Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
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For Immediate Release

RE: My Father's Image

My Father's Image

March 24, 2005

Only fifty members were in attendance. By every indication it was an average quarterly business meeting complete with committee reports and the sounds of restless paper.

Like many congregations, First Baptist Church of St. Peters was in the middle of a membership roster cleansing. Most motions moved to delete outdated contacts, recognize new memberships and the baptisms over the past three months.

But that chilled February night the chairman of the deacons ended the session with an unusual motion. A beloved member who had taken a pastoral role at another church was denied a transfer of letter. Unanimously – even with his son present in the pews.

It’s a small thing that happens each week in churches. A quick vote and a Monday morning note from the church secretary is all that is required to handshake one roster name to another.

But St. Peters said no, or at least not yet. Their ministry to the elderly husband and wife was not finished, and it was their love and concern that voiced that denial. “They are ours to minister to,” they seemed to say.

A month earlier a wayward man in his twenties, Thomas Gunter, had approached Curtis after the service for a meal. The reverend McClain took him to the church kitchen where he was robbed and assaulted. Dorothy McClain later found her husband in a pool of congealing blood from repeated injuries to the head. Thomas Gunter allegedly had beat him unconscious with a coffee jar and stolen the keys to their Buick.

Curtis McClain Sr. lay in a hospital bed for two months, never waking to see his family and friends praying bedside.

Gunter’s initial robbery and stealing charges soon became first-degree murder. After a year the alleged assailant is still sitting in jail waiting for his trial.

The news was gruesome and held a particular interest in St. Louis. A story that would have been news for a week became an ongoing development that was followed on local radio, television and in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As his son and fellow clergyman, Curtis McClain Jr., became the family spokesperson.

Interviews turned into testimonies and news that focused on the assault against McClain turned into a message about the grace of his God. “It wasn’t a hard message for me to tell. It was what my father lived.” Curtis was surprised by the attention he received in the St. Louis media, “I didn’t see it as front page news – it’s just my mom and dad.”

Curtis Jr. was sensitive to the possible sensationalism but knew he had a responsibility in the midst of his own family turmoil. “I didn’t want to play upon sympathy or to use the attention as a platform. When I was asked, I just shared what I know about my father and God’s grace.” A year later the Bible professor is still approached by people that recognized him and expressed remorse – opening a door for Curtis to tell the message once again. Curtis is not one to pass an opportunity to talk.

“My father always said that living for Christ is harder than dying for Christ,” Curtis said, obvious of the dark irony. The retired pastor never really retired from his calling and McClain admitted that his father – a bit of a nod to his Scottish heritage – never shied away from a difficult environment or situation.

Curtis and Dorothy served in churches in six states after graduating from Baylor University and Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary. Most of his churches were small or struggling. Curtis senior retired once in the nineties and accepted another position in Oklahoma. When Dorothy became ill three years later, the couple retired again and moved to St. Louis to live with Curtis Jr. In November of 2003 he accepted his final call to pastor at Broadway Baptist Church.

“I’ve changed,” McClain reflects. “I have a new sense of stewardship in my family life and in ministry. It’s my time to step up and fulfill the family role my father held. Personally I’m trying to live-up to the image that my father had of me.”

Sundays find Dorothy beside Curtis and his wife and children in the padded oak pews of St. Peters. Amidst a caring community of believers, they remember the love of McClain Sr. His name is no longer on the membership roll, but his testimony of God’s grace continues.

Photos provided by Curtis McClain Jr.

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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.

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