I’ve been a member of Goshen Baptist Church, small country church in my county for over fifty years now. It was the church my husband’s family were attending when we got married. My husband’s father was a tenant farmer, which means he worked a farm owned by someone else for half of the profits. They moved several times while Darrell was growing up, usually to try to improve their circumstances. My father-in-law was a devout Christian and so whenever they moved, they found the nearest Baptist church and joined the congregation there.
So the family had good memories of times with several churches in our county, but once they joined Goshen, they stayed members there even after they retired from farming and moved away from the Goshen neighborhood. By then, my husband and I had three children and we were driving past another church to go to Goshen to be part of the same church family as his parents.
I guess I’m a person who likes roots and I grew roots in that little church. In those early church years the church was well attended for a country church with sometimes more than eighty people of all ages filling the pews. Many of the members had family connections with the other members. Darrell and I didn’t, but we always felt like family. I learned so much from the older Christians who welcomed me into their church and encouraged me to take part in the activities from teaching Bible school and Sunday school and holding down some other jobs in the church.
The church, established in 1812, has a long history. While I don’t go back that far, we do go back a good ways and so have been blessed to know many different pastors in the years we’ve been members. But then there’s Br. Fred. He first came to Goshen to preach in 1977 and stayed eleven years. Until then no preacher I had known at Goshen stayed that long. He took a break from preaching but then came back to Goshen in 1994 and stayed even longer. He loved the church and we loved him. Last week, the Lord called him home after a hard year of various health problems. He’d had a few other health scares in the last few years but always bounced back and was back in the pulpit bringing us more Bible messages. This time, he recovered in a new way by leaving troubles and health problems behind and heading up to heaven.
He loved preaching about heaven and the joys that await those who trust in the Lord. He used to love to fish and he would imagine the biggest fish he might catch up in heaven. Then he would say it would be even better than that because the Bible says heaven is better than anything we here in this life can even imagine.
Br. Fred loved the Lord and he felt things deeply. He could just think about the Jesus dying for our sins and tears would fill his eyes and overflow. He loved sharing Bible stories and truths. He did a lot of teaching from the Scripture along with preaching. He was a bi-vocational preacher who for many years taught electricity at a vocational school. The kids called him Mr. K (short for his last name, Knickerbocker) and many of them kept in contact with him long after they were out of school. While Mr. K couldn’t preach sermons at school, he did preach by the way he lived and the example he presented to his students.
The same was true for all the people he touched at Goshen. When my older two children were teens, he was their Sunday school teacher and he opened up the Scripture to them. He loved to sing and for a few years sang tenor in the Southern Gospel quartet that my husband was with. My son said one of the favorite songs he remembered him singing was “When I Stand in the Presence of the Lord.” And now that’s where he is and we can rejoice for him even as we feel sad that we will never hear him preach at Goshen again.
He led Goshen for thirty-seven years and we were ready for him to lead us longer. While he was our pastor, we built a fellowship hall that many surely thought a small church like ours might be getting in over our head. Before we’d had fellowship time in the basement of our Sunday school addition built in the 1940’s. The stairs were steep and one of our much loved older women was having trouble making it down to the basement. So we decided to step out in faith and build a place easily accessed by all our members. Amazingly, with prayer and the support of many who had those treasured roots at Goshen, we paid off the loan in about a year for a beautiful building that we dedicated to Br. Fred and named K-Hall.
Br. Fred also instigated the addition of the steeple to our church building and while he was there we remodeled the interior and exterior of the church. With faith and prayer, he helped us believe anything was possible. The COVID year has been difficult for our little church as the church was dark for several months in 2020 and early in 2021, but we’re still meeting, still worshiping, still supporting one another. But this week and for weeks to come we’re going to be missing our beloved pastor, Br. Fred Knickerbocker. Just this morning, as we sang a couple of hymns, I teared up remembering how on nearly every hymn we’d sing, he would say that was one of his favorites. It became a joke between us that whenever I would announce a hymn and he claimed it as a favorite, we’d laugh and say it was one of his five hundred favorites.
I can’t even begin to share all he has meant to our church and to me and my family through the years. So many laughs and good times. So many precious memories. So many Bible truths he shared. So much love.
Thank you for letting me share at least a few of them with you about this man of God who lived life well and faithfully.
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Beautifully said Ann! He was a true man of God. So blessed to have known him.
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Many are feeling that way right now, Faye, and he did have a large circle of influence with his school teaching and preaching. We can’t know all the people we may have somehow influenced in our lives. We can only pray that the influence is in a good way.
I am so sorry to hear of your loss and your church’s family as well. How precious to know such a wonderful servant and caring man. May he rest in peace continuing his great works from heaven .
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Thank you, Elaine. Br. Fred was a special man who loved to teach his students at the vocational school and loved to share the Bible with us at church. He was always ready to tell people how much he loved Jesus. He often said that if he were ever put on trial because he was a Christian as some in the early church were, he hoped there would be enough evidence to convict him. I’m sure the trial would have been short and the conviction sure that he was a Christian man who lived his faith.
