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J. Flowers: Margaret was there. She was nine years old when I went there. And I spent three years in
their home and completed high school there. I came to Detroit....
V. Boyd: Now just a minute. Were you having much contact with your dad during this time?
J. Flowers: Oh yes. During the summer, I was with him during the summer months. [V. Boyd: What
were you doing in the summer?] In Detroit. I would come to Detroit and work at Chevrolet for two or
three months where my dad worked. Then I would go back in the fall and go to school. After I graduated
from high school I came to Detroit to live. And so far as my formal schooling is concerned, it practically
ended there, except I enrolled at Wayne State University in Adult Education classes. I took one course in
logic down there and I took another course in the religious education department in the adult education
department. As far as my Bible training is concerned, it came principally from reading the writings of the
brotherhood. I became a constant reader of the Gospel Advocate about 1970 and also the Firm
Foundation. And then I subscribed to the Minister's Monthly when it came out and I read it until they
stopped publication of that. Other periodicals, such as Christian Teacher, and Restoration Quarterly and
many other books that have been written by our brethren. About 1964, I believe it was, the first version
of the preaching schools was opened in the Royal Oak church building and they called it the Royal Oak
School of the Bible. I enrolled in this school for two semesters and I took two basic subjects under R. C.
Oliver, a teacher by the name of R. C. Oliver. Where I took the Life of Christ and Hermeneutics and then
in the third semester Church Polity, which was taught at that time by Dean Thorman. So as far as my
formal Bible study is concerned that just about constitutes it.
Now I obeyed the Gospel when I was about twelve or thirteen years old, but like a good many
teenagers when I got in my teen years I became a little bit indifferent and kind of fell away. After I
married at 24, I came back....
V. Boyd: At 24 or in 1924?
J. Flowers: At 24, at the age of 24. I married in 1932. Then I came back to the church and I became
active, publicly active in the church about a couple of years later. But the way I was working, I could
only be there every other Sunday. But I continued to study and labored with the church until finally, they
began in the early fifties they began to talk about making me an elder. I didn't have any desire to be an
elder or a preacher. I just loved to study the Bible and I was teaching the Bible class on Sunday morning.
We had a radio program and I became the announcer for this radio program. I also made the
announcements at the church services. But it was not until 1954 that I desired to become an elder. In
1952, Brother G. E. Steward was asked to come to Southwestern Christian College. They wanted him
there to coach the boys that worked in what they called a preacher workshop to train the students to
preach. Brother Steward was preaching for the Westside. He didn't feel that it was expedient for him to
leave unless he had somebody at the Westside who he thought had enough depth of the Bible to help to
guide the church along the way. So he asked me if I would move my membership from Joseph Campau
to the Westside if they made me an elder. I had told him that I would move my membership to the
Westside, but not to become an elder. I would come to the Westside and work with them and help out in
any way. I didn't want them to promise to make me an elder because I wanted to feel like if they wanted
me, after I had been there for awhile and they got to know me, if they wanted me then they could ask me.
So I went there in '52 and in January, 1954, I became an elder of the church where I have served ever
since. In 1956, I was invited to speak for the first time on the National Lectureship in Los Angeles,
California.
V. Boyd: Okay. Before we do that, I'd like to go back and fill in some more gaps [J. Flowers: Okay.]
before we get to your first speaking. [J. Flowers: Okay.] I wish you'd go back and talk a little bit more
about your dad and his history, where he came from, and his influence in the church and just take it as far
back as you can remember - grandparents even and so on.