A good church is a Bible-centered church. Nothing is as important as this–not a large congregation, a witty pastor, or tangible experiences of the Holy Spirit. ~Alistair Begg
My husband and I have been members of a little country church ever since we got married. His family lived right down the road from the church. Darrell’s father was a tenant farmer and they moved fairly often while Darrell was growing up. Darrell has good memories of the church they had been part of before they moved to the farm close to our church now, Goshen, and they all had regrets about moving away from that church where they had so many friends among the members there. But after they had moved to the farm close to Goshen, they did what most churchgoers did at that time and looked for the church closest to them instead of driving miles to their old church.
Things aren’t that way as much now. In fact, many of our current regular members drive a good distance to come to our church each Sunday. Darrell and I drive past a much larger church to attend our little country church. After we married, we did that because his family was still attending there and we wanted to be in the church with them. Then one by one, Darrell’s brothers married and moved away. Eventually, his parents moved to a different farm farther from Goshen and then to a house they bought when they were ready to give up farming, but while the brothers found new churches, Darrell’s parents along with us kept driving back to Goshen. I loved the feeling of being in a close knit church family. I liked getting to know the older members and having them enrich my life and teach me about being a Christian. I liked my children growing up and learning about the Lord there.
Most of those beautiful Christian men and women who taught me and my children so much about the love of Christ have passed on now, and Darrell and I are the senior members. Our church lacks young members right now. As one of our members said a year or so ago, we are a senior citizen church. But the Lord doesn’t put an age limit, young or old, on Christians. He welcomes all. So does our church even though we don’t have the resources for the youth programs the larger churches have. That doesn’t mean we can’t worship and sing and pray.
We lost our long time pastor in March this year after thirty-seven years of his leadership and Bible sermons. The Lord sent us a new pastor who shares Bible sermons too, and has been a blessing to our church in the short time he’s been there. We’re hoping for many more years with him as our pastor. He has an enthusiasm for the Gospel and a love for people.
Br. Mark was excited about sharing his first Homecoming Service with us today. Homecoming Day at Goshen is a long standing tradition. While I don’t know if the church people have had one every year of the church’s two hundred and nine years, I do know they’ve had one every year since I’ve been a member there. And I know Homecoming Day was a long standing tradition before I was a member because I heard stories of those past church homecomings. I wrote about our church homecoming here on my blog back in 2018 and have a diary entry of a visiting preacher coming to help dedicate the new church building in September 1889. We still meet in that sanctuary now.
I love Homecoming Day at Goshen because of the sweet fellowship. Most of those Homecoming Days had a program of Gospel music and then a delicious pot-luck dinner on the grounds. In the early years one of the farmers might pull a wagon up into the churchyard for people to use for a table. We now have a beautiful fellowship hall that gives us the chance to enjoy food and friends even when the weather doesn’t cooperate as it didn’t today. Poured down the rain. People got soaked leaving after the dinner, but they left full of food and carried away memories of fine fellowship. I ate lunch with a former member who is 93 years old and still comes to every Goshen Homecoming Day. He has sweet memories of growing up in the church along with his ten brothers and sisters. When he was a child, the churchyard was full of youngsters. It was good to hear him talk about those times. Conversations like that are the best thing about Homecomings.
Have you ever been part of a country church and been to an old-fashioned Church Homecoming?
Comments 13
I attended several ” old time religion Baptist churches ” in KY many years ago with my grandparents. Rock Springs Primitive Baptist, Holly Fork and most recently Island City First Baptist church. I remember the revivals , or as my grandma referred to them as “protracted meetings”. The Homecomings were big events with delicious food and great fellowship. On Memorial Day the churches held ” all day meeting and dinner on the grounds.” On these Sundays the cemeteries would be cleaned off and graves decorated . Wonderful memories of special times many years ago.
Author
You do have a country church background for sure, Nancy. I like that church name Holly Fork. Maybe because of my books set in Hollyhill. I should have had David’s church named Holly Fork. 🙂
I’ve heard revivals called protracted meetings too. I think those were the ones with no ending time that went on as long as the spirit led. Carissa in her comment remembered those Memorial Day meetings too. If my church ever had those I haven’t been told about it. Sounds like a great idea though. Glad you enjoyed the memories.
