A Virginia Baptist Church
Excerpts, with highlighting by R. Port of:
Jeff Todd Titon `Powerhouse for God' (Univ. Texas
P., 1988)
Methodology
People
in the field of music who read this book will recognize that it represents
my view - scarcely a novel view - that music is a part of a system of
communication involving speech, chant, and song; and that one way of coming
to understand musical performances - the best way, I believe - is to see
them as part of a system of performances, some musical, some nonmusical.
For that reason I looked hard at all the performance genres; not only singing,
but praying, preaching, teaching, and testifying. In so doing, I found
that while the performers make distinctions among genres, they hold a special
theory of language and communication that underlies and unites all genres.What
began originally as a field study involving music and culture among a contemporary
folk group, expanded, first, to a study of speech as well as chant and
song; and second to a study of the historical and religious traditions
of the performers. Finally, as the subject grew, I became interested in
the people themselves, and in
answering "why" questions
rather than just the usual what
and how.
This book belongs
to a small but growing number of interpretative works in American culture
that are based in the field of folklife.
British folklorist J. Geraint Jenkins writes that folklife's chief
aim "is to study ordinary people.... to record details of their life,
their skills, their homes, their fields, their customs, their speech, and
their leisure activities. The student of folklife searches for the
key to the world of ordinary people; he attempts to throw light on their
ill-documented day-to-day life.... Folklife is therefore an holistic approach
to the study of an organic community" (Jenkins 1972:498). Its
main American proponent, Don Yoder, defines folklife as "a newer holistic
approach that analyzes traditional cultural elements in a complex society
- whether these elements are defined as folk, ethnic, regional, rural,
urban, or sectarian viewing them in the context of that larger
unifying society an culture of which all subgroups and traditions are functioning
parts. It can focus upon the individual, the group, single cultural traits
or complexes, or the culture as a whole" (Yoder 1976:13).
The
focus of this book is on one such "key to the world of ordinary people":
religious thought and behavior. More specifically, my focus is on Language
in the practice of religion - song, prayer, preaching, teaching, and testimony
- and its place in the lives of a Baptist folk group in Virginia's northern
Blue Ridge Mountains. On reflection, these ordinary people turn out
to be not so ordinary after all, for they have sought and found a solution
to the problem of meaning in life. The book does not advocate their particular
religion, but I must admit I find much to admire in their efforts to preserve
old values and ways of life, to act on the basis of those values and create
a community for good, and in so doing to resist certain aspects of modernization.
The book is based on fieldwork conducted from 1975 through 1985 by Kenneth
M. George and myself.
I am concerned with the way religious language
helps them live their lives and understand who they are.
A Sunday Morning Service
The
members of the Fellowship Independent Baptist Church, near Stanley,
Virginia, call themselves old-fashioned, meaning that they believe they
practice the religion of their mountain-farming forefathers. I selected
this church for several reasons, but the three most important are that
they represent a major strain in Appalachian religion, that they are outstanding
performers of religious language, and that they are able to articulate
clearly and eloquently their beliefs about language and behavior. Their
doctrine falls squarely within what Samuel S. Hill, Jr., has termed popular
southern Protestantism the dominant regional religion in the South
from about 1800 to the present, which traces its beliefs, practices, and
emphasis to fundamentalism, frontier revivalism, and, ultimately,
the radical wing of the sixteenth-century continental and the seventeenth-century
English Protestant reformations (Hill 1967:23-31, 137). The heart of
the doctrine is that one becomes a Christian not through gradual maturation
and intellectual enlightenment, but by choosing to yield to God and
experiencing a new birth, suddenly and totally. Conversion begins with
an agonizing spiritual crisis, called conviction, during which one
feels condemned to hell for one's wicked deeds and sinful nature. The new
birth results from sincere repentance and a spoken prayer to Jesus as Savior
for forgiveness.
Certain
beliefs of the members of the congregation of the Fellowship Independent
Baptist Church, and of many other folk Protestant congregations
, have
special consequences for language. Except for song, almost all of their
language during worship is spontaneous. The church members say it is
led by the Holy Spirit and that at moments of particular intensity it is
understood as the direct utterance of the Lord. Such moments are apparent
even to an outsider because the words become louder, faster, and shift
from speech to chant. Language led by the Spirit is said to have the power
to change things. During worship the church becomes, in the words of the
pastor, Brother John Sherfey, a "powerhouse for God."
