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Tenner Ferguson, 96, reflects on 70 years of churchgoing


Monday, September 30, 2019 || By Michael Romain || @maywoodnews 

Tenner Ferguson has been attending Second Baptist Church, 436 S. 13th Ave. in Maywood, for seven decades. Ferguson reflected on her lifetime attending the church on the occasion of its 115th anniversary, which congregants commemorated during a Sunday service on Sept. 29. This is part of her reflection, in her own words. Her remarks have been lightly edited for brevity.

I came to this church in my late 20s. I have been a member of the Gospel Chorus for 66 years and have been a member of this church for 70 years. I still belong to the Missionary Society, which is part of my heart. I just love missionary work, because that’s what we’re supposed to be doing.

On Rev. Hayden

When I first came to this church, we had Rev. Robert Hayden. He was a nice, sweet man. He was also kind of quiet — until he started preaching. He would get loose when he started preaching. It seemed like everybody liked him. And he had two daughters who could really sing. They’d sing until the power of the Lord came down. When Rev. Hayden got through preaching, no matter who preached, he’d make his way to the front door and he stood there and would shake the hand of everyone who came by. The people looked forward to that.

On Rev. Wallace Sykes

When Rev. Hayden went to be with the Lord, Rev. Wallace W. Sykes was voted in as pastor. Sometimes, when Pastor Sykes would get up to preach, he had so much power in his prayer, sometimes he’d say, ‘We can go home now, we don’t have to finish.’ He knew his word. I’ve never seen anybody who knew as much about the Bible as he did.

He was a blessing to this church and we all loved and respected him. And not only was he a blessing to this church, he was a blessing to the community. Whenever people got in trouble, he’d get things straightened out.

Tenner Ferguson, 96, has attended Second Baptist Church in Maywood for seven decades. | Facebook 

On fellowship

There were only a few black people in this area when I came to Maywood. We could only live [in a few blocks in the village — from 10th to 13th and from Madison to St. Charles].

In those early years, Second Baptist Church was the only African American church that had a building. The others were storefronts. But we all worked together. And when we needed something done in the community — no matter what it was, even politics — we all met at Second Baptist.

For Holidays, we’d go from one church to the other one. We supported each other. All five [African American] churches got together for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

We did what we had to do.

On the early prayer warriors

I remember the Wednesday noon prayer warriors. Those sisters would be so full of fire and it would be so hot [in the spirit], they’d get off their knees and start shouting. When I think about those sisters, sometimes I get happy all by myself at home.

Second Baptist has been on this corner for a long time. This church has been a blessing for this community. We used to have some kind of church here and we want to keep on having church here.

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