songs.  Various leaders had their pitch pipes and tuning forks and were expert song leaders, with the men and women singing their various parts exceedingly well (faithful churches of Christ are a cappella where the music in their worship to God is concerned).  As I listened to and absorbed the message of those grand old songs I could not help but reflect on how they had shaped and molded the lives and  the values and the morals of the people who sang them with such feeling.  I am extremely glad that I have been shaped and molded and influenced by those "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19).

How good it was to go back to Center Hill one more time and to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ.  How good to see old friends from high school days, to visit my parents' grave in Florence, to have lunch with my brother, to think about my "roots" and what is really important in life.  Truly, Lord, You have been mindful of me!

Hugh Fulford

May 15, 2012