Merlyn Alexander - Bringing Grace, Mistakes, & Humanity Into Ministry
You're listening to the Cumberland Road, and I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. The following is a faith conversation with Reverend Merlin Alexander. He is a former General Assembly Moderator, a minister who has served in multiple congregations and states throughout his ministry. Merlin has been ordained for 71 years this month. It was a pleasure and a joy to be able to sit in his presence. This conversation didn't happen without some technical difficulties, So this episode will be a little bit different than all the previous ones. Merlin had to share a microphone with me, and because of that, there are some aspects that you cannot hear very well. I don't have a sound engineering background, so I did the best to my ability. There are a few times in this podcast where I do a voice over to give better context and maybe a little bit of volume.
T. J.:But despite of all of this, this is a faith journey of Merlin Alexander.
Merlyn:I'll begin where it began. Of course, I was born, January 11, 1932. And when I was 10 years old during a revival, I accepted Christ as my savior. And, I remember the minister his name was Welch, Brown Welch. And by the way, I was I was baptized at Infant with William t Ingram, with everybody we'll recognize.
Merlyn:And then in Cenac, I always, I attended a lot of church camps. I I think one summer, I might have, with a friend of mine, and some people will recognize, Durwood Mathias' name who served a little bit a year or 2 in South America. He said, I've got I've got transportation. You pay your fees, and we'll go. Mhmm.
Merlyn:And I think we went to South Texas, East Texas, East Texas, various places. But I I received the call to the ministry at Camp Gilmore near Gilmer, Texas when I was 16. And, of course, I went out of the care of the Presbyterian then and, began my, journey toward the fulfillment of my our nation. And I went under Dallas Presbyterian, that's the old Presbyterian under, the old Texas Synod, and, they called it the Committee on Literature and Theology instead of the Community of Proregional Care.
T. J.:Here, I asked Merlin if it was unusual for 16 year olds to enter into the ministry in the 19 forties.
Merlyn:Well, I know my friends in Bethel College were all we're about the same age, and we're all under the care of some Presbyterian. Mhmm. And, I would say it's about it might be a little unusual. Mhmm. But, I went into Bethel in 1950, fall 1950, and began to, my education.
Merlyn:I went on walked on the field to play football, and, I wasn't too good sometimes. I wasn't big enough to play. And, then I was ordained. I was married to Joanne Kidderman. Her dad came to the church in Fort Worth, First Church, First Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Merlyn:He came to be pastor. And, of course, he brought his wife and his daughter. Mhmm. And my dad and I were who was an elder. We were there to move him in.
Merlyn:And, so that's the first time I met my wife was at the age of 14, and I was 16. And, dated. And, one peculiar thing about dating was that when I graduated from Polytechnic High School, I got a job with the, Fort Worth Transit Company. I went to work at 6 PM, and I got off at 3:30 AM, 13 days straight, every other Sunday off, and there we were. I was working and courting.
Merlyn:Little difficult. She was still in high school.
T. J.:Mhmm. I asked Merlin, how do they maintain a relationship with such a busy schedule?
Merlyn:I think she she was determined. That was true. But, I graduated high school January of 1950 in January. Mhmm. That was the next to last January graduating class.
Merlyn:And Joanne, graduated the next January. Mhmm. And I was in already in Bethel, and she came right straight to Bethel in the middle of the quarter. And, by the time we both graduated in June of, I've lost my thought. Yeah.
Merlyn:We've graduated together. She she had caught up with me, June of 1954. And I had already got 6 months of seminary though. Didn't have to move. We lived in the, old barracks, which was, some barracks they moved in from army camp.
Merlyn:The first barracks had 4 apartments, 1 bedroom apartments. Mhmm. There were 2 other barracks and the barracks, those barracks had 3 apartments with 2 bedrooms Okay. With each apartment. And, of course, we could hear someone talking at the next next room.
Merlyn:If they ever hit a home run, they hit the baseball, it would come right into Bethel was not streamlined. Bethel was pretty crude at that time, the buildings and everything. Mhmm. And, but, we finally got married and September 5, 1952. And, I was ordained in December 30th 1952.
Merlyn:And she became my helpmate. I told I would tell people that when they called me to preach, they also got a Christian education worker and also got a a worker with the women. Mhmm. So they got 2 for 1. We were a team.