The
church stands in Virginia's northern Blue Ridge at the base of Roundhead
Mountain, between the mountain farms and the town of Stanley. Its entrance
looks out across the county road to the ridges and valleys in southeastern
Page County, old mountains worn through the millennia, the eroding rivers
reduced to rocky runs between the steep, wooded cliffs. Almost all of the
members of this church were born and raised on nearby mountain farmsteads,
where the names on the land tell about the topography and of the English
and Pennsylvania Germans who settled there in the nineteenth century: Pine
Grove Hollow, Hawksbill Creek, Lucas Hollow, Tanner's Ridge, Long Ridge,
Naked Creek, Basin Hollow, Stony Run, Piney Mountain, Cubbage Hollow, Dog
Slaughter Ridge, Jack's Prong, Line Run, Dovel Hollow, Jollett Hollow,
Big Meadows, Weaver Hollow, Honeyville.
The
members of the congregation built their own church. Some among them are
carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and electricians; most have done construction
work at one time or another in their lives. The concrete block foundation,
brown brick walls, and asphalt-shingled gray roof of the church are similar
to their counterparts on the ranch houses, branch banks, post offices,
and fast food restaurants that these men have built for a living. But its
rectangular dimensions, twin gables, modest steeple, unadorned windows
and door, and plain interior mark it as a country church. The exterior
measures thirty-two feet long, seventy feet wide, and twenty-three feet
to the peak of the gable above the entrance. Over the entrance door and
flat against the gable is a slim wooden cross.
At
nine-thirty in the morning on this, the first Sunday in August in the year
1977, the still air is already hot, and the weather forecast calls for
afternoon temperatures in the high nineties. But today is homecoming day
at the church, and the people will willingly put up with the heat. Homecoming
is an all-morning, all-afternoon memorial service, with dinner on the grounds
where the parking lot meets the woods. The Puritan ancestors of this congregation
abolished the church year, with its cycle of feasts and fasts and holy
days, leaving the recurring Sunday worship to mark the outstanding
observances, such as Christmas and Easter. But in this congregation the
annual homecoming service is the most meaningful holy day of all, for it
is a celebration prefiguring the heavenly homecoming when they will join
the saved among their departed loved ones and be eternally united as brothers
and sisters with Jesus and as children of God. Tears of joy will overflow;
shouts of "Glory!" will
fill the air. Homecoming is a powerful time.
First
to arrive is Brother Rastus Lam. He checks the inside of the church to
see that it is clean and orderly, then climbs back into the cab of his
blue pickup truck {to await others]. Brother Vernie Meadows and his wife,
Sister Hattie, arrive. Rastus climbs down to greet them, walking slowly,
using a crutch
Brother John Sherfey,
the pastor, arrives with his wife, Sister Pauline, their sons, Brother
Donny and Brother Charles, their sons' wives, Sister Jeannie and Sister
Pammie, and the grandchildren. They have driven in two cars to Stanley
from their homes in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. John's mother, Sister
Josie Sherfey, and his sister, Sister Elsie Sherfey McNally, will drive
north from their homes in Tennessee and North Carolina for the homecoming.
All
linger outside the church for awhile in fellowship, talking about the parched
cornfields (Page County is in the midst of a year-long drought), yesterday's
brief but welcome thunderstorm, their fall garden plantings, the health
of their friends who are ill, and their own health.
Shortly
before ten o'clock the brothers and sisters enter the church. Inside is
a vestibule with bathrooms on either side, a stairway to the basement where
Sunday school classes are held for the children, and a water fountain.
The buildings is arranged to house
a community of worships, not an altar or shrine with cult objects.The
concept is an auditorium: a large room filled with seats and dominated
by a raised speakers platform.
The
hugging, handshaking, and conversation continue inside the church as the
people prepare for worship.Brother
Allen Dove and his wife, Sister Goldie, take their accustomed place on
the third bench, just right of center.Brother
Jesse sits as always on the first bench just to the left of center. Not
everyone sits in the same place one Sunday after the next.
The service
begins with congregational hymns, but a visitor from one of the liturgical
churches would search in vain for a printed program or a billboard with
the order of worship and the numbers of the hymns. Here it is more natural
to remember the order of worship, but this is not merely out of
convenience. The language of worship, the church members believe, ought
to be determined at the moment of delivery by the indwelling Holy Spirit
and not beforehand. Liturgical books are therefore out of the question;
only the Bible and their hymnal are appropriate. The Spirit leads the people
to select whatever hymns are needed. Anyone can select a hymn by
calling out its number in the hymnal just after the previous hymn is sung.
