“Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart.”
We had homecoming at Goshen today. We were celebrating 212 years as a body of believers in this area. Our building isn’t 200 years old, but it is more than 100 years old. It was dedicated with an all day meeting and dinner on the grounds in 1889. The visiting speaker, Bro. B.F. Hungerford wrote this diary entry about the day which was on the last Sunday in September.
“5th Sunday. Took an early start for Old Goshen church 7 miles from Lawrenceburg to preach the dedicatory sermon of their new house of worship. Bro. Burford is a slow driver. Road hilly and rocky. Was two and one half hours going 7 miles. Was worried at the pace but couldn’t complain. Reached there at 10 1/2 a.m. House full of women and babies. Woods full of men and horses. After some choir singing, preached the sermon. Text Psalm 127:1 and Ex. 19:4,5,6. An old time basket dinner.”
And now all these years later we are still having those old time basket dinners to celebrate our church. Things aren’t quite the same as when Bro. Hungerford made his way to Goshen. A Sunday school addition was built and dedicated in 1949. While that was before my time, I’m absolutely sure the ladies of the church brought more baskets of food that day. Then a few years ago our little congregation stepped out in faith and built a beautiful fellowship hall next to the church. That’s where we’ve been having those basket dinners at Homecoming and for all our “eatin’ meetings” ever since.
I became part of this church family when I got married a lot of years ago. At the time, my husband’s family lived just a mile or so down the road. Darrell and I didn’t live that close but we drove the miles to attend church with his family and we never stopped driving out to our little country church even though we pass a wonderful bigger church not far from where we live. But Goshen became our church home and the drive wasn’t so bad.
Things were different when most of the little churches in our county started up. Back then, people came to church in buggies or maybe walking. So, it was like one-room schoolhouses. The people needed several spread around the county to make the trips short. Automobiles changed that and made it easier to travel farther to church, but during the Great Depression and after, most country folk had to count their pennies. They didn’t want to spend extra gas to go across the county to another church when one was right down the road from where they lived.
But times change. We still drive the ten miles or so to our country church. Other members drive the same or farther. We like the family feel of the church, but because we are small we don’t attract new people the way the bigger churches in our area do. When my children were young, the church had several families. We had all ages and enjoyed activities with the kids. Our attendance was good, sometimes 80 or more. That might not sound like a lot to you if you go to one of the big churches, but in those days, most of our church pews had people sitting in them. Now our attendance is generally around 25. Even though we do seem to be drawing in a few new people, we have plenty of empty pews waiting for new people to come on in and join us.
But we didn’t have those empty pews this morning as you can see in the picture above. Today our pews were packed and we had to bring out some extra chairs. Folks came home to enjoy a time of memory and fellowship. We had a pastor return who got his start at Goshen in 1958 and so many of the young people in the church at that time came back to see him and do some reminiscing. My husband was one of those happy to see him and his wife. You can tell that from his smile in the picture here. Bro. Al and Peggy Hardy’s visit made our day extra special and had a lot of people smiling. The day was a blessing.
Part of that blessing was having the Patriot Quartet bring the Gospel through song to us. Darrell sings bass with the group and enjoys being at Goshen on Homecoming with his fellow singers. I’ll try to post a video on FB next week of one of their songs I videoed.
Have you ever been to an old fashioned basket dinner at a little country church?
If not, as I suggested to my social media friends, you need to put that on your bucket list. And then come on out to Goshen on the 1st Sunday in October next year. Those of us gifted with another year will be here with baskets of food and a box of Famous Recipe fried chicken. You can count on plenty of delicious desserts. Today we had pies and cupcakes and banana pudding and a carrot cake trifle and brownies and well, too many to name. Nobody went away hungry.
Giveaway for Suzanne Woods Fisher’s book A Healing Touch and my book, The Song of Sourwood Mountain is still going on. I’ll pick a winner Wednesday and notify that person by email. Then I’ll share the winner’s first name and last initial here on my blog post Wednesday night. The giveaway is open to USA only. (That pesky expensive postage.) To enter you need to be 18 or older. You can throw your name in my giveaway hat by leaving a comment on this post or my post last Wednesday here where I share more about Suzanne’s book. Deadline to enter is midnight EST on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.
