Early Memory of Church

The following is one of my earliest memories of church..
This is the way I remembered it as a 6 yr old boy...

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the sun was bright, flowers were just beginning to bloom, and birds were beginning to sing on the banks of Elk River. I was 6 years old, and was riding with my mom and dad and sister to church. Dad had just been called to preach the year before, and had only preached a few times. As a matter of fact, one of my earliest memories was in that church. My family was sitting in the back of the church, and I looked at dad and asked him if we could go home, I had already watched this service on TV! But that morning was different, I could tell something was wrong, but I didn’t know all the details. I overheard dad telling mom that, “If Gene thinks he is going to take the church from Pastor Ray, there will be a fight and a half.”
You see, Ray had been pastor for around 3 yrs, and the church had grown from around 15 in attendance to around 75 in attendance. Ray had worked hard building that little WVBC church at Falling Rock. Before Ray came to the church, Gene was pastor. Gene realized that the church wasn’t growing, so he resigned and brought in Ray to be pastor, but Gene still attended the church and had a lot of influence on the decisions of the church.
Rumors had been circulating that Gene wanted to be pastor again, and was going to take over the church. And it seemed that everything was coming to a head that Sunday morning.
We arrived at the church, and set in our usual seats. After Sunday School devotions, we went to our classes, my class was in the little building across the parking lot, and the Pastor’s wife was my teacher. At 11 O’clock, we crossed the parking lot to go to the worship service. I set down with my parents, and service began. There were about 60 in attendance that morning, and all seemed to be going well up until the time, Pastor Ray stood to take the pulpit.
He walked up behind the pulpit, and right behind him was Gene and one of the Deacons. Gene told Ray that he was not going to preach in that church again, and that he was now the pastor. Gene and the Deacon picked Ray up and threw him into the choir chairs. Some men started to come to Ray’s defense, but Ray stood up, and stopped them. Ray dusted himself off, and started walking down the aisle toward the entrance of the church. Ray’s wife, and children with tears in their eyes, followed him, and out the door they went along with the congregation. Only 8 people were left inside. On the outside, it seemed like total confusion to this 6 year old boy. What had just happened? I had never seen this on TV before! What do we do now? Ray invited us all to his house, and we had service in his front lawn. I remember watching for Gene to drive up. I was scared at that point, and thought that Gene would try to start something at Ray’s home. But he didn’t.
That was essentially the end of that church. My family started going to another church, other families just quit going. Ray started pastoring another church a year later. And by the time I was married, he was pastor of my wife’s home church. He was my pastor when I announced my calling to preach, and he was the one I chose to preach the Charge message at my ordination.
What happened to the church Gene took over? That little church beside the road has been shut down and re-opened many times since by other preachers, but it has never been a light in that community since then… Ironically, its name was New Light Baptist when we went there. Later in years, I asked Ray why he didn’t fight back, and he said that he felt that morning that God told him to be Christ-like, and that meant to him to be humble. That was one of my earliest memories of church.