Merlyn:She was, worked with me all the time and, was a very big asset to my sometimes I wonder if they called me or called her to church. Yeah. To pastor a church. But, and from Bethel. I graduated from seminary in 1956 with went to the general assembly in Cook Cookville, Tennessee.
Merlyn:I was commissioned a home missionary and sent to the Faith Church in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan.
T. J.:I asked Merlin to describe the role of a home missionary.
Merlyn:Well, we went to where they had had started a new church. K. And we were to be the missionary to build that new new church that church up. Well, Saint Clair Shores, it was a break from the first church in in Detroit. And I don't think if I knew everything about it, I would have gone up there.
Merlyn:We finally bought property and they got church built on that piece of property. When I went up there, they were in a storefront, 75 $175 a month. I said, that's too much to pay. You can't do too much. So I worked around.
Merlyn:We got into an elementary school where the church is now located near it. It was only $60 a month. No no night service, so and no waste eating, which we had in the homes. And Detroit was a kind of a unusual place. I tried to do some, house to house, visitation to find out people.
Merlyn:And I think about at least 85% or maybe more were Catholic. Mhmm. They were Roman Catholic. And I've had doors slammed in my face and all that. But, then I left there and went to Middletown, Ohio.
Merlyn:Ohio only had 2 churches, both in Middletown, and I went down to Avalon Church. Only had 37 members. And I stayed there and we were discussing the relocating the church and talked about talk buying property. But I went up and moved to Birmingham, Alabama. That was bad move.
Merlyn:I stayed there 11:11 months. They were having sit ins. Bull Connor, the police commissioner, had his dogs and water and, things like that. This was 1961. Okay.
Merlyn:Let's see. Yeah. That's 1961. And the police chief was a member of our church. And so he had his problems with the the sit ins and everything Yeah.
Merlyn:That was happening. And, I wouldn't stay there very long. And I I preached the sermon. I think it was on John 316. A member got up, slammed his hymnal down and motioned for his wife and 2 children to come with him and walked out.
Merlyn:Monday night, they had a session meeting, and they began to indicate they wanted to tell me what to preach. And I reached in my pocket and said, here's my resignation. And about 2 weeks later, they came back said, won't you stay won't you stay with us? I said, no. I've already contacted somebody else.
Merlyn:And that's when I moved in 1963 to Bowling Green, Kentucky.
T. J.:I asked Berlin if he would describe more in detail this aspect of his life and his ministry.
Merlyn:Well, it it was difficult. When I worked with a transit company in Fort Worth, I had better fellowship with the blacks than I did the whites. So it wasn't a real problem with with me. I respected all people. But I was concerned about their own outlook.
Merlyn:The former pastor was a gun gun lover. And I'm pretty sure that when, they were having the sit ins, that there were deacons at the door with their with concealed weapons. But it never happened. The blacks chose to have a sit in at First Baptist, First Methodist, First this, First that. And the smallest church in Birmingham was the 1st coming to church church.
Merlyn:And so they came in and and sent them in. They probed them the the blacks came, took them to the front pew and set them down. And, so it went along about, that didn't last too long. The sit ins didn't last too long. But, anyway, I went there.
Merlyn:Had a good past I did some growth there. We did some growth in those 11 months because I did my visitation. Mhmm. Which I observed that's not always true with ministers today. It is the house to house and member to member visitation.
Merlyn:And, I think that's the whole key to the growth of a church. Ready to go to Bowling Bowling Green?
T. J.:Let's go to, yeah, Bowling Green.
Merlyn:Okay. Bowling Green. Beautiful town. The building was an old building down on a corner, about a block away from downtown area. And we bought property and the church is located.
Merlyn:They built on that property and they're prospering. That's my that's one of my high points of my ministry was the success of the Bowling Green Church. But we had to clear the title. In 1906, they lost their building to the Presbyterian Church. In 190, they built their new building.
Merlyn:And they said, we're not gonna let them get this this church. So they formed a common Presbyterian building company and sold shares. So when we started to clear the deed, the attorney said, we've got to find somebody who owns the share to clear it to sue that person. So I went to looking and found a lady that had a share. And I went to her and asked her about it.
Merlyn:And she said, how much notoriety? Well, I said, the attorney said that, it'd be a couple of times in small print in there. And, anyway, she finally said yes. So it cost us $400 to sew her, but we cleared the deed. Okay.