Probably someone has a special need which will be met with the comfort
of its words. That person's need is unknown to the person who selected
the hymn, but that is the way the Spirit works.
First Hymn
Brother
John selects the first hymn: " I Will Never Turn Back".As
he sings out the first phrase, all join in, singing the melody in unison.
John stands erect like the soldier of the cross that he is, marking the
beat with quick vertical movements of his left hand, up on the up-beat
and down -on the down-beat, while with his right he holds the hymnal and
reads the words. He knows the tunes from memory; like the members of the
congregation, he cannot read the tunes at sight. But his pitch is true,
he
keeps a strong and steady beat, he sings loud, and he pitches the melody
in a comfortable range. His skills are all the more needed because the
music has no instrumental accompaniment.
Scarcely
a second passes after "I Will Never Turn Back" before Sister Janice
cries out, "107!" All turn to "I Must Tell Jesus," a difficult tune
in 9/8 meter, with plenty of breath needed for the chorus (Figure 5).
Sister
Hattie calls out 401,a
hymn John recognizes by number. "Amen," he says, "how true that is. Thank
God one day we're going someplace where the clouds will never hover.
. . . This is an old song, one Daddy used to sing a lot when he was a-living,
'The Uncloudy Day.' You don't hear this song sung too much anymore.
I heard it this past week but they kind of jazzed it up. To me, take these
old songs and jazz them up, you lose the true meaning of the song. Same
way with the gospel: if you jazz it up and change it around you, you lose
the meaning of the word of God. So I believe we ought to take it just like
it is." John acts as an interpreter, commenting before or after any act
of worship, to remind, instruct, and gain assent from the congregation's
shoutsor "Amen!"
"The Unclouded Day" is the day of eternal life in heaven, an appropriate
theme for the service.
Prayer Request
Brother
John stays behind the pulpit and asks, "Anybody have a prayer request
on your heart?" People speak up one at a time. Brother Earl: "Brother John,
I'd like for you all to remember Ella this morning." John: "Amen, Brother
Earl's wife. She's home sick this morning, she just got out of the hospital.
She was in the hospital last Sunday but she's home today unable to come
to church, so let's remember her when we pray." Others request prayer for
themselves and for people they name and talk about: some are ill, others
unsaved. The people take their time. In the silence following each request,
John asks if anyone else has a prayer request "on their heart," the seat
of the indwelling Spirit. Five or ten seconds pass, then someone anyone
- speaks up.Sister Goldie asks
for strength after the death of someone dear, an experience everyone in
the congregation has shared, and something which touches the center of
Brother John's faith. Twenty-five years ago God took away his five-year-old
son, Buddy Wayne. Brother John reflects a moment, then speaks.
"Death
comes, and sorrows hang around for a long, well, they never, I don't think
they ever go. I know every time I think about the death [that] has hurt
our family, it brings back sorrows, and certainly that's something you'll
never get rid of. It gets to the place it don't torment you as much,
but it's always there. And also in my home I think a lot about what David
said. David, when he transgressed the law of God, sinned against God, David
had to pay the price.
"You
remember the penalty David paid. God took his son away from him, wouldn't
let him keep it. And so, but old David, he done some repenting. And he
done some talking to God. He said, 'I can't call him back to be with me
but,' he said, 'this one thing I know, that I can be with him.' And I have
the same thing in my home."
Here Brother John chokes
back tears and continues in a husky voice.
"I
transgressed the laws of God, I done wrong. God took Buddy Wayne away from
me, just as sure as I'm standing here, for the life I was living. But thanks
be to God one day I'll see Buddy again. I'll take him up in my arms again
just like I did when he left this walk of life. And this homecoming, that's
what this is all about, in remembrance of those that's gone on, a memorial
day, and I hope and pray you'll remember that. And if you have a loved
one that's gone on, it's for you also."
Altar Prayer
Brother
John [calls for the altar prayer and] asks all "who can and will
to gather around the altar to pray." Most rise and come forward to kneel,
head down, hand shielding the face. Others kneel at their benches. John
asks Brother Jesse to lead them in prayer. "O heavenly father," he begins,
and suddenly everyone prays out aloud as the Spirit moves, all at once.
To an outsider this altar prayer is a confusion of voices, bedlam. To the
congregation it is an invocation of the Holy Spirit and a confirmation
of its presence, for the Spirit gives them words to pray. The sound swells
louder, and some shift from speech into a tonal chant, each burst of words
punctuated by a gasp (+hah+) before sucking in air. After nearly five minutes,
the sound fades, and the altar prayer is over when the last person is through.