Hi Ann. I truly enjoyed your personal experience with your country church in Goshen, Kentucky. I did attend a small country church with my children, when they were small. It was a community church, with a small congregation of wonderful people. Many of them were older folks, who were nurturing and caring. I felt welcome there. I made quite a few friends! Sadly, they are all deceased now. And like you, I am the older one. That church is approximately 85 miles away from where I have lived for over 20 years. Sadly, I have not attended church regularly. Many are the reasons you shared, plainly the lack of a good fit! I have attended larger, more profitable, more cliquey, etc. None were a fit, and New England, especially Massachusetts are tough areas to locate a Bible based, not doctrine based church.
Author
We’re not in Goshen, Kentucky, Carrie. The church is in Anderson County, but the founders named the church Goshen for the Goshen in the Old Testament, a region of ancient Egypt, east of the Nile delta: granted to Jacob and his descendants by the king of Egypt and inhabited by them until the Exodus (Genesis 45:10). Goshen came to be considered a place of comfort and plenty.
Our church has certainly had a plentitude of blessings through the years.
I’m glad you and your children had that good experience of attending a country church. But our older friends do have a way of graduating to heaven. I’m sorry you haven’t found a church that you feel good about attending lately. But there are so many ways to worship in this virtual world. Perhaps some of those ways will be a blessing to you.
I grew up in a little county Baptist church. My husband and I were married there 35 years ago last May. The church closed after its 100th anniversary. The building which was in Minnesota was moved across the river to North Dakota and became the Blessing Museum. Lauraine Snelling based her Red River of the North series on the area. I was able to meet her this past summer.
Author
We have often wondered if we could keep going in our church, Una. Our congregation is small but faithful in attendance and giving. So far we’ve kept the doors open although we can’t pull in many younger people.
That’s so neat that the church building was moved to North Dakota and became the Blessing Museum. I know Lauraine’s books are very, very popular in that area and so is Lauraine. She’s a sweetheart. Glad you got to meet her.
I grew up attending a small country Baptist church in which my great grandparents were some of the founding members, my great grandpa was even the pastor for a while. In the fall we had home coming complete with potlock afterwards. In late spring we had something similar, but afterwards we cleaned up the cemetery attached to the church to get ready for Memorial day
Author
I like that spring clean-up idea, Carissa. We have often had clean-up days but never had a pot-luck dinner with that. That might have gotten more people interested in coming to help out. 🙂
Sounds as if you know firsthand about those country churches and homecomings. I love seeing past members who come back to visit and family members who show up to enjoy the day with us.
When I was a child we called them basket dinners. They were held at the park, us kids would walk around the race track and catch up on each others life. We drove from Danville Il to Covington IN in a 1928 Buick, took us a while, now just a short trip, but sure have good memories of that time, and how good the food smelled in the car.
Author
What fun, Donna Jean. I have been to one church homecoming that was held at a park instead of the church. I’ve been to a lot of church homecomings because of my husband singing in gospel quartets for over 40 years. The homecomings here in Kentucky would often have gospel singings in the afternoons after a regular morning service with maybe a former pastor coming back to preach and then the dinner on the grounds before the afternoon singing. So many great dinners back then. Not as many churches have the homecoming services any more. None of the big churches do, but some of them do have dinners for new members, funeral dinners and so forth. Even the country churches don’t do the fellowship dinners as much. I think the pandemic stopped many of them and we thought about not doing ours but we decided to go ahead since most of our members have gotten the Covid vaccination. Prayers now that we all stay well.
Hey Donna. This is Ann’s husband Darrell. Just thought I’d mention that I know the area you are talking about very well. I have sung in a number of churches in that area and a very good friend of mine, who is a former quartet member, is pastoring two churches in or around Covington now. Just thought it was a small world thing.
I love small country churches! There’s just something about being part of a close knit group of worshippers. And those homecoming and other potluck dinners are the best! I heard a lady say once, “I can’t lose any weight…I belong to a Baptist church!”
I’m glad you had a great day yesterday. I’ll keep an eye out on Facebook, in case you share some of the music. 😊
Author
There was some wonderful eating at our Homecoming dinner, Lavon. That’s for sure. My problem is I would rather talk than eat. So, I’m flitting around talking to this or that person I haven’t seen for a while. I do manage to try some of the desserts before they’re all gone. Yesterday I ate a sliver of peanut butter pie and a slice of strawberry cake. If I hadn’t been talking so much, I could have tried a few more desserts. 🙂
Guess I’ll have to wait to see if Facebook gets repaired before I can post any of the music. The Patriots were a little handicapped without their lead singer who is in the hospital with diabetes related health issues, but they didn’t do too badly.