Merlyn:So after I left, they they finally sold the building to, I think it was cleaning cleaners. And so that was a big adventure in Bowling Creek, Kentucky that I went through. So time had passed. She was the only one. Wow.
Merlyn:And she was one of the, a person that you'd hesitate to go and sue them. You know? But that was Bowling Green. We love Bowling Green. And my wife was teaching there.
Merlyn:That's the only time she had a full time teaching job, except she had one. I forgot about the one in Memphis. Otherwise, she did some substituting into the and,
T. J.:I asked Merlin if there was a gap in time between leaving Birmingham and going to Bowling Green, a time for mending, healing, and adjusting to a new ministry. His daughter, Duana, was also in the room with us, and he looked over at her before responding in this way.
Merlyn:My children had to start school, and a little story there that if she stayed in Birmingham, she was started yep. It started out with the in kindergarten. But when we do with Bowling Green
Dewana:At 5.
Merlyn:At 5, she went all in or something.
Dewana:As of October birthday, went straight into 1st grade. No play school, no kindergarten, nothing. Nothing.
Merlyn:She went right into the 1st
T. J.:grade. Wow.
Dewana:Yeah. At 5. Yeah.
Merlyn:And the teacher said, she's just like a check-in the box. I can't keep her. But it was a good good school. It was a good experience in Birmingham. Wonderful.
Merlyn:Mhmm.
Dewana:In Bollinger. Yeah.
Merlyn:I know.
T. J.:Now how long were you in Bowling Green? 6 years.
Merlyn:6 years. From 63 to 69.
T. J.:Okay. So now we're getting into a new almost a new decade, 19 seventies.
Merlyn:I jumped out of the frying pan into the oven.
T. J.:So where's the oven?
Merlyn:Memphis. 1960.
T. J.:You were in Memphis.
Merlyn:Well, 1968 or 69? Long after Martin Luther was assassinated. Martin Luther King was assassinated. So you came Garbage strike. Okay.
Merlyn:I was there 4 years, I believe. Yeah. So it was about a year k. After he was assassinated. And, I went I went into, I decided I'd go to seminary Alright.
Merlyn:Working on an MDF. And so I drove right down through Hollywood, where the the garbage men were on strike Mhmm. And earned my MD down there. Our son, went to Tresford and graduated. She went to Tresford.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And they had a ride. They had a ride there while they were there. Mhmm. And, I have we had told her not to leave the building, Then her brother finally realized she wouldn't he didn't know where she was, so he went looking for her and found her in her room, told her to go home.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And, so it's sort of backed out of the frying pan into the oven.
Dewana:And mom taught at Manassas?
Merlyn:Oh, yes. She did get a job at Manassas. Mhmm. And, all black. They were integrating Manassas, but they were doing it with the teachers first.
Merlyn:So they brought in the white teachers and the principal said, now they've taken over our best teachers and they send us our their worst. I'm talking about my wife, one of the best teachers you could have, you know. And so, there was a young black who sold a pickup truck, and, he outdrove the police. And finally, he ran into the medium of a a highway and they called him and beat him to death. And so about the next day, my wife came into the classroom and there were some girls talking about this.
Merlyn:You know? And, so one of them said, shh. They said, Alexanders can hear us. And one of them said, well, she ain't white. So she had her, you know Yeah.
Merlyn:That said a lot to her Yeah. And to me that they realized that she respected them, you know. Mhmm. They were And didn't
Dewana:a black student pull a gun out during a fight? Yeah.
Merlyn:She had
Dewana:And she told him to put it away.
Merlyn:Took a took a gun away from a boy. That was rough. Yeah. Yeah. And, Alan graduated from Transmit.
Merlyn:Then we moved. Are you ready to move?
T. J.:You you were taking me on a journey. I'm just following along, sir. Where are
Merlyn:we going to next? Springfield, Missouri. And it was good for her because she started at the into a very good high school, Kickapoo High, in Springfield, Missouri. And they just went to Bethel. Mhmm.
Merlyn:They both went to Bethel. So, Allen and Duwada went to Bethel. And Springfield was just a regular pastor, visitation. They had promised to build us a manse Okay. Which was not built when we got there.
Merlyn:And so, we see that Alan was head graduate. Duanna was in high school. My mother my dad died, and my mother came to live with us. And until they built that new manse, the, 5 of us were in a one side of a duplex. Oh, wow.
