The Sermons of Rev. W.B. Seals

A Preacher/Teacher in Service to the Lord

talented musician and an expert photographer. His photography career spanned nearly a half-century and produced thousands of photographs and negatives. Following his death in 1995, members of the family decided to gather as many images as possible, especially the early ones. However, the search that the family conducted for the negatives and photos that chronicle our father's photographic career resulted in finding materials that are equally emblematic of his role as a minister of the Gospel. We found an unexpected treasure in the copies of the notes that he used to construct his sermons. These hand-written notes were probably also used when he preached. Many were dated and cited the church where they were delivered. The earliest one dated to 1948 with the last ones ending in 1988. Surprisingly many of the messages he conveyed have a timeless nature to them as the issues which he addressed are still relevant! This small volume is also enriched by copies of photos taken from our fathers collection and scans of some of the original notes. The majority of the sermons in this book were preached during Dad's pastorate of the Cold Spring Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. He was the pastor of Cold Springs, located at Verplanck and Woodlawn Avenues, from about 1956 to 1961. During the latter part of his tenure at the Church his sermons show signs of mounting frustration and difficulties with a faction of the congregation. I leave the analysis of this period of my fathers ministry to the reader, but I think that these sermons provide an interesting picture of the management problems that many ministers encounter in their positions as spiritual as well as organizational leaders. Finally, we were extremely fortunate that these papers werent over-looked and destroyed. I have to give special acknowledgement to my brothers, James, John and Jerry for their foresight in gathering these sermons, the negatives and photographs for preservation. Initially, I transcribed these sermons/notes and saved them to be shared with the family. It's taken over 15 years but finally they can be passed down to a generation, who were not even alive when our father died. However, I believe that these papers represent not just a family legacy as they illustrate a tradition of the Black ministry. Like so many of his peers, our father was an itinerant minister, who answered his call to ministry while keeping his day job (in my father's case, day jobs). This little book offers a glimpse into the life of a Black man, born more than a century ago, who persevered against the challenges of his day to succeed in several chosen fields.