By Ralph Vaughn
Contributing Writer, Baptist and Reflector
MURFREESBORO — F. Murray Mathis of Murfreesboro, like most in ministry, has seen and experienced mountaintops and valleys in his nearly 60 years of preaching the gospel.
His eyes well up with tears when describing how a country boy from Fayetteville has made friends throughout America and in foreign countries.
Recently, Mathis and his wife of 54 years, Loretta, were involved in what could have been a fatal traffic accident in Atlanta. The couple was broadsided at an intersection on a busy thoroughfare on May 18.
After being treated in a trauma center in Atlanta for two weeks, they were given extensive physical therapy at a facility in Murfreesboro. The couple returned home on July 4 to further recover and get their lives back in order.
One of the top goals on Mathis’ list was returning to the pulpit (which he has done) at Mount Carmel Baptist Church near Murfreesboro, which was founded in 1875. He has been pastor there for the past three years.
In addition to preaching and introducing others to the Lord, he recently had two interesting experiences. A father and son wanted to be baptized by immersion, but there was one challenge: The wife and mother of the two, respectively, was in a local hospital, seriously ill. She wanted to witness it.
Mathis made arrangements with the hospital for him to bring a cattle tub, normally used for watering livestock, to a private room on the seventh floor for the ceremony. A few days later, the lady died.
Mathis also recently participated in another baptism with some degree of uniqueness. A member of Mount Carmel, who is a grandfather and fourth generation member of the church, was joined by his son to help immerse a grandson in the Stones River as the pastor officiated. “I am a man most richly blessed,” Mathis observed.
While continuing to reminisce, he recalled accepting the call to ministry at the age of 18 at Park City Baptist Church in Fayetteville. His first pastorate came in 1961 at Hillsboro Baptist Chapel in Leiper’s Fork.
Educationally, he graduated from Belmont University in Nashville in 1965 and later earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta. Ironically, it was graduation weekend for Luther Rice Seminary back in May when Mathis and his wife had the traffic accident. He is a trustee at Luther Rice.
During a ministry that has spanned nearly six decades, he has been pastor and preached revival services for small and large churches at different locations in Tennessee and Texas, all with the same passion for serving.
His other highlights include: president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1990, former trustee at Belmont, and visiting pastor at Cavalry Baptist Church in Guam under the auspices of the International Mission Board.
Mathis, 78, said he has every intention of remaining behind the pulpit. “I want to keep on preaching and helping people until the Lord calls me home to heaven,” he said with tears in his eyes