Merlyn:They built a beautiful manse though once they got started and done it. And, my dad died, well, my mother died during this time in Fort Worth. And, see what else in in Springfield. Oh, I served as a police chaplain, volunteer police chaplain. I'd ride with them all night long or a few hours at night, you know, and enjoyed that.
Merlyn:And I think that takes care of Springfield.
T. J.:Next, I asked Merlin where he went from Springfield in his ministry.
Merlyn:I became the executive director of Oklahoma Senate. Now the Senate include the whole state of Oklahoma. Alright. I can't get I think it's divided up now in presbyteries. And, I was offered the job as from the board of missions Mhmm.
Merlyn:And, Oklahoma senate. They were to, share the cost of it. And it was to that last 3 years. Okay. And, it lasted 2.
Merlyn:Oklahoma didn't come through. The local churches didn't come through. We're there. But I visited churches, sessions, ministers, just oversight. Had the adventure of dealing with Choctaw Indians and, that was interesting.
Merlyn:We'd go down there on the weekends and spend the weekend with them. Mhmm. Very interesting. And, we enjoyed that. We spent the night in 1 I can't remember the name of them, but they ran out of propane.
Merlyn:Mhmm. I mean, it got cold. We were sleeping on the floor. And we go there on there on weekends and they would have, people come in from Dallas, and Fort Worth, and all areas. They're kind of a a reunion deal, you know.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And, we'd be there. They'd send me over here to eat and they'd send my wife over here to eat And we'd eat, you know. And, they had, pretty good food, you know. Had a meeting of a Presbyterian down there of Synod, I guess it was.
Merlyn:I got a little story about that. I was moderator of the Oklahoma Synod, and the invitation for the next meeting within Tulsa and Choctaw. And I thought I would be doing a little bit of, good feelings there and I voted. It was tie vote. Oh.
Merlyn:And the moderator, I voted for Choctaw. Just trying to get some good feelings there, you know. Mhmm. And so I got down there and old Claude Claude Gilbert? Gilbert.
Merlyn:Mhmm. He wouldn't well, I had worked and worked and worked for form a budget. And how I had the difficulty of the 2 Presbyteries had the money. Choctaws were didn't have the money. How could I have a budget that would be equal at I for all, you know.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And so we got down there, then Claude was elected moderator. And when he wanted the Choctaws to vote like he wanted them to vote, he'd step out. And all they say, raise your hand. But let me say this, a few years later, he came and apologized.
Merlyn:Mhmm. I mean, I appreciate it. When I was in Longview, he came and apologized. But that didn't help the situation a great deal at that time. Not at the moment.
Merlyn:No. Not at the moment. But we enjoyed working with the Choctaws. Mhmm. And and, did some good in Oklahoma.
Merlyn:See if I can think of anything else about that. Oh, we bought our first home. Alright. My Joanne and I bought our first home in Mustang, Oklahoma, which is a suburbs of Oklahoma City. Mhmm.
Merlyn:And that was good for us to own a home. And of course, we were on there 2 years, and so we we had to sell it after that. But, you know, as I look back, we bought it on a buyer's market and we sold it on a seller's market. So we were very the Lord was with us there because, that helped. And, by the way, that increased my salary to where it well, should have been.
Merlyn:You know? Mhmm. Because I ruined it and didn't make much money. And, but this I don't know if I don't know what the salary was, but it it moved us up into another category. And we moved down to Longview, Texas.
T. J.:So which church in Longview? 1st.
Merlyn:1st. Okay. They called it the 1st. Got it. The only one there.
Merlyn:We saw it was on Radio Street. And while we were there, we bought property and they built a church there. I never was with a church to build a church. I always bought the property. I don't know what that says.
Merlyn:But we moved we moved down to Longview and had a we finally sold the house and making they're making payments. And he moved and all of a sudden here come that money. You know, tax. What are you gonna do with that money? I don't remember what we did, but we made it through it.
Merlyn:And Longview was a nice nice church and good people. We had, some difficulty over as one circumstance. And I don't don't wanna go into that one. Sure. I understand.
Merlyn:That was rough. But I moved to Russellville, Arkansas. Okay. Another state. Another state.
Merlyn:Another presbytery. A good pastor. We we every church I think every church grew. Mhmm. And and I think might not be just me talking, but I think they were stronger when I left.
