Scott Douglas Vaughan

First Baptist Cumming, GA Worship  Bulletin - Sunday, May 26, 1968 On Sunday, May 26, 1968 - 50 years ago - I was baptized during the morning worship service at the First Baptist Church of Cumming, GA by Pastor Troy Acree, who was more lovingly referred to as "Preacher Acree." I was baptized with the sisters, Rita and Lisa Ingram; Lynn Raines; and Stephen Wood, who is today a pastor. Lisa and Lynn were in Kindergarten with me, and I still call them dear, dear friends today. (The worship bulletin from that Sunday morning is pictured. I was known as 'Scotty' then, and inexplicably the church office misspelled my last name. I've forgiven them). I was 8 years old. We like to think that times were simple, but they weren't simple at all. Sure, we didn't have microwave ovens, social media, and mobile telephones, but our country was only six years removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, and worldwide tensions were still high. We were deeply involved in the V...

In 1994, I left the newspaper business to pursue vocational ministry. That led me to join the staff of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Within 18 months, I was director of marketing - one of the few department heads who was not an ordained Southern Baptist minister. In those days, it was not unusual for South Carolina Baptist pastors or churches to contact the convention and request "pulpit supply" or "substitute preaching" for a given Sunday. The requests were then matched with the available staff for that particular Sunday. One May Friday, I was minding my own business when I got the call. I was asked to go preach at a smaller membership, rural church. The pastor was retiring, and it was his last Sunday, and, well, he just didn't want to preach that last day. Go figure. I can't imagine how many others on the convention staff turned down that opportunity before it came to me, but it came to me more as an order than a request. I was at the bottom...

Dr. A.Y. Howell Jr. 1923-2018 I was fortunate to grow up in a small town just north of Atlanta. In the rear view of my life, I realize what an idyllic place it was - this place I still think of as home. It was a place where a boy could open a thin county telephone book, searching for the telephone number of a friend from school, and his mama could deduce the number based on the last names and mailing addresses in the telephone book. People just knew one another (and about one another) and lives crossed from school to church to sports to band to the doctor's office and, as I was reminded this past week, the dentist's office. Dr. A.Y. Howell Jr. was my dentist until I left Cumming, GA to attend the University of Georgia in the fall of 1977. He retired the next year, 1978. For my first 18 years, he oversaw the routine polishing of my teeth, filled more than one cavity, and always made me feel like I could tackle the world. Dr. Howell died on April 30 at the age of 95....