Everyone rises and walks slowly back to the benches, feeling the power
of the Spirit.
Special Hymn
Brother
Belvin and his daughter, Sister Delores, come forth and stand at the pulpit.
It is time for the special-hymn singing. "Specials," as they are
called, give soloists and small groups (usually family duos, trios, or
quartets) a chance to sing and witness.
Testimony
Brother
John asks Sister Elsie if she will testify. "I don't like to turn
down an opportunity to say that I'm glad I'm saved," she says, witnessing
for the Lord. "I've been borned again by the Spirit of God, and I know
this morning that I'm one of his. I've felt him in many ways in this walk
of life, but it's always good to stand and say that I'm saved this morning.
And I require the prayers of each and every one of you here that I'll grow
stronger. But as I said before when I made a request for prayer, I know
that through the works of doctors and the works of the Lord that I'm going
to be well again, and I thank God that I had a doctor that would agree
to give me a pass to come over and visit with John. I have to be back in
the hospital tonight at eleven o'clock, so you all pray for me and I'll
pray for you."
Healing Prayer
Brother
John comes down now to the altar for the healing prayer. "I believe
God's able to heal," he says, "and to make us whole of whatever disease
it may be. And I'm a firm believer in that. James, Chapter 5, says, 'Is
any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the
prayer of faith will save the sick."' John asks Brother Donny, Brother
Charles, Sister Jeannie, and Sister Pammie to stand at the pulpit and sing
the first verse and chorus of "The Healer." Three people who wish
prayer come forward to the altar, where the deacons place a drop of olive
oil on each of their foreheads while the family quartet sings. The song
finished, Brother John grasps the Bible and says, "How many believes this
to be the word of God that I hold in my hand?" In trance-like voices
they murmur yes, they believe. "I want you to pray with me right
now, faith-believing," says Brother John. All together close, shutting
eyes, praying all at once, aloud, as the Spirit moves them. Brother John's
prayer is loudest and can just be heard above the rest
but the Lord understands
all. The deacons and those prayed over return to their benches while the
family quartet repeats the chorus of "The Healer." Nobody testifies
to a miraculous instantaneous healing. Healing is dependent on the
Lord's will; it cannot be commanded by this healing prayer.
Offering
Behind
the pulpit once more, Brother John asks for the morning offering of
money, and Brother Vernie improvises a prayer of thanksgiving. The
ushers pass the plates as the congregation stands and sings "Amazing
Grace," led by Brother John.
Normally the morning collection
comes to around $100, but this morning it is $200 because of the larger
number of people. But even the smaller amount is enough to pay the mortgage
and utilities.
Sermon or Message
The
ushers tally the collection and put the amount on the billboard for all
to see. Brother John welcomes the late arrivals and says the time has come
for the message (or sermon). He calls it a message because
it comes from God; he is only its mouthpiece. The Lord has impressed on
his mind a passage from the Bible that is appropriate to the homecoming,
First Thessalonians 4:13-18,and he begins by reading it aloud. After the
passage, he speaks to the congregation.
"I
don't know of anything, beloved," he says, "in my life that's any more
comforting this morning than to know, praise God, that there is a homecoming
day for God's people. Now, beloved, we call this a homecoming day. We have
our homecoming here at this church on the first Sunday in August each year.
And, beloved, this is a homecoming. But, my brothers and sisters, I'm looking
forward on to the great final homecoming of God's people. Beloved, that's
the one when we'll meet in the air with the Lord Jesus Christ, my beloved
friends."
The
message is wholly extemporaneous and lasts for about twenty-five minutes.
Brother John returns to the idea of the homecoming again and again as he
explains the Bible passage. He paints a word-picture of the city of God
and the arrival of the saints, and he imagines himself marching through
heaven.
"I
want to tell you
something.
When that day comes, brother, there'll be some shouting in the air. Amen?These
Baptists so dead they can't shout will shout then, praise God. Some say,
'Preacher, I don't believe in shouting in the church and I don't want to
shout in heaven, then.' I believe in it here and I'll believe in it when
I meet Jesus. I'll believe in it when I meet all of God's people on the
other side. And when I start marching down through heaven singing that
song, 'Raise the bloodstained banner,' I'll march through, have
on the most beautiful robe. [Weeping:] Elsie, I love the suit
- her and James give me this suit - but, praise God, I'll get my robe on
without a spot, without a wrinkle. You talking about an old boy amarching,
honey! [Shouts:] Whoo! Glory to God! I'll march, brother,
right down through the portal of glory!"