Merlyn:I think, Birmingham was stronger. They had met, difficulty in their prejudice and everything. And, I think they were stronger. And Russellville was just a pastor, visitation, and they had several old people there. And that's when I was nominated to be moderator Alright.
Merlyn:By Arkansas Presbyterian. I lost. I didn't win. John Hall won.
T. J.:Okay.
Merlyn:But I served as vice moderator. Mhmm. And, I was recognized as a Bethel College, an outstanding alumni. Oh, no. I can't think of anything else out of the ordinary.
Merlyn:Oh, it was on, it was on a a lake, and I love to go there. I can fix my boat up at night. And in the morning, be on the lake catching crop again about 20 or 30 minutes. Darnell. Lake Darnell.
Merlyn:Yeah. And we moved. My wife and I discussed it. We had been there too so much there. And I was getting older and she's getting tired of her.
Merlyn:We said we'd cut back. So about that time, I learned from Terry Maynard that, Hornwall Church was open. Fifty members, so we went there. Okay. And, there I was nominated by Columbia Presbyterian to be a moderator.
Merlyn:I won
T. J.:moderator general
Merlyn:assembly, 1996. And as moderator, of course, I was to attend all board meetings and various things, you know, churches. We went to, San Diego for a Christian education, you know. I didn't get to go overseas like, a lot of my lawyers do, but I spent most of my time dealing with, board of trustees of Bethel College. Mhmm.
Merlyn:Bethel was in debt 4 point $2,000,000. Mhmm.
T. J.:I was a student there at that time.
Merlyn:Uh-huh. Mhmm.
T. J.:But I didn't cause the debt, because I didn't have any money.
Merlyn:I called the first special meeting ever of the general assembly and dealt with that. And the O UO started paying $395,000 for Bethel. Actually, saved Bethel. That and the Success Program. Mhmm.
Merlyn:That, but the only results from that was the relieving, the impasse of his position, which caused it to become a covenant relationship. So the Covenant Presbyterian Church is no longer controlling Bethel. But we have to have many how many on there?
Dewana:50%. 50%.
Merlyn:I'm on press 15. But, we saved Bethel.
T. J.:I asked Merlin to speak more in detail as his time is moderator and navigating the times for both Bethel and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Well,
Merlyn:I had 1 minister come and caught me in the call and said, I have some young she's he said, I have some young people here who want to speak to support president Imhof. I said, this is not a cheerleading program. This is not a, route I don't know what to call it, where you come and cheer and Yeah. You know, support and vote. And I said, no.
Merlyn:They cannot come on the floor of general assembly, and they didn't. So, anyway, finally, this was worked out, and, Bethel was still in existence today. It is. Yeah. Way more than it was when I was there.
Merlyn:Way more than it was there. I'm proud of Bethel now. I feel like that's one of my, big accomplishments. Of course, someone else would have done it too but, so I was just having to be the moderator at that time that had to do it. That's right.
Merlyn:You were
T. J.:in the right place at the right time or maybe in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Merlyn:Yeah. Maybe so. We stayed at Cornwall. That's like going out 5th that's going back 15 years. We had one one traffic light.
Merlyn:I think they got 3 now. And we moved to Jackson, Tennessee.
T. J.:Okay.
Merlyn:I became associate pastor of the First Church here in, responsibility with the senior senior members. And, that worked out real well. And then Jerry, Terry Maynard left, and, I served the interim for a year. And I was we had there there was this rule in in general assembly that, after you had to have 350 members to have representatives, 2 representatives to presbytery, Two elders and 2 ministers. And we were falling short on that.
Merlyn:And so I made determined that I was while I was interim, I'd get the membership up. So when I left and Terry Huntley came, I had 316 active members.
T. J.:Just enough.
Merlyn:There ain't no more though. It has gone down. And here I am, Brookdale Independent living facility.
T. J.:How long have you been here?
Merlyn:It'd be 2 years in May. My wife died. Now 2020 was the year that, I wish I gotta mention that. Alright. On April 18, 2020, I broke my hip.
Merlyn:After that, my wife found cancer, went under hospice, and she died April 18th 2020. Mhmm. And the pandemic was 2020. Mhmm. That was a bad year.
Merlyn:So I miss
Dewana:my wife.
Merlyn:68 years. Okay. She was 86.
