Martin joined the North Texas
Annual Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1922. He served the following appointments as a pastor:
Cedar Hill, Texas; the Maple Avenue Methodist Church in
Dallas;
Henrietta, Texas;
Iowa Park, Texas; and the Kavanaugh Methodist Church in
Greenville, Texas. He then was appointed Superintendent of the Wichita Falls District. His final appointment before becoming a bishop was to First Methodist,
Wichita Falls, Texas (1938–44). Rev. Martin was elected a delegate to the last General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1938. He was a delegate to the 1939 Uniting Conference of the Methodist Church. He was also a delegate to Methodist general and jurisdictional conferences in 1940 and 1944. He served as the president of the Board of Education of the
North Texas Annual Conference, and as a trustee of Southern Methodist University and of
Centenary College. ==Episcopal ministry==