By Morris Hatton

FROM THE ARCHIVES PART 9: WINTER 2007

I have a rich, yet very unique spiritual heritage. I was raised in a Mennonite Brethren Church, whose members were predominately African American, like me.  The reason there are several Mennonite churches in this mountain region like the one I grew up in here in Boone, all stems back to a school and orphanage that was started by Mennonites in the early 1900’s. It was started in Elk Park for the specific purpose of reaching out to black children because, at that time, it was actually against the law to teach black people how to read. My mom went to this school and became an active participant in the Mennonite Church as a result.

My dad’s name was Rockford Hatton, but everyone called him Rock. When he was a young man he got saved and felt the call to preach. He became an evangelist through the Mennonite Brethren Church, but he preached revival services in churches of all different denominations. He even preached in white churches, which was unheard of at the time. In fact, he preached more in white churches than in black churches. When people heard that he was speaking somewhere, they would come from miles around to hear him preach.

My dad was 61 years old when I was born. I was born as the youngest of his 3 children. Because he was this old when I was born, he told me he had 2 prayers for me, He prayed that he would live to see me grow up and that he would live to see me get saved.

When I was 9 years old I started taking piano lessons. My mom saw I was good at it and she made me keep taking lessons even though I wanted to play sports and do other things. As a result of learning to play, sometimes I would go with my dad to revival services and play and sing for the congregation.

One time, after playing at a service where my dad had preached, a man came up to dad and said, “Your son sure has a talent, but does he really have a commitment to the Lord?”  I never will forget my dad’s reply. He said, “If Morris dies and goes to Hell he’ll stumble over my prayers.” That made quite an impression on me and when I was a senior in high school, I just knew it was time that I made a decision for myself to follow Christ. I knew I couldn’t rely on mom and dad’s faith or just going to church and having a Christian upbringing, so I asked Christ into my heart.

When I graduated from high school I went to a Mennonite College in Hillsboro, Kansas. After attending there for 2 years, for some reason I just felt like I should come back to Boone. I’m glad now that I did come back, because I got to be by my Daddy’s side when he went on to be with the Lord. I remember being grateful that he and I had that time together and that dad knew his prayers had been answered. However, I didn’t realize at the time what else his prayers would mean to me.

When I came back to Boone I formed a band with some of my buddies and we began to play in clubs. Though I didn’t get involved in the party scene myself, we played the parties and clubs and were beginning to make a pretty good living at it. It was in this time period that I married Alma, my childhood sweetheart.

We were happily married and I was making good money playing music, but it seemed like we could never get ahead. As I pondered what was going on, I began to be convicted about providing an atmosphere where people were getting drunk and high. Even though I knew I was saved, I remember my daddy’s statement about “stumbling over his prayers” and I made the correlation between the frustrations I was experiencing and my dad’s prayer. At this time, not only did I renew my commitment to the Lord, but I also felt the call to enter the ministry. When I announced this call to my home Church, I immediately became more active and committed to my church. The NC district of the Mennonite Church took notice of what was happening and offered to pay my way to go to a Mennonite Seminary. So, in 1975 with my wife and 2 babies I went off to seminary and we have been involved in some sort of ministry ever since.

After years of ministry in several different Mennonite Churches and having a traveling ministry as well, God has brought me back  to the church I was raised in to serve as pastor. It’s like I’ve come full-circle, but I believe the timing is right and I’m excited about what the future holds.