Skirkland@Calhountimes.com
Pastor Bert Vaughn likes his “talk-abouts.”
And after 30 years in the pulpit at Calhoun’s First Baptist Church, he has plenty. There are the knick-knacks along his wall-length bookcase to start a hundred conversations, including glass insu-lators, some clear, one aquamarine color, that he’s collected over the years.
“I’d just find them, mostly along their railroad tracks,” he said.
There are pictures of people he’s praying for, some he’s never met, and trinkets from missionar-ies from South America, Africa, and Rio. A wooden sign sits propped on one shelf declaring “Vaughn’s Mercantile. We’re cheap.”
“That one was from a musical the youth choir did,” he chuckles. A frog holding a fiddle belts out “Thank God, I’m a country boy.” This one is his granddaughter, Sarah Beth’s, favorite.
But not all of his treasures come from his time at the stone church on College Street. Walking out-side to another wing of the massive church, he points to a brilliant red stone, about the size of a softball amid the large muted tans of the others on the outside wall.
“When they built the old church downtown in 1921, ’22, a man from Calhoun who was living in Arizona heard about it,” he said. “He sent a piece of the petrified forest back, and they used it.
“When they began building this church, in 1976, someone happened to remember that and brought it over here. It’s one of my favorite talk-abouts.”
His other favorite is a mural, painted by a church member, depicting the history of the church, from its humble beginnings in the Curtis Schoolhouse in 1822. In 1852, it moved to Calhoun. During the Civil War, General William Sherman turned the church into a livestock stable, forcing the con-gregation to rebuild in 1873.
That church is later shown in a destroyed heap.
“The documents say it was a cyclone in 1888,” Vaughn said. “I think maybe it was a tornado.”
The church was rebuilt in 1889 and then followed by the rock church.
Ministering
But, while those paintings and knick-knacks give him a starting point, it’s the people that Vaughn loves the most.
“The people at First Baptist are the most deep and benevolent there are,” he said. It’s the one thing that hasn’t changed as the church has grown and added new programs and new staff.
They participate in Habitat for Humanity, having built several houses.
“Working alongside those who are receiving the homes is a wonderful experience,” he said. “It’s a blessing.”
In his tenure, Vaughn said two special memories stand out. He recently baptized three genera-tions of one family, starting years ago with the grandparents, their children, and recently the grand-children.
He also performed marriage ceremonies for two brides whose parents he also wed.
“Those are the greatest joys,” he said.
Being ministered to
While he’s used to shepherding the flock and leading them, he recently had to allow the church to minister to him and his family after he was hospitalized for several weeks due to injuries from a car accident.
“Someone joked that I’d do anything to get out going to graduation, but I wouldn’t want to do it that way again,” he said.
He missed eight Sundays, and men from the congregation took turns filling the pulpit.
“It was humbling to ministered to,” he said. “But rewarding.”
He and his wife, Ann Vaughn, who retired last year from the Gordon County School system, met at Carson Newman College in Tennessee. They married in Nashville, where his wife is from, in 1968 and will celebrate 41 years of marriage on Monday.
They are deeply involved in the community and claim Calhoun as their own.
Their children, Jesse and Jonathan, graduated from Calhoun High School, went to college at Mer-cer, then returned to Gordon County, sealing Vaughn’s bond with the community that he’s come to love.
He has been active with the Gordon County Literacy Council. “It’s sheer joy when they reach that accomplishment (of getting their GED),” he said of participants.
The church voted to give him a housing allowance instead of the parsonage after he had served there for 20 years so that he and Ann could build their home.
“I’ll die here,” said the Greenville, S.C., native. “I hope the church will let me keep going.”
Back in his office, sits a glass inkwell, still filled with ashes and dirt from when he found it.
“When we were digging the foundation for the gym, we came to an ash pile and had to dig deeper. I saw this shining in the sun and picked it up,” he said, recalling that the Calhoun City School system had been located there a long time ago. The church still uses part of the old school house, appropri-ately, as a library among other things.
“I imagine it’s pretty old,” he said of the ink well.
Undoubtedly, the little glass container is part of the history of First Baptist Church, and after three decades, Bert Vaughn is, too.
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