Breaking Through Churchianity Deadness

[BeforeThereWas]

Not all of what the masses glean from attending churchianity is deadness. If it were, they would almost all stop attending.

What's troubling, however, is that I can ask almost any of the attendees at any of the local church organizations what was taught the previous Sunday morning, some would remember at least some aspects of it and others would remember almost nothing of the topic(s). In other words, few go away with enough of a spiritual charge to look forward to the next session with great expectation. It seems that, for most, it's more of a ritual to continue returning in the hopes of getting through to the warm fuzee from attendance while hoping the teaching(s) and message(s) have something that they can carry away that is of use beyond the usual fare of Sunday school classes making use of lesson books that dabble more in Bible trivia from stories they've heard over and over through the decades, thus catching some little tidbit they had not noticed before.

There are better forms and life-growth expressions in gathering with other believers that defy the weekly repeat of the same old motions from which very few ever rise up to spiritual gianthood. More meaningful and meat-packed content is available to all while discovering fellowship far deeper than they have ever known compared to the usual fare of fellowshipping with the backs of other people's heads...a skill I never was able to settle for in this smorgasbord line of church pots and kettles along the line filled with the same gruel of mush that has little to no variation in taste or texture.

What about you? Who among you have broken through that barrier into something more meaningful and growth-friendly. HOW did you and others grow within it? What did it look like? How did it flow? Who is better suited to mutual edification?

What questions do YOU have that go to the core of the need in the lives of fellow believers around you for them to grow along with you? Do you even know what YOU need in order to grow? What is that need?

BTW

 

[amigo de christo]

Hey john snow
Basically if one attends MOST churches now
and if they even do take heed to what was taught
they could easily answer
what they were taught . OH they had lots of dance , songs , loud music
or chants and the same message of judge not lets just find common ground .
The churches aint teaching but pretty much one basic message .
AND it wont speak of sins , OH NO , NO dont do that , we dont judge here
IT wont make mention of the much truth at all .
NO about the only thing they pretty much talk about is LETS HAVE UNITY and lets judge not
as they slip more and more sin acceptance onto them .
OH its okay to hold for a gay man to hold his husbands hand in their churches
OR its okay to talk about h ow muslims and o thers have good people and worship the same GOD we do
BUT HOW DARE , HOW DARE HOW DEADLY DOUBLE dare a man show up WITH A BIBLE and expose any sin
IN THAT C HURCH. they will rip his head off and play soccer with it if they could .

 

[amigo de christo]

Not all of what the masses glean from attending churchianity is deadness. If it were, they would almost all stop attending.

What's troubling, however, is that I can ask almost any of the attendees at any of the local church organizations what was taught the previous Sunday morning, some would remember at least some aspects of it and others would remember almost nothing of the topic(s). In other words, few go away with enough of a spiritual charge to look forward to the next session with great expectation. It seems that, for most, it's more of a ritual to continue returning in the hopes of getting through to the warm fuzee from attendance while hoping the teaching(s) and message(s) have something that they can carry away that is of use beyond the usual fare of Sunday school classes making use of lesson books that dabble more in Bible trivia from stories they've heard over and over through the decades, thus catching some little tidbit they had not noticed before.

There are better forms and life-growth expressions in gathering with other believers that defy the weekly repeat of the same old motions from which very few ever rise up to spiritual gianthood. More meaningful and meat-packed content is available to all while discovering fellowship far deeper than they have ever known compared to the usual fare of fellowshipping with the backs of other people's heads...a skill I never was able to settle for in this smorgasbord line of church pots and kettles along the line filled with the same gruel of mush that has little to no variation in taste or texture.

What about you? Who among you have broken through that barrier into something more meaningful and growth-friendly. HOW did you and others grow within it? What did it look like? How did it flow? Who is better suited to mutual edification?

What questions do YOU have that go to the core of the need in the lives of fellow believers around you for them to grow along with you? Do you even know what YOU need in order to grow? What is that need?

BTW

You did ask some real good questoins that i want to answer .
THIS is exactly HOW GOD moved me from total death faith
into true faith . First , of course HE gave me a new heart with new desires to seek HIM out , to love truth .
He put me into one book called the bible with such a joy of reading it . Man i still remember
how i hungered for the truth . Now the d esire HE had put into my heart
HAD also swung me from my love of sin and into the hate of my sin . Hope that makes sense to you .
Also i had a hunger to know of others WHO beleived on HIM so we could speak and talk about the things of the LORD .
So about a month or perhaps a little less after reading and reading the bible
i soon began going into churches . One thing i have to say
was the priase and worship in every church was REAL GOOD . i was always joyed up wtih them lovely songs
However when the sermons began and teachings began
NO EDIFIED at all . now i did not yet , F OR SURE know why that was .
ALSO i had turned on TBN to watch , again NOTHING no edification .
YET ALWAYS READING THE BIBLE DID EDIFY ME SO VERY MUCH .
SO time went on and i kept learning
and it did not take long to realize at all the reason why i was not edified by TBN or by the sermons i had heard
In churches . GOOD NIGHT THEY WERE CONTRADICTING GOD , whereas the BIBLE darn sure DIDNT DO THAT .
NO SIR , ITS INSPIRED BY GOD .
so my advice is WE GET this people back into the bible .
we increase our prayers , we exhort one another daily WITH THE TRUTH . cause what i see in most churches now
IT AINT TRUTH at all . at most it has truths but always blended with not only lies
but now even THE LIE OF ALL LIES has crept within .