Comments 22
No, I don’t think I’ve been to one like that, but I have been to many birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations taking place in the church’s recreation hall where people brought a lot of food from home, and it was very good!
Author
Those other typed of church gatherings are really good too, Connie. We have a Thanksgiving dinner at our church and I know other churches in the area do a Christmas dinner. Whatever kind of gathering, whenever a group of church women and men too get together to share a potluck dinner it’s time for some good eating.
When I was growing up every Fall we went out in the country to my dad’s Cousin Lula’s church for Harvest Festival. It was their version of Homecoming. Lula and her husband lived on a farm adjacent to the church and served as caretakers. After the service we all enjoyed a bountiful and delicious pot luck dinner with lots of time for visiting. I loved playing with all my many distant cousins. Sadly fun events like those are a thing of the past today.
Author
Some churches around here used to do some different types of Homecomings too, Karen. A Harvest Festival sounds perfect for an October event. I’m glad you have those good memories of times at church with your family.
Ann, I attend a church exactly like yours. Those people are just as family to me. There is a change coming in my church soon, too lengthy to type. I wish it was vibrant as it once was but seems those days are gone. Any outreach we’ve done such as vbs or fall festivals, trunk or treats, Easter egg hunts, etc…parents will bring their children for that but not come back for a service. I really don’t know of anything else we could have done. That said, I love my church.
Author
I understand what you’re saying, Loretta. We don’t have any young families that come regularly to our church. That takes away from the services, but at the same time, we older folk need the encouragement and inspiration from a worship service too.
It does sound as if your church has done all it could to encourage growth. Wishing you blessings in the change that you say is coming for you all.
I grew up attending a small town church and many potluck meals. My brother and his family still attend but their attendance is small and they have to share a pastor with another larger church.
My church in a bigger small town is celebrating 150 years of existence. A couple of weeks ago we had a celebration with a catered banquet on Saturday evening followed by a program. Sunday the church was packed for the combined service (we normally have two services) with plenty of people who returned for the day. There were at least three former pastors and their wives and the president of the denomination was a special guest who delivered an excellent sermon. I’ve only lived here and attended for eighteen years so it’s been interesting to learn more of the history of this church.
Author
I love homecomings where former pastors and members come back for a visit, Pam. In the past here in my county, nearly every country church had a homecoming and often my husband and his gospel quartet would provide a concert for the afternoon service. But now many of the churches no longer have that service. We do at our church but now the quartet sings in the morning service since people no longer like to stay for an all day meeting. We still have plenty of cooks willing to bring food although we do buy the fried chicken these days. Other churches have gone to doing catered meals when they have the need. Someday our church may have to consider that when some of our long time members are no longer able to bring so many dishes to fill up our homecoming table. Everything changes. You miss the old ways but the new ways are good too. Glad you had a good homecoming experience with your church.
I go to a small country church and we have potluck dinners every so often. Wouldn’t trade the small country church for anything. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway.
Author
I’m with you in that I love the worship experience in a small country church, Deborah. I like how all ages can interact and how it feel so like a family. I’m sure that is often the case with larger churches too, but I still like my country church.
What a wonderful surprise to see Al and Peggy Hardy’s picture! Love them.
Author
It was so great to see them, Diana. Peggy is having memory problems but she sat down at the piano and played without a hitch. Br. Al on the other hand doesn’t look as if he’d aged a bit since I last saw him 12 years ago. The Lord has blessed him and all of us by letting him continue to serve and preach.
I’ve always attended small country churches. Mostly because I’ve always lived in or near small country towns. Even when I was young and my mom dragged us to northern Kentucky for a better job, my aunt picked us up on weekends to go to our little church. Summertime was always a time for monthly all day meetings with a wagon full of great food. There’s nothing quite like those church potluck dinners. I saw a post once that said, “I’d like to lose some weight but I belong to a Baptist church!” True…so true! 🙂
Author
Thanks for sharing your memories, Lavon. I shared a few of your comments on my Facebook “Mailbag Tuesday” today. Hope you don’t mind.
