A young pastor tells how he began writing folk songs to celebrate God at work in the lives of his congregation. He is …

Archive: God’s Troubadour in Hale Center

 by Wesley Putnam Pastor, United Methodist Church, Hale Center, Texas

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love music. My dad tells a story about my standing on the front pew and singing my first solo in church at the age of three or four. The only problem was that it was in the middle of his sermon.

I was always fascinated with my dad’s guitar and any instrument I could toot, pound, pluck, or play. My parents reinforced this interest by giving me piano lessons and encouraging my brothers and me to sing together. Our gathering around the piano to sing developed into a boys’ quartet. We sang in church and wherever else we could get someone to listen.

During my high school years in Vivian, Louisiana, I played in the band, sang in the choir, and began to sing solos. By the time I graduated I was certain that music would be my life. went to college to become a performer and teacher of music.

But in my sophomore year I had a great experience with the Lord, and in the summer of 1972 I felt strongly that I was to go into the pastoral ministry. My reaction to this revelation was disbelief. I had my heart set on music and, after spending my life in a parsonage, I had very little desire to be a minister. But I knew that God loved me and was only going to lead me toward what was best for me.

By November of that year I was standing behind the pulpit of my first charge in Northeast Louisiana and I was making plans to study at Asbury Theological Seminary after finishing college.

The pastorate did not, however, silence my love for music. During student pastorates in college and seminary I began a tradition of singing my Christmas and Easter sermons. In these sermons I spliced traditional and contemporary songs together. in a sequence, connecting them with narration. I began to see that I need not choose either music or preaching, but that the two could be merged into a fuller ministry.

The first song I wrote as a pastor was an unexpected treat. I was preparing my first Easter Sunday sermon in a student pastorate in Grayson, Louisiana, and was meditating on the great love God had shown us through Christ. I picked up a pen and paper and the words seemed to flow effortlessly onto the page. I ran excitedly next door to the parsonage, grabbed my guitar, and began to put the words to music. From the writing of the first word to the time I was playing this song for my wife, Felicia, only 20 minutes had passed. This song was named, “The Gift,” not only because of His gift to me of the song, but also because of His greatest gift, Jesus. These are the words:

You know that there’s love in His heart for you,
For He’s done what nobody else could ever do.
He laid down His life in suffering and shame
And didn’t look around and ask, “Who can I Blame?”
No, He said, “I give my life freely!”
He said, “I give my life freely, and I give it for you.”
I can’t understand how God could give His Son.
But He did! You know, He gave His only one!
And now I can look to God and call Him my Father,
And Jesus Himself has called me His brother.
All because He gave His life freely.
Yes, because He gave His life freely, and He gave it for me.
Now this is the message that I carry with me,
“When you walk in the Spirit, you walk in the victory.”
For there’s nothing below, no, there’s nothing above
That can ever separate us from His perfect love!
For now He lives and gives new life freely!
Yes, he lives and gives new life freely, and He gave it to me.

This was the first, and as far as I knew then, the only song I would ever write. I remember wanting to write and even sitting down and making the effort. But for the next five years I wrote no songs.

I can see now that God was working in my life, preparing me so that the music I would write later would minister to people. Many things were preparing me. The years of study in seminary would give me a sound theological base from which to work. And the student pastorates would show me the needs people face every day. The semester I worked in a university hospital confronted me with the real world of suffering. And the struggles I had facing temptations showed me my own dependence on God. Through all of this (and much more) God was refining me—making me more sensitive to Him, to people around me, and to myself.

After graduation from seminary, I was appointed to the Lazbuddie United Methodist Church in Lazbuddie, Texas. Here I began to write songs again.

This was the first church I had pastored that had an organized youth group. Out of my own struggles with temptation, and the realization that our youth were struggling too, came “The Intercessor.” What would Jesus say if He confronted us in the moment of temptation:

Don’t do it, My child. Please don’t do it.
Satan wants to tear you down.
Don’t do it, My child, please don’t do it.
He wants to rob you of your crown.
I know he makes things look so pretty.
But all it is is make believe.
His lovely package turns up empty,
He just can’t give you what you need.
I ‘II give you strength! Stand on My promise!!
I’ll help you walk the narrow way.
I gave My all that you might know this,
My victory all his power breaks!

In July of 1979 I was moved to Hale Center, Texas. Here I began to see every situation in terms of a song. A sermon series, a special occasion, a personal struggle, or an experience in the life of one of the members-all gave me reasons to write songs.

For example, Buddy Keeler and his wife, Reba, had been married for almost 53 years. She died suddenly in the fall of 1979 and because they had no children, Buddy’s grief was compounded by loneliness. I was sitting with him in his home on the day of the funeral when he looked at me and said, “Wes, this house seems so empty now.”

What can a pastor say in a moment like that? I couldn’t say much. But I went home and tried that night to voice to God what he felt and what God would say to Buddy. The song was titled “To Live Again.”

Lord, this house seems so empty.
I never felt so all alone.
Since the one I love so left me
This house just doesn’t feel like home.
I can see her face everywhere turn
I don’t know if I ‘I I ever learn—to live again.
My child, I know it’s hard to see Me
When your eyes are filled with tears.
But I’m right here where I said I would be
And I will always be here.
Just put your hands in Mine when those tears burn
And with ‘My help I know you’ll learn—to live again.
I will never leave you! No, I will never forsake you.
Remember I once had a Son to die.
I will never leave you! No, I will never forsake you.
I will always be here by your side.
So, put your hands in Mine when those tears burn
And with My help I know you’ll learn, to live again.

A few nights later I called Buddy over to the church and I sang this song to him. It was able to minister where my spoken words could not.

In November of 1979 I was involved in an accident that did muscle damage to my lower back. In January of 1980 I was admitted to the hospital for the second time.

On the same day I was admitted, Betty Alexander had surgery for the removal of a cyst. Near the end of the week while I was tired of lying there and feeling sorry for myself, my wife told me that Betty’s biopsy was positive. It was devastating news for both Betty and her husband, Gene, who lost his first wife to cancer.

I prayed that somehow God would minister to them through me. I had my guitar with me in the hospital, so quietly, I began to work on a new song. The next day I was able to go to her room and sing the song God had given me for her situation:

When I’m cry in’ He sees my tears.
When I’m hurtin’ He really cares.
When I’m weak, on Him I lean
And nothin’s happened He hasn’t seen.
He’s all I need to see me through.
There’s really nothin’ my God can’t do!
So when I’m frightened and feel all alone
Well I may be weak—but He is strong.
When I’m walkin’ and the road is dark
He sees the finish right from the start.
So I ‘II make sure my hand’s in His
And I ‘II be stronger for know in’ this.

There are now over 30 such songs. Each has its own story. I pray that they will keep on coming and that they will minister to the needs of people in ways that my sermons alone may never do.