T. J.:It is here that we took just a couple minute pause. And then after our short break, Merlin had this to say.
Merlyn:Something flashed through my mind. Oh, I was I had 94 weddings, 233 funerals like in in Bowling Green. I was friends with the funeral director. He he would call me. He said, I have a person down here who doesn't have a minister.
Merlyn:Mhmm. Would you come down? So I had a few of those. And, yeah, looking back, I don't see how he did as much as I did. Always in here I always envy going enjoyed going to a general assembly.
Merlyn:Mhmm. I didn't keep up with how many I went to, how many I was commissioned to. My first commission, time as commissioner was in 1954. Made it Dyersburg, Tennessee. And there I was in 54.
Merlyn:That made me 32 years old. Maybe I'm switching. And dealing with elderly people, I've always enjoyed that. And I appreciate my wife going through all she did because we always did it together, and I know it was difficult for her. Memphis was difficult.
Merlyn:She couldn't find a job. Mhmm. We had a friend there who was a superintendent. He would get her places to substitute. You don't and finally, this deal with Manassas came on.
Merlyn:Anyway, the Lord had to be with us.
T. J.:I asked Merlin if he could peer into the future. What was his dream? What was his hope for the future of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church?
Merlyn:There's a lot we can we can do with our with the message that we have. I'd like to see it become more evangelistic. I don't think some of our ministers are preaching the gospel. They're not doing their visitation. And I think that's the key.
Merlyn:Of course, there comes an end to everything. I hope it's not becoming the end of, the coming of prayers here in church. I'm like that with with our nation right now. No. A nation like ours lasts about 202 100 years.
Merlyn:It's been over 200 years. Mhmm. Are we headed toward something else? I don't know.
T. J.:I then asked Merlin what were some books that he would recommend for those listening to the podcast.
Merlyn:Well, I know Tommy Campbell's work has written some good books. Mhmm. And, EK Reagan has a good book. That goes way back. I remember DK.
Merlyn:I think I bet he went to watch PGA, CPYC. Yes. Yeah. I went to I went to watch PGA with 4849, 1616, 17 years old. Wow.
Merlyn:I was I was the youngest one there. Yeah. I've been I went to went to Chattanooga, and they had something down there. I can't think where what it was. But I've been real I realized, I was the youngest one there and had attended the the 48 years.
Merlyn:Have you ever gone to camp, a youth camp? Oh, yeah. Okay. Everybody in the youth camp, when you went there and got there late at night and they give you a tick, which is like a, fill pillowcase, you know, big pillowcase and fill it with straw and sit and drink and sleep on it?
T. J.:No. No. That has not occurred to me. Okay.
Merlyn:It happened to be YPGA in Greenfields, Missouri. Yeah. We got there late at night and they just that's what they did. Wow.
T. J.:I don't believe the accommodations are like that anymore.
Merlyn:No. Well, they weren't when I found when I went back to Springfield, my wife had a cousin that worked in a factory that made could cushion, like foam? Foam. Yeah. Foam work.
Merlyn:We got them to buy foam mattresses for it. Oh, a big improvement over straw. Well, I really have no idea what's going to happen to the church. I feel I haven't been involved in church since 1999, and you lose contact with everything. Yeah.
T. J.:So around 2009 is when you retired?
Merlyn:Oh, let's see. I was 99 when I left the church, wasn't it?
Dewana:You retired in o nine. 2/9. 9.
Merlyn:In December. Yeah. I appreciate miss Burke. I felt thrown aside. But there's other ministers anyway.
Merlyn:There's no connection in what she's done to make a big difference. And, see, when I left Jackson Church, I didn't leave under good situation. So I have someone from there to come out here. I have one gentleman who had come, but he's in another church now. But he came to visit me.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And, but being here in Jackson, not having a good relationship with, the pastor and some of the people, you feel just, thrown aside, you know, Lovely. Yeah. One one other thing, my wife, we both, when we were in Cornwall, went to Vanderbilt Mhmm. And went to the process to get our bodies sent to Bethel to Vanderbilt for, what do you call it?
Merlyn:Anyway, they would take it and for the doctors to As
Dewana:a cadaver.
Merlyn:Yeah. There's a there's a term So
T. J.:you don't donated your body as a cadaver for science.
Merlyn:Right.