 

[BeforeThereWas]

You did ask some real good questoins that i want to answer .
THIS is exactly HOW GOD moved me from total death faith
into true faith . First , of course HE gave me a new heart with new desires to seek HIM out , to love truth .
He put me into one book called the bible with such a joy of reading it . Man i still remember
how i hungered for the truth . Now the d esire HE had put into my heart
HAD also swung me from my love of sin and into the hate of my sin . Hope that makes sense to you .
Also i had a hunger to know of others WHO beleived on HIM so we could speak and talk about the things of the LORD .
So about a month or perhaps a little less after reading and reading the bible
i soon began going into churches . One thing i have to say
was the priase and worship in every church was REAL GOOD . i was always joyed up wtih them lovely songs
However when the sermons began and teachings began
NO EDIFIED at all . now i did not yet , F OR SURE know why that was .
ALSO i had turned on TBN to watch , again NOTHING no edification .
YET ALWAYS READING THE BIBLE DID EDIFY ME SO VERY MUCH .
SO time went on and i kept learning
and it did not take long to realize at all the reason why i was not edified by TBN or by the sermons i had heard
In churches . GOOD NIGHT THEY WERE CONTRADICTING GOD , whereas the BIBLE darn sure DIDNT DO THAT .
NO SIR , ITS INSPIRED BY GOD .
so my advice is WE GET this people back into the bible .
we increase our prayers , we exhort one another daily WITH THE TRUTH . cause what i see in most churches now
IT AINT TRUTH at all . at most it has truths but always blended with not only lies
but now even THE LIE OF ALL LIES has crept within .

Thanks for your post. You hit on some things that are relevant, mainly getting into the Bible and reading it for what it says and exhorting one another.

Reading the Bible can happen almost anywhere but how does mutual edification and exhortation happen in churchianity? Some have told me they have coffee and donuts prior to Sunday school class or service, both of which are places where, once the program begins, everyone sits and listens unless called upon or there's an opening for speaking. The main gathering is the lest of all places where genuine fellowship will happen. After all, that's noisy and disruptive. The traditional god of order is always expected and enforced.

Many organizations have implemented cell group meetings in homes throughout the week as a band-aid to what's not allowed in the main gathering where that one hireling dude up front is expected to strike a chord in the hearts of all attending, which is impossible. No one man can do that...not even those super stars who write best selling books, stand in the limelight on television, on radio, et al, even they teach and preach dry sermons much of the time because they aren't tapping into the richness of what each individual can contribute to the others.

Week after week I watch the people stand up from the class or the service, some jabber with each other about the surface things most people converse about in casual conversations, while others rush out to get on with their weekly grind of activities or to some special projects demanding their time. Rarely is someone hurting enough for it to show among others for some to gravitate to them and care enough to ask what's up.

I fully agree the Lord makes up for so much of the lack in this world and in daily life, but He also gave to us the deep-seated need for one another in meaningful ways that churchianity and cell groups (in how most are conducted) to really edify one another.

Generally speaking to everyone, how have any of you gotten through churchianity deadness into something that had depth and nourishment that wasn't steeped in psychological and/or pseudo-spiritual mumbo-jumbo jargon many have already heard before on TV, radio, read in books and on the internet? We all hit spiritual highs at various times in life, but how do we ride that wave consistently without the troughs and maelstroms of life?

BTW

 

[amigo de christo]

Thanks for your post. You hit on some things that are relevant, mainly getting into the Bible and reading it for what it says and exhorting one another.

Reading the Bible can happen almost anywhere but how does mutual edification and exhortation happen in churchianity? Some have told me they have coffee and donuts prior to Sunday school class or service, both of which are places where, once the program begins, everyone sits and listens unless called upon or there's an opening for speaking. The main gathering is the lest of all places where genuine fellowship will happen. After all, that's noisy and disruptive. The traditional god of order is always expected and enforced.

Many organizations have implemented cell group meetings in homes throughout the week as a band-aid to what's not allowed in the main gathering where that one hireling dude up front is expected to strike a chord in the hearts of all attending, which is impossible. No one man can do that...not even those super stars who write best selling books, stand in the limelight on television, on radio, et al, even they teach and preach dry sermons much of the time because they aren't tapping into the richness of what each individual can contribute to the others.

Week after week I watch the people stand up from the class or the service, some jabber with each other about the surface things most people converse about in casual conversations, while others rush out to get on with their weekly grind of activities or to some special projects demanding their time. Rarely is someone hurting enough for it to show among others for some to gravitate to them and care enough to ask what's up.

I fully agree the Lord makes up for so much of the lack in this world and in daily life, but He also gave to us the deep-seated need for one another in meaningful ways that churchianity and cell groups (in how most are conducted) to really edify one another.

Generally speaking to everyone, how have any of you gotten through churchianity deadness into something that had depth and nourishment that wasn't steeped in psychological and/or pseudo-spiritual mumbo-jumbo jargon many have already heard before on TV, radio, read in books and on the internet? We all hit spiritual highs at various times in life, but how do we ride that wave consistently without the troughs and maelstroms of life?

BTW

We have to also examine our own leaders .
That is gonna play a massive major part in all of this .
because if you leaders are off your church wont make it .
So if anyone notices error or even sins being allowed in the church
You bring that up to your leaders and watch their repsonse .
NOW ANY true seasoned man of GOD
would have not defended this at all . IF they try and say hey the reason
we allow these gay married men or women
OR whatever sin it is that is seen in one to remain
And they do so saying HEY its not our job to judge , we gots to love them to GOD . GET THE HECK OUT .
first off the leaders S HOULD have been seasoned men of GOD .
ALSO the leaders s ho uld have themselves been teaching scriptures and NOT JUST a