Nestled in the heart of Acadiana are the remains of a man known
as one of the movers and shakers of bringing the gospel to South Louisiana.
A native Alabamian, St. Clair H. Bower came to the Bayou state when only a few
Baptist churches existed in Acadiana.
His story is chronicled in the self-published book “Bower
on the Bayou.”
Nestled in the heart of Acadiana are the remains of a man known
as one of the movers and shakers of bringing the gospel to South Louisiana.
A native Alabamian, St. Clair H. Bower came to the Bayou state when only a few
Baptist churches existed in Acadiana.
His story is chronicled in the self-published book “Bower
on the Bayou.”
“These 56 years in Louisiana have been good ones,”
said Bower in his autobiography. ” … As I look back over these 56 years,
I feel that God has always put me at the right place at the right time.”
The oldest of seven children, Bower spent his early years in
Troy and Ozark, Ala. His first job was selling newspapers.
“When I was 10, my father told me that if I ever had anything
I would have to work for it, as he made a small salary and had a house full
of children,” said Bower. “So I went to work selling newspapers.”
His early life did not indicate any future significant role
in the spread of the gospel.
Bowers father discouraged him from attending church with
his mother, so at the age of 10 he dropped out of Sunday School and church.
He failed the eighth grade and almost quit school. At age 16, Bower was arrested
and “thrown in jail for trying to sneak an evil girl out of the Alabama
Baptist orphange,” which gave him a dislike for Baptists.
He spent many lazy days around the train depot, which was near
his home.
“All kinds of people hung around the depot,” said
Bower. “I soon learned to curse, enjoy evil thoughts and dirty jokes. I
was known as the town bad boy.”
One night Bowers mother insisted he take his sister,
Lucy, to a revival because she was afraid for Lucy to go by herself at night.
He was convicted at the Monday night service and gave his life to Christ the
next evening at Brundidge Street Chapel in Troy.
“Because of what the (chapel) did for her wayward son,
she had a great love for missions,” said Bower, referring to his mother.
“That love was also in my heart.”
From the time of his conversion, the chapels pastor,
C. B. Arendall, took Bower under his wing because he was convinced God had called
Bower to preach. At an associational meeting, Bower preached his first sermon
at age 17.
In 1927, Bower attended Howard College (now Samford University)
in Birmingham, Ala., and pastored Sulphur Springs Church in the Birmingham metropolitan
area, where he was also ordained. The superintendent who was responsible for
his arrest at the Bapist Orphanage, J. O. Colley, preached his ordination sermon.
Two years later, Bower attended Baptist Bible Institute in
New Orleans.
“No doors opened to me,” said Bower. “… The
climate was oppressive. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. I made up my mind not to like
South Louisiana.”
No Baptist churches existed at the time in the 12 parishes
around New Orleans.
Bower said he would have continued disliking South Louisiana
if it had not been for an event on the Bayou Grosse Tete near Krotz Springs.
While serving as a pastor of a church in Maringouin, Bower decided to take a
day off to see how fast he could travel by boat on the Atchafalaya River and
nearby bayous to Krotz Springs. Bower used the boat to preach on the river,
and many of those he preached to had never seen a preacher before, according
to Bower.
As he was traveling on his boat, it “broke down”
and Bower walked to a vegetable stand to seek help. He met an older lady and
a teenage boy, both of whom accepted Christ after Bower witnessed to them. Bower
encouraged them to tell all of their friends about Christ and the group soon
met under hackberry trees in the bend of the bayou “where my boat broke
down.”
During the 10-day meeting, 18 were saved. A church building
was constructed, even though it was during the depression. The teenage boy Bower
first met at the vegetable stand was given the honor of naming the church.
“There is not but one name,” the teenage boy remarked.
“When God broke down your boat, you brought new life to us. The name is
the New Life Baptist Church.”
Bower said he felt called to be a missionary in South Louisiana
because of that experience, although he had originally planned to move back
to Alabama and pastor a large, growing church. When he returned to BBI for fall
classes, he told his counselor there of his decision.
It was that story that saved BBI, according to Bower. The institute
was suffering financial difficulties and the Southern Baptist Covention thought
of closing the school permanently. His counselor asked Bower to tell his story
at the 1932 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla.,
to show the covention the gospel could be preached in Louisiana. BBI never closed
after that.
Bower believed that no other place has experienced more growth
by Baptists than South Louisiana.
When he moved to Louisiana in 1929, only three churches existed
in the area where he later served as Evangeline Assocation director of missions.
From 1916 to 1929, the association was not able to establish a new church. By
the time he retired in 1973, 70 churches and missions existed in the area.
The decade of the 1950s was the golden period for church growth
in the association. In Evangeline Parish, 21 churches and missions were established.
Most of the churches that exist today in the Gulf Coast and Adolphe Stagg Associations
were established during that decade.
Bower pastored other churches in Louisiana, including Calvary
Baptist Church in New Orleans, the French-English Welsh Baptist Church and Port
Sulphur Baptist Church. He said he did not want to leave Port Sulphur for Northside
Baptist but after much prayer, he accepted the call to Northside, where he served
as pastor for 14 years.
He was also a special field worker for the Louisiana Baptist
Covention for 10 years. Bower served at First Baptist Church, Lafayette, part
time from 1973 to 1983, in a variety of ministries, including teaching, hospital
visitation, counseling and preaching.
Bower remained active until the final day of his life.
Dottie Hayes, a member of First Baptist Church in Lafayette and close friend
of Bower, said he mowed his lawn and gave FBC Lafayette Pastor Perry Sanders
a sermon he had just finished writing. Shortly after midnight on Aug. 28, 1996,
he passed away, leaving a South Louisiana mission legacy for generations to
come.