Densho Digital Archive - Saburo Masada Interview (denshovh-msaburo-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

KL: I was, actually, that's one of my notes, to ask you about sort of 1960s, Civil Rights Movement, but first I want to back up and ask how you decided to become a minister.

SM: Well, actually I backed into it, because I had no idea of being a minister. Idea of a minister, has to preach, and I stuttered all, from third grade all the way through college, so there's no way I was going to be a minister. But I was willing to help out with the young people at church, I was willing to work in the church. And one day I was picking blackberries in the, one of the church families were, I was working and, working with the young people, so I was picking blackberries and someone died and -- well, two things happened. One, the family I was staying with, their baby died of crib death, and it was really sad that that happened. And I can't remember if that was the funeral service or whether it was another service. The senior minister who was from Japan and who spoke English, but it was limited, he asked me if I would preach, now that I was helping at the church. And I didn't --

KL: So you were in college?

SM: No, that was in seminary, my, end of my second year. The church asked me, in Watsonville, if I would help them, so I went and I was helping the church, worked with the young people and working on the field during the daytime. And I wasn't able to say, "No, I can't." Being a typical Nisei, I just said, "Yes, I'll do it." And I didn't know what I was talking about, but since then I had to just really work hard to preach, which was not my, wasn't, was not my thing. But I managed to do that for about six years, maybe ten years, and then I just complete speech block. And I did tell the church that I stuttered and therefore I couldn't preach. But then some healing went on, and that helped me out because the church stuck with me, even though I wasn't able to serve as a minister. And that was a big learning experience for me, about my faith and about how you help people, by not just talking but by supporting the, relating to them, and so that became a big asset to my ministry. But anyway, getting back, that's how I, so I backed into being a minister.

KL: Why'd you choose to attend seminary?

SM: Well, one was, it was, when I got out of college... course, I was going to a Christian church, and back in those days, I grew up with a very narrow, conservative theology, so I used to go to visit churches in San Francisco, I'd say, "That church is no good, that church is no good. They're not preaching the gospel." And I was really judgmental, critical, because I was told what a Christian believed and all the doctrines. I was visiting all these ministers and churches, but... let's see, where was I leading to? Oh yeah, but somehow I was interested in helping out churches, so my good friend, who was a wonderful evangelist and leader of our Japanese American churches, he got me on the gospel team. And I don't sing other than I can sing, and we're on a gospel team and we all have to give testimonies at these meetings, and my testimony was hard because I was stuttering and things like that. But he sent me a registration to Fuller Seminary. And I didn't know anything about theological school, so I just registered and ended up there, attended a church there in Pasadena, helping the youth group. And then I got called to help a youth group at another in Watsonville, and next thing I knew I was backed into preaching, which was not my choice at all. I just sort of ended up being a minister.