"Life, After All, Is About Commitments"

With the posting of this story, thirty five of the eighty five stories will be complete.  The process is a slow one as it involves scheduling conversations, having the conversations, and then writing about the conversations. Most folks think the last step, the writing, is the hardest, but for me that is the step that is the easiest.  To sit and write this blog is truly to sit with God at my keyboard. Scheduling the conversations, even asking people to share, is the most challenging as people are so busy and also so humble in their thinking about sharing.

Once the conversations are underway, the fun really begins, and, as I’ve said to more than one person, “no one has gotten injured during the writing of this blog.”  What is most interesting is that I ask very few questions during the conversations because people begin to talk and share about Hayes Barton Baptist Church and about their journeys.  I don’t have to resort to“60 Minutes” tactics to uncover the stories that we have amongst us.   

So, as I embark on writing this story, I am grappling with a part of me that wants to rush through to hit the deadline of all eighty five by Thanksgiving and another part that is telling me to take the time to be on the journey and on the journeys that these stories offer.  For now, I’ll write at a pace that offers our church the opportunity to enjoy the stories as they come, to travel along the journeys, to celebrate each one, and to anticipate the one that will come next…committed to  a deadline that falls within the shadow, albeit a long one, of Thanksgiving Day in my mind.

With that said, “number thirty five” is a person who you likely can find at church almost any day of the week, any hour of the day, any place in the church.  You might find him in the basement or, like I did on the day we met to talk, up on the roof.  We didn’t talk up there, though; we met in the conference room.  No surprise about who the person is…the person is Jerry Causey.

Jerry Causey was the first person I interviewed at Hayes Barton Baptist Church when I began writing for the church newsletter Faith Points.  The reason for the interview was to talk about the North Carolina Baptist Men.  Our conversation for the 85 stories blog also ultimately focused on the NCBM, but we had a ways to go to get back to it as a topic.  Along the “ways” were stories about growing up, Joyce, erector sets, Joyce, college, Joyce, family, Joyce, career, Joyce, church, Joyce…you get the picture, don’t you?

Jerry likes to talk about his wife Joyce.  Whether it’s the story of how they met one summer in Trenton, North Carolina, when he was invited to her home for dinner after church or about their shopping trips to Sears through the years when he would by one tool per trip as Joyce shopped or about their involvement with the NCBM, Jerry mentions Joyce and a twinkle lights his eyes.

Jerry and Joyce joined Hayes Barton Baptist Church in 1999.  They had retired to Raleigh with intentions of joining a different Baptist church, but a connection to Tom Bodkin back in Roanoke Rapids led them to our doors.  “If you join their staff,” Jerry recalls telling Tom when he was considering joining Hayes Barton Baptist’s staff, “we’ll join.”  And they did.

Jerry grew up on a very small farm which was located between Greenville and Kinston.  “My parents were my most important influence,” says Jerry, who came to Raleigh to North Carolina State University with the intention of earning a two-year agriculture degree and then going back home to farm.  “Then the biggest single turning point happened in my life,” shares Jerry, as his advisor told him:  “You are in the wrong program.  You need to be in a four-year program.”  Jerry says he “changed from going back to the farm to staying at State for four years and earning his degree, getting involved in ROTC, and flying helicopters in Vietnam.”  He met Joyce along the way, they married, and, as Jerry puts it, “It has sorta worked out at 46 years.”

Almost from day one, Jerry has taken it upon himself to fix what’s not working at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  His first chore involved working on the church’s doors which hadn’t had much attention paid to them since they were installed in the 1960s.  Projects have included things like raising the choir loft floor and the recent lighting wiring for the Fellowship Hall podium which Riley Pleasants built.  On the day we met, Jerry was trying to track down the source of a strange sound that was coming from the air conditioning units on the roof.  “I enjoy helping at the church,” says Jerry. “I think it goes back to my days at a small country church, Riverside Christian Church, which had, on a good day, 50 people attending.”

The appeal of Hayes Barton Baptist Church is multileveled for Jerry.  “Our heritage is not one that excludes.  We are a body of tolerant people who listen to varied views,” says Jerry.  “We are also a caring church, a mission-minded church, and a Christ-centered church.”  His favorite Bible verse comes into play here as he references the Golden Rule. “Matthew 7:12,” says Jerry, “‘in everything do unto others as you would have them do to you.’  That’s what we have here at Hayes Barton.”

The hope of Hayes Barton rests in “being true to ourselves,” says Jerry.  “We have to understand who we are.  We are known for having a traditional service, for example.  That is who we are. We attract people who can come here and share values and beliefs.  That is who we are.”

“Hayes Barton is a church home for Joyce and me,” shares Jerry.  “We enjoy being here and being part of this church family.  We enjoy Dr. Hailey who has been recognized as the best preacher in the state.”

Joyce and Jerry also enjoy being part of the North Carolina Baptist Men.  “Joyce and I are heavily involved.  We are always ready to go.  We have our bags packed and are committed to whatever the task at hand is,” says Jerry.  “Life, after all, is about commitments.”

Which takes us back to Joyce.  And Joyce and Jerry.  Life for Jerry is about commitments.  To Joyce and his family.  To his church and his church family.  To the North Carolina Baptist Men.  To God.  “You have to be committed,” says Jerry.  “Life, after all, is about commitments.” 

Jerry is one committed man; that can go almost without saying.  All you have to do to verify it is try to find him at the church.  He may, after all, be back up on the roof still trying to track down the strange sound he heard.  He is committed to finding…and fixing …it.