So very sorry for your loss, Ann. It is a gift to know you will see him again someday, but still hard. Your words are such a touching tribute to him. Our founding pastor of our church passed several years ago and his memorial program had the verse from Matthew 25:23 “Well done, good and faithful servant” and it sounds like this verse very much applies to Br. Fred. Prayers for you all.
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Br. Fred didn’t have a traditional funeral but just a time to gather and remember him, Hope. But that verse would have been one that would have fit Br. Fred well. Sunday at church we opened the floor for people to share about Br. Fred, but we were all too emotional to talk, I think. Maybe when we have our next Homecoming Service in October, we can have a special time to remember and reflect on how much he meant to Goshen.
What a lovely tribute to your much-loved Pastor. I know you’ll miss him, but, also know that you’ll see him again. Our prayers are with you and the entire congregation.
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Thank you for your prayers, Judi. They are much needed as we go forward and try to follow the Lord’s will for our church.
Dear Ann,
I never tire of reading all that you write. Your article about Dr. K was so heartwarming. What a wonderful man!!! It gives me joy to think of how blessed he is now being with Jesus. What special times he is having now. I look forward to the same thing now. Thank you for all the great stories you send our way. You are one of the top blessings in my life.
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What very kind things for you to tell me, Maylin. I so appreciate you reading my words and hope you will enjoy some more in the days to come. That makes me happy to share my stories.
Br. Fred was a wonderful man and we are going to miss him. But you are so right about how much he’s celebrating and praising now that he’s with Jesus.
Oh dear Ann, I am so sorry for your loss, and all who loved and respected this wonderful man! May the Lord bring you all comfort and support in moving forward. He certainly left a touching legacy, and was certainly welcomed home by God. What a lovely testimony you shared.
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We do know that he is celebrating in heaven, Carrie. He often talked about how he looked forward to being there and now he is. He touched so many lives and lived what he believed.
So sorry to read about your pastor, but what a beautiful tribute to him. I imagine he was like a member of your family, plus your church family. God’s Blessings on your church. You will have precious memories of him.
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We do have those precious memories. Br. Fred was the same as family. He was in and out of the house here and always welcome. Thank you for your kind words, Donna Jean.
A beautiful tribute to an amazing man of God. He will definitely be missed by all those who knew and loved him. I do so miss those beloved hymns that are very seldom sung by FBC in Biloxi MS, but because it has been our Church home since 1978 we continue to worship and support them. If we mention missing the hymns we are accused of complaining and not being able to accept change. We love the Lord and at 80 years of age we continue to hang in there. The Bible is still preached by an amazing pastor who loves the Lord and today that is number one on our list.
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We are still a traditional church that sings out of the hymnbook instead of the newer songs that some churches project on a screen, Karen. We are few in number though, so it could be that the newer songs do bring in more followers. I always think the churches that do a little bit of a mixture have the best idea. Those old hymns have some beautiful words that mean so much to those of us who have been singing them for years. But you are so right that the most important thing is a pastor who loves the Lord and preaches the Bible.
My heart goes out to you and your church. I can tell you loved him so much.
I love your stories about him, especially his ” favorite” songs.
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We could tell stories about him all day, Lisa, but then that’s how it is with someone you’re known so long. I would have no way of counting up the many sermons I’ve heard him preach. The neat thing is I remember the very first time I heard him preach and the Scripture he used for his text. Matthew 22. The Parable of the Wedding Feast. He made the story come to life for me.
What a beautiful tribe. I wish I had had the opportunity the hear him preach. Just imagine his face as God said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Hugs and prayers.
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He was a really good preacher. In his later years he did a lot of Bible teaching in his sermons as he opened the Scriptures to us. He was a super sensitive man who didn’t mind shedding a few tears when he was touched by something. But his tears now will always be tears of joy.
I’m so sorry to you and your church family for the loss of your pastor, brother Fred ,Ann! Love, hugs and prayers continue …Revelation 21:4-5
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Thank you, Emily. I so appreciate your prayers and even those in my church who don’t know you will be somehow touched by your prayers too. That’s just how prayer works. I hope you are doing well.
What a beautiful tribute to your dear pastor. I’m sure today was an emotional day for all of you at church. He sounds like a wonderful pastor, friend and mentor to everyone that knew him. Even though you rejoice for him, I know how heartbreaking it is to lose someone you’re close to. I’ll pray that God sends a good man to fill Br. Fred’s shoes.
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That’s a wonderful prayer for our church right now, Lavon. We do have a retired pastor filling the pulpit for us right now. So that’s good. It would be sad to miss two Easter Sundays since our church was shuttered last Easter. Br. Fred was a great friend, part of the family, it seemed. My kids grew up with him in and out of the house like the brother to us he was.
Ann, I’m so sorry for your loss. May the Lord bring great comfort to you and the congregation.
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Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers, Caryl. Br. Fred was at Goshen so long that it will be difficult to go on without him, but I’m sure the Lord will have a plan for our church.