A better description, I can't imagine of the revivals.  Although I will always love the music with which I was reared, and there is nothing better than a good southern gospel quartet, I chose the Episcopal Church as an adult, and without casting aspersions, part of the reason was because of the services I attended as a child. -----Original Message----- From: Stanley Browning <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: Business Source <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 6:17 pm Subject: [WVWYOMIN] More About Church This will be my last one about church- I promise. STAN Revival meetings were special times, a real win-win situation. Young eople looked forward to them because many youngsters, particularly irls, were never allowed to go anywhere but church. Not only did he young people have two weeks extra during which they could meet nd know one another, the evangelists were served up with a house ull of young pagans in need of salvation. Salvation, as often as ot, did not stick, and many backslidden Christians came back again nd again from one revival to the next for refresher courses. A typical revival meeting began with lots of singing. Several boys ould be found lining the back pews on either side of the aisle. The wayward” girls of the community chose seats in the pews directly in ront of the boys, while, except for an occasional glance back at the ogue’s gallery, the “good” girls sat dutifully by their mothers arther up front. After some extremely emotional singing and the ood was set, the visiting evangelist began to preach. And he reached. And he preached, and .... . By the time he passed Psalms n his way through the Bible, I was ready to bail out. Too many of ur Appalachian self-trained preachers liked to ramble a lot. Finally, just before he was totally exhausted, the evangelist, ssisted by leaders of the church, extended an alter call. The ongregation began singing “Just as I Am” and dedicated church embers spread out all over the church in search of people who showed igns of “being under conviction.” The back rows became very rowded, as Christians and sinners met. Members stood and talked at ength to the ones they had targeted in efforts to get them to “walk he aisle” and give their hearts to Jesus. No “unsaved” person scaped these confrontations. This was always a very uncomfortable ime for me as I felt no desire to put myself on display and be mbarrassed in front of all those people by going up front and umbling myself at the alter. I believe some may have responded as a eans of getting rid of their tormentors. In typical fashion two lady church members were discussing a previous ight’s service. One was heard to explain how hard my friend Virgil ad resisted the Holy Spirit. She said, “ He held onto the pew in ront of him so tight that his knuckles were blue and I thought he ould break the pew.” Virgil’s account was different, “How could I isten to the Holy Spirit when all I could think of was how pretty he was.” When everyone was tired of singing a bunch of sad songs, and it was bvious that all unsaved persons left standing had hardened their earts, and got a good grip on the back of the pew in front of them, ll the Christians gathered around those kneeling at the alter and rayed until they had all “prayed through.” If they prayed an nordinate amount of time with an individual, everyone knew they were ealing with one evil dude. At the conclusion, each of those saved as expected to give a testimony. Many spoke of their wicked pasts s if they were proud of them, and each speaker seemed to outdo the revious one by explaining how much more wicked he was and why God ad to perform a particularly difficult miracle to turn him around. t could be a very long night. If they had got Virgil up front, the ervice would surely have lasted until dawn, and then there may have een a sin or two that he forgot to mention. The revivals always lasted for two weeks and culminated on the last unday with baptisms of the new believers in the Laurel Fork out ehind the church. Many revivals ended with dinner on the ground. or anyone familiar with potluck meals and rural West Virginia pride n cooking, I need not elaborate further than to say it was the ighlight of the year. Jesus himself must have been proud of his ervants; they could have served him well at the feeding of the five housand. My light-hearted descriptions may appear sacrilegious to some. owever, it is not my intention to poke fun at anyone. These people, any of whom I idolized as a youth, were serious about carrying out od’s commands as they understood them. I don’t think I have altered ny facts or fictionalized any attitudes; what I have described is a ypical “ole timey” church revival in Appalachia in the 1940’s. ------------------------------ o unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] ith the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of he message ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com