Eastside Baptist Church

THE PRAYER.......

INSPIRATIONAL

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Pastoral Biography...

Life-Verse : Philippians 1:6

Phl 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:

Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Pastor of 28 years, Richard K. Tosh. B.Music; M.Ministry; D.D; ThD.

My Great-Grandmother's Father, my Great-Great Grandfather, Richard Ellis was a circuit-riding Cumberland Presbyterian preacher in the mountains of North Alabama in the later years of the 19th century. After the Civil War, because the Cumberland Presbyterian church became extinct in North Alabama, he was licensed by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He died in 1898 and is buried in Winston County, Alabama. My Grandfather, M.M. Keeton, was a Nazarene preacher who quit preaching and became a singer/piano player. Once, while preaching, his boys got in a scuffle in the church and the church folks criticized him so much for not controlling his kids, that he simply quit preaching. He had been licensed in the Nazarene church in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and remained a Nazarene until he died. . He ended up in Red River County Texas and ended up playing the piano for Frank Stamps Music Company. He spent his life bringing joy with his piano artistry and his funny antics while playing. His father, Jesse Keeton was shot and killed in Paris, Texas and is buried at Roxton, Texas. The family lived in the Hillsboro and Waxahachie area after that. Somehow they moved to the Panhandle of Texas for work and that's where I was born, Pampa. . We lived in Pampa, Skellytown, Spring Creek, Stinnett, and Borger in the Panhandle...I was saved at Victory Baptist Church in Stinnett, Texas, April 15, 1959...Bro. George Jackson was my pastor... But I left West Texas after I surrendered to preach at Victory Baptist Church in Stinnett, Texas after graduating from Stinnett High School. I had moved to Lubbock after graduation and worked for a summer and became a draftsman through a business college in Lubbock... being hired by the company owned by my teacher... But, I answered the call to this ministry and left the possibility of a degree in engineering at Texas Tech on the table. I don't know that I would have earned that degree. I was working already as a draftsman, designing residential home plans. I might have just stayed there until this very day...but things change...life is moving around us constantly...others lives are changing and sometimes....we cannot help BUT change...

I left Lubbock, Texas in 1965 and moved to Dallas-Oak Cliff to attend Bible School.

I drove a 1958 Red Buick Special from West Texas to Dallas. What a great car. It would be worth over $ 10,000 now. The dorm guys rode with me a lot; but, they would have to push me off, first. Then they'd jump in and off we'd go in Dallas.

Who can forget those days?

Oak Cliff was a beautiful place to live...lots of trees and hills...wonderful people...the home of the Texas Theatre where they caught Oswald...but more importantly, home of the Stamps-Baxter Music Company and the Stamps Quartet Music Company...the home of those great singing schools...the most important place for Gospel music West of the Mississippi... Lots happened in Dallas. While living in Oak Cliff, I worked for Gospel Films Library. Our job was to receive Christian films that had been rented out, repair them, rewind them and case them and file them away until rented again. Then we would send those films out to churches all over the place. This was a part-time job while I was attending seminary in Oak Cliff. My pay was , get this, 90 cents an hour! I ate a lot of graham crackers and drank a lot of water while in Dallas. I didn't have a support system in place. No one was feeding me money. I just tried to endure. While remaining faithful to the Lord's work,

I met Emma Lee Spencer and that was that. She was pretty. She was attending seminary, too. She was a preacher's daughter. And, she played that Stamps-Baxter style of piano...she had that swing-bass, octave-chord style of playing...I was sold by her talent and dedication to the Lord's work...She had always been a piano player for church since she was a teenager. Her dad saw to that. She has taught piano lessons in Haltom City for 50 years! Her dad was a preacher...Everything fell into place... So, our ministry was born and we were married at Southside Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Her father, Dr. A.L. Spencer and Dr. B. F. Dearmore married us. That was 44 years ago as of August 14, 2010.

.... All in Ministry. I was favored to receive several degrees. Have pastored Eastside since 1982. Love the ministry. Love the people. Don't always understand them, but love them.

God knows the gains and the losses and "there's too much to gain, to lose" . I believe the people love us, too! They must.... 29 years have passed ... going on 30 years now.

Emma Lee is my miracle lady! She was struck by lightning at the church door a few years ago and survived. She suffered a severe stroke a couple of years ago and hardly missed a beat playing that piano! Thank God for the blessing of a faithful and industrious wife! She has been the mainstay in my life all these years.

Emma Lee and I began to sing together early in our marriage. We still sing together and all of our work is in the church... together....we're grateful for those who have joined with us in this work..

Our only son, Richard II, is a musician. He, as a young man, traveled with us and then with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet of Memphis, Tennessee. In his experience as a musician he played the bass guitar in an extraordinary way. He played the piano and bass for the Blackwoods and sang a 5th part behind the quartet. He traveled with The Halyards, His Glory Singers of Georgia, and Bob Wills and the Inspirationals of Fort Worth. He was always good as a musician. He won the Department of Music award at Tarrant County College as a teenager.

Due to his work with the Inspirationals, he is inducted into the Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum along with so many of hisolder performing friends..