T. J.:Got it. I'm sure there's better term,
Merlyn:but we'll
T. J.:just go with that one.
Merlyn:And it did. That's what happened. She died about midnight and, they came all about well, I don't know what they took her. And, about a year and a 2 months, we got our ashes back Mhmm. During the pandemic.
Merlyn:And we were going to, scatter her ashes up around the birthplace of the church. Mhmm. And it has to happen. We still got our ashes. So, my bill my body will do the same, but not Vanderbilt, but the union here in Jackson.
Merlyn:Okay. That's where she went. I missed that. You we made we made the transition down here to Houston, to a union. And, so that'll happen to me too.
Merlyn:And I think they're just gonna wait and just put them together and scatter them someplace. Alright. But, but I would encourage that. It's really good on the family. And I was she died in 2020, and I didn't move here till 2022.
Merlyn:And I and my children said, what are we gonna do with dad?
Dewana:He he was saying that. That was
Merlyn:All he's doing all he's doing is sitting in that chair.
Dewana:What would be best for dad? Yeah. We did say that. You were just sitting in the chair watching TV every day.
T. J.:At this point in the conversation, I just encouraged Merlin to share stories. He had before him this big thick packet, which ended up being almost a biography of his life and his ministry. So the remainder of the podcast is just Merlin sharing some experiences and stories.
Merlyn:I of course, after I retired, I sat down and and, with a computer and wrote this this out. It starts with my, my first. My cousin made a, study of the family. And this goes back to some granddad and and his, ancestry. You know?
Merlyn:Mhmm. And then then it went on with my my, my life. I did it just, you know, not at all all at one time. Mhmm. Just,
T. J.:I hope Merlin decides to go ahead and publish his writings. He allowed me to flip through the pages as we were having a conversation. It was so detailed. At one point, just randomly flipping through the pages, I opened up to a place where he said he purchased a 2003 Buick LeSabre. Here's the story that goes with this vehicle.
Merlyn:Probably, I don't know what I put in there that I drowned that car too. I ran off into the water. Okay.
T. J.:So you have to tell the story.
Merlyn:My granddaughter, her daughter, was playing a game. She played softball for u UT Martin up here. So they had a game where it was where was it? Anyway, I was my wife and I, Joy, and I were rushing to go and and it was raining like everything. You know?
Merlyn:And went through the water about this deep in the circle and the streets. They got to she she lived out in the country a little ways, and I didn't think it was that deep. And Joanne said I forget what she said. I said, no, Joanne. It won't get any higher than it is outside of the car.
Merlyn:And we sat there while she she crawled up in the back seat, back window. They finally come, but the boat got us out. Oh, okay. Alright. But that car had just been hit a few weeks before by a deer.
Merlyn:2 does went across. I said, well, there's gonna be a buck. And I I slowed down, and sure enough, he hit the right behind my left shoulder, the the door Mhmm. Thing. And, I saw him get up and believe, you know, but it costs $26100 to get that fixed.
T. J.:They're not wouldn't allow me to drown this.
Merlyn:But, you know, I had made a mistake and didn't realize it. My insurance said it was $50 deductible.
T. J.:That's a good mistake to make.
Merlyn:But it was it was. Thank you, Lord, for that. Yeah. When I we got married. I had a 37 Chevrolet.
Merlyn:Mhmm. The first car my family ever owned. My parents ever had a car. Had a good bus system in Fort Worth and, this 37. And I drove it and I drove it and I drove it until it the, piston got to slapping and all.
Merlyn:I burned more all than I did gasoline. And, but it was I drove it a lot of miles. Odometer didn't work. Speed odometer worked, but the odometer worked. But I kept a pretty good car all the time.
Merlyn:Oh, yeah. Back when we're in Detroit. The Saint Clair Shores. I I traveled 600 miles. My wife, Joan and I, traveled 600 miles to, Donegalah, Illinois to hold a revival for Frank Blaine.
Merlyn:So we made the trip. I got sick on the way down. And we got down there, went and preached, the first sermon. And they had a coal burning stove which is leaking the the smell, you know. I got sicker and sicker.
Merlyn:And, I said, Frank, I gotta go see the doctor. So we it was a rural church. And so we went through the Dangola. He said, well, the doctor's not here right now. So got out to his house And I said, I'm I'm just too sick.
