The Sermons of Rev. W.B. Seals (ePub)

talented musician and an expert photographer. His photography career spanned nearly a
half-century and produced thousands of photographs and negatives. Following his death
in 1995, members of the family decided to gather as many images as possible, especially
the early ones. However, the search that the family conducted for the negatives and photos
that chronicle our father's photographic career resulted in finding materials that are equally
emblematic of his role as a minister of the Gospel.
We found an unexpected treasure in the copies of the notes that he used to construct
his sermons. These hand-written notes were probably also used when he preached. Many
were dated and cited the church where they were delivered. The earliest one dated to 1948
with the last ones ending in 1988. Surprisingly many of the messages he conveyed have a
timeless nature to them as the issues which he addressed are still relevant! This small volume
is also enriched by copies of photos taken from our fathers collection and scans of some of
the original notes.
The majority of the sermons in this book were preached during Dad's pastorate of
the Cold Spring Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. He was the pastor of Cold Springs,
located at Verplanck and Woodlawn Avenues, from about 1956 to 1961. During the latter
part of his tenure at the Church his sermons show signs of mounting frustration and
difficulties with a faction of the congregation. I leave the analysis of this period of my
fathers ministry to the reader, but I think that these sermons provide an interesting
picture of the management problems that many ministers encounter in their positions as
spiritual as well as organizational leaders.
Finally, we were extremely fortunate that these papers werent over-looked and
destroyed. I have to give special acknowledgement to my brothers, James, John and Jerry for
their foresight in gathering these sermons, the negatives and photographs for preservation.
Initially, I transcribed these sermons/notes and saved them to be shared with the family. It's
taken over 15 years but finally they can be passed down to a generation, who were not even
alive when our father died.
However, I believe that these papers represent not just a family legacy as they illustrate a
tradition of the Black ministry. Like so many of his peers, our father was an itinerant minister,
who answered his call to ministry while keeping his day job (in my father's case, day jobs).
This little book offers a glimpse into the life of a Black man, born more than a century ago,
who persevered against the challenges of his day to succeed in several chosen fields.