This Week in Texas Methodist History February 21

 

 

Student Pastors Carpool to Seminary amid World War II Gas Rationing,  February 1944

 

As the United States fought World War II, it was necessary to institute rationing of some basic supplies.  For food such as sugar and meat, civilians were issued ration booklets, and had to present stamps from those booklets to grocers in addition to paying for the food.  Tires were in especially short supply, and county boards were created to review applications for prospective purchasers of tires.  Their decisions were based on need and availability.  For example, doctors who made house calls were a higher priority than many others.  Tires at the time had inner tubes and many motorists learned how to make road side repairs with patch kits.  Gasoline consumers were assigned windshield decals indicating their need for the valuable fuel.   The phrase “Is this trip really necessary?” became popular in campaigns designed to save fuel, lubricants, and rubber for the armed forces. 

 

The Methodist tradition of circuit riding came under great strain as a result of the restrictions.  By the 1940s there was an increasing expectation that preachers would get a seminary education.  Seminary students would often serve churches.  The seminary at SMU (not yet named Perkins) enrolled students from the Texas, North Texas, Central Texas, and Oklahoma Conferences who would often travel to their circuits only on Saturday.  Spend Saturday night with a parishioner, and then be back in class during the week.   My father in 1943 served a five point circuit in Bowie County and did not have a car.  He rode a bus every Saturday morning, and when he got to DeKalb, he would find a church member to take him home that night and to church the next morning.  After the last service on Sunday night, he would get a ride back to DeKalb, catch a bus and be back in Dallas at the sun was coming up.

 

Seminary students in the Metroplex had other options, and in 1944 the Advocate reported on a six pastor car pool from the Central Texas Conference.  The student pastors were

J. B. Holt—Conference Director of Youth Work

Roy Felder---Benbrook

Wayne Reynolds—Mansfield

Ervin Gathings—Colleyville Circuit (five churches)

Nick Kupferle, Jr. -- Associate at Matthews Memorial, Fort Worth

James Cooper, --Ridgelea ( a new church he had organized the previous June).

 

The group must have had to get up very early in the morning in order to arrive at SMU by 8:00.  They scheduled their classes so they could arrive back in Fort Worth by the early afternoon so they could attend to church business, hospital visits, etc and possibly squeeze in some time for assigned homework before falling into bed exhausted.  Five of the six were married, but Felder was the only parent.  He and Mrs. Felder had a five month old daughter.  The student pastors  ranged in age from 21 to 29.  All six had B. A. degrees from Methodist colleges, five from Texas Wesleyan and one from McMurry. 

 

The seminary was well-aware of such arrangements and accommodated the student pastors by holding classes Tuesday through Friday.  In addition many of the professors came to the churches of their student pastors as guest preachers, giving them a break from weekly sermon preparation.