Merlyn:I gotta go. Go back in. The doctor was there. I had ruptured appendix, gangrene, and peritonitis. I was in the hospital 8 days.
Merlyn:And if it had been the Lord, I probably would have died. Mhmm. Yeah. I've got my death ex. Let's see.
Merlyn:I had a couple of them.
Dewana:How about your lemon drop, son?
Merlyn:Oh, I forgot about that. So lemon drop servant. In Middletown, how Babylon Church. Angie Angie had some blooming drops. And so the church was small and the choir always came into the preacher study to go out.
Merlyn:And and she said, if I want a lima drop. I said,
Dewana:yeah.
Merlyn:I love it. I like lima drops. So I put 1 in my mouth. About the time, it got it, you know, for a good, it said, time to go in. So I tried to swallow it.
Merlyn:What was that? It got stuck. And what
Dewana:was the name of your sermon that Sunday?
Merlyn:Okay. I went on in and held up. Started the service. And during the offertory, I went back in, tried to get it up again. You know, it's kind of almost stood up on my head.
Merlyn:And went back out, tried to serve. And I said, my first sentence was, what is death? Francis? Nurse. Francis Called the ambulance.
Merlyn:Mhmm. And they got it they got it, out and I couldn't talk for 3 days. It wouldn't let me talk for 3 days. But that's right. My sermon's on death.
Merlyn:Mhmm. There were people in there that just, you know, had a horrendous attitude toward death, you know. Mhmm. And so what is death?
T. J.:You almost demonstrated. Yes. Yeah. This is your greatest fear. I'm gonna demonstrate it for you.
Merlyn:Yeah. Wow.
T. J.:So that became known as the lemon drop sermon. That's what I'm calling.
Merlyn:Yeah. I forgot about that.
Dewana:What about the time where the you were gonna baptize the baby and the font was empty?
Merlyn:Oh, same church. Alright. Had an infant to to to baptize. And the font was empty, and I didn't realize it. And then your mother did.
Dewana:Mhmm.
Merlyn:And the car was, of course, up front. And the only way you could get to the basement and get water was down the side and down into the basement to get the water. So here goes Joanne down in the basement. Gotta come back out come back out of the car. It's the water.
Merlyn:So I took the water and drink Part of it. Oh, oh, it wasn't an infant. It was a teenager. Mhmm. I believe it was a teenager.
Merlyn:And I asked her if it's alright. She said, yeah. How come you think about those things? I try to forget them.
T. J.:Because they're funny.
Dewana:Yeah. I was all 3, but I've heard the stories.
Merlyn:And that reminds me in the bowl of Birmingham. Mhmm. I had 5 young men who had taken my confirmation class and 2 had been baptized as infants and 3 had not. So when it came down and they, joined the church, I baptized 2 that had already been baptized and didn't and didn't baptize the the others. Oh, no.
Merlyn:So the next Sunday, we Oh goodness.
T. J.:Well, it sounds like you brought forgiveness, grace, and mistakes into the ministry. You brought humanity into ministry is what I was trying to say.
Merlyn:That's humanity. Let's see. Can I think of the others?
T. J.:What's what's been your favorite part about serving God through the
Merlyn:church? Seeing people change. And legally, the young people and the ill and the seniors. When I arrived in Detroit, I dealt with 3 alcoholics. 1 had been dry for several years.
Merlyn:1 was off and on dry, and the other had not admitted that he was a alcoholic. And that was Dick told me one time and said, he left the house where he rented and he had a cough. And, landlady said, here, I'll give you something before you cough. So without saying, he he took a tablespoon of
T. J.:it, and that was enough.
Merlyn:Oh, no. He went off he went off. And, anyway, he didn't stay off very long. Well, we've gone back and talked about things I hadn't thought about.
T. J.:It's the beauty of conversation.
Merlyn:Yeah.
T. J.:Thank you for sticking to the end of this episode of Cumberland Road, and overlooking the audio flaws, the technical difficulties that happened when trying to spend time with Merlin Alexander. Thank you to Merlin for giving me his afternoon to be able to have this conversation with him and listen to his faith journey. And thank you to his daughter, Dejuana Latimer, for arranging this and making our conversation possible. In closing, I wanna share from c s Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity. Lewis writes, a Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it. And we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat, do as you would be done by, but till I'm black in the face. But I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself. And I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love god. And I cannot learn to love god except by learning to obey him.