I’ve been to so many of those dinners where wagon were pulled up and food was arranged along the sides of the wagon. I actually used that idea in one of the scenes in my Rosey Corner book, Love Comes Home. It wasn’t a church dinner, but a community dinner when they were working on a house for one of the characters.
A few of our church members won’t come to the dinners because of that wanting to lose some weight. I just decide to diet the next day. LOL.
I remember well those homecoming dinners at the little church where I grew up. The farmers in the church would line up flatbed wagons to put all the food on. There was some good cooks in that church! Most of those people have gone on to Heaven now and they’re down to ten people most Sundays, so they don’t have the dinners anymore. It’s just a fond memory for those of us who remember.
Author
Our church used to bring those wagons up into the churchyard too, Tammy. And sometimes we borrowed a tent from the local funeral home. We have a small basement but on Homecoming dinners, there was never enough room for everyone. So, many went on outside to eat, sitting on steps or wherever. The concrete church sign made a good table for the men to cluster around and eat. We had to hope for sunshine and not rain. Now nearly everyone eats in our fellowship hall and it’s been great. Sometimes the kids still go outside to eat in the yard. After the pandemic which really hurt our church, the attendance was often 12 or 15, but we have built up a little since then. Many country churches are dying away, but a few are getting stronger and building into much larger churches.
I can remember going to our little country church years ago and so much wonderful singing and praising the Lord and the church was full everyone enjoying the basket dinner But most of all Hearing the Blessed Word! I can still hear all the Beautiful songs and Praising the Lord Have a Blessed Day Ann!
Author
It is more fun belting out an old hymn like “Victory in Jesus” in a little church like ours, Sarah. We made the rafters ring with that song on Sunday. It is a favorite of several of our members. One of our ladies who has passed on now really loved that song. I promised her we would put it on the list to sing on Sunday. Then she couldn’t be there that day. I just put the song on the list again for the next Sunday. She still wasn’t able to come. I figureed third time charm and it was since she was able to come. I led the singing at that time and I told our people that we would sing it every Sunday until Grace was there to sing with us. Thank goodness, we all love singing that song.
Our church is small and, in the country, too. This summer marked its 50th Anniversary. It used to have a Christian school that is now closed and was where our children attended until I started home schooling them. A lot of people came for the celebration. Our numbers used to reach into the 100’s but now is more like 50-80 depending on the week. There aren’t many young ones attending now. We are on the search for a new pastor as our last one and his family moved to another state to work at a Christian school and church. It is hard, especially on the older members who were there to help build the church with their own hands and the original pastor was there until he retired around 2010 and since then we have had 3 pastors. A lot of people came back to what was to many their “home” church and my husband recorded some of the celebration and the singing which was nice to hear with so many voices joining in on the praise. It had been quite a while since the church was so full.
Author
Glad you had a good 50 year celebration at your church, Hope. I wish I’d been like your husband and that I had recorded our singing Sunday. We always sing the doxology at the beginning of our services and it was amazing hearing so many voices filling the church with sounds of praise. As you say about your church, it had been a long time shince I’d heard voices push against the windows in our church.
We had the same pastor at our church for over 35 years. It was hard to lose him to yheaven. Our loss but his gain. But we’ve found a wonderful pastor for now too, and a few new people have begun to show up. No young families, but you know old people need a church to call home too.
We go to a smaller church also. Drive70 miles one way every Sunday and Wednesday.
The message from Gods Word is so worth it. Church is like one big family.
Author
That’s a long drive, Diana. We do have one member who comes about that far and then often drives out of her way to pick up another lady to bring her. Pat is amazing and full of love for her fellow members and everyone. We no longer have Wednesday services. We tried having Bible study for a number of years, but most people weren’t able or didn’t want to come.