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FROM THE BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE OR OLD SCHOOL BAPTIST MINISTERS BY DAVID MONTGOMERY AND MARK GREEN:
ELDER JOE C. HELMS
Elder Helms was born on September 15, 1928 in Marshville, NC. His parents were Thanny and Effie Helms. Both of them were members of Lawyer Springs Primitive Baptist Church. A drunk driver hit Thanny, a farmer, when Elder Helms was 5 years old. Thanny was hospitalized for nearly a year, as his leg became infected and had to be removed. His son, Joe, had to learn to plow and take on the responsibilities of being a man at a very young age. Thanny's hospitalization during the depression caused the Helms family to experience poverty, with Elder Helms often wearing his mother's shoes to school.
Elder Helms graduated from high school in Marshville, then attended and graduated from NC State University. After graduating from NC State, he taught vocational agriculture for five years. During this time, he met and married Lou Outen on May 28, 1952. In July 1952 Elder Helms was drafted into the United States Army. While serving at Fort Lee, in Petersburg, VA, Joe and Lou began to hunger to hear the God of Power preached. One weekday, they started driving in the Petersburg area looking for a Primitive Baptist Church. They pulled up into the driveway of the house of a stranger, who they saw outside working. Joe inquired of the stranger if he had ever heard of any Primitive Baptist churches in that area. The stranger said, "Let me get my wife." The wife informed Joe and Lou that they were having a church meeting in their home that night. They met their "parents away from home" at that time, Deacon and Sister, Dr. D.L. Kaufmann, who took them to the churches in that area. During that time, Elder Helms became impressed to join the church, and promised the Lord that if He would allow him to return to Lawyers Springs, he would join the church on his next visit. On the first Sunday in August 1953, after the communion service, Elder Helms asked for a home in Lawyers Springs Church. It was a day of rejoicing, for after he asked for a home, his wife and four others offered themselves to the church. Elder
V.V. Williard baptized Elder Helms the first weekend in September. Elder C.M. Mills was at the baptizing, and commented, "Today, we have baptized a Primitive Baptist preacher."
In 1956, Elder Helms was ordained as a deacon at Lawyers Springs, but Elder Helms had another burden, and the members of the church soon began to inquire of him if he felt the Lord had called him into the ministry. In October 1957, as a licentiate, Elder Helms preached in a home in Hamlet, NC. Members were there from New Hope Church in Columbia, SC, and they invited him to come preach to them. He went in January 1958. New Hope called for Elder Helms ordination in September 1959, and he was ordained in November 1959. For several years Elder Helms has also pastored 3 other churches in the Bear Creek Association. They are Pleasant Grove where he has served since 1968, Lawyer Springs, since 1975, and Mountain Creek since 1982.
At the time of this writing, he is 71 years old and is blessed to pastor three churches. His greatest joy is in serving the Lord's people. |
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