Weeping
and shouting like this might be indecorous in a mainline church, but this
congregation feels and expressively demonstrates its joy. Brother John
is not boasting; all the listeners imagine themselves in their glorified
bodies with white robes, marching with Jesus through the city of God. Under
a special anointment of the Spirit, Brother John begins to chant the message:
+hah+
the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord +hah+
Brother
I'm saying to you today +hah+
the
victory's in Jesus this morning.+hah+
It's
not because you're Baptist. +hah+
It's
not because you're Pentecostal.
It's
not because you're Methodist. +hah+
But
it's [claps hands] because you're saved +hah+
by
the power of God +hah+
and
filled with the Holy Ghost +hah+
brother
that you're in his care today
Listening
to this fevered chant, members of the congregation cry out, "Glory to God!"
"Hallelujah Jesus!" "Amen!" and even wordless vocables: "Ahhh I"
Brother John's periods of chant alternate with periods of speech, when
he talks and draws on familiar analogies from childhood, home, and farm
life to make the message plain. He says the church has a race to run and
likens it to running a sack race. He says when the power of God gets hold
of him he feels like the fast-moving cog on a mowing machine. He concludes
the message by telling of a vision he had of heaven. "I think I told you
this before, a long time ago," he begins.
"Pauline
remembers very well. I, some of you's maybe never heard me tell this. I
just feel like telling you this morning. I was laying flat on my back in
the bed. I don't know what happened. I can't tell you. I'm like Paul; I
was caught up into the third heaven. But I seen something I can tell you
about. Whether in the flesh or out of the flesh I don't know, in
the Spirit or out of the Spirit I don't know. I can't tell you. But I was
laying flat on my back. Brother and I thought I was dead. I thought I was
gonna die that time.
"And
I was laying there that day and something happened to me, I don't know
what happened. But I do know one thing. I got up in about twenty feet.
I was climbing this narrow path. Somebody said it was a vision. I don't
know whether it was or not, but I was going this narrow path and just room
for me to walk on it. And somebody caught me around the shoulders and tried
to throw me off, and I remember very well I did thisaway [ rolls
shoulders to left] and
they went down into the pit a-hollering. They went out of sound, out of
- they just kept a-going.. . .
"And
when I got in twenty feet of that door, the beautiful gate, and I got in
twenty feet of it, Jesus and Buddy Wayne walked by. Buddy Wayne was on
and he walked this way. The most beautiful hill I ever seen in my life. [Weeping:] I
haven't got there yet - I'm still trying to make that twenty feet - but
bless God, I'll soon make that twenty feet, amen? Praise God this
morning. And when Buddy Wayne spoke to me, that's when I come out of whatever
I was in. I come out of it, and thanks be to God this morning I'm still
traveling that narrow path. And I'm gonna keep on traveling it. Praise
God this morning. God is so real. I feel him in my soul."
Altar Call Hymn
The
message concluded, Brother John offers an extemporaneous prayer
on behalf of the congregation, then invites any among them who are unsaved,
or who "once knew the Lord but then strayed away," to come forward to the
altar for prayer. Brother Donny leads the congregation in an altar-call
hymn, "Lord, I'm Coming Home". They sing two verses and two
choruses, keeping harmony by ear. No one comes forward. Brother John asks
if anyone has a word on their heart before they dismiss for dinner on the
grounds. No one does. He says again how happy he is to see everyone, how
glad he was to feel the presence of the Lord in the service. Everyone murmurs
assent. He says he looks forward to the dinner, rubs his belly, and says
everyone knows he loves to eat. The only thing he'd rather do than eat
is preach, he says. He reminds the children not to play inside the church
while everyone else is finishing up dinner, and he invites everyone to
return for the afternoon service. It will be a song service, with a special
performance by a professional gospel group. John will give another altar
call, and the day will close with testimonies from many in the congregation,
each telling what the Lord has done in his or her life.
In
this homecoming celebration the church is heroic and triumphant. The return
is understood on a personal and communal level. It is a reunion in fellowship
with their Christian loved ones, their brother Jesus, and their father
God. But unlike other homecoming celebrations, this takes place in the
middle of the journey, in the midst of the battle. It is a celebration
for the living, not the dead. It revives, sustains, and prefigures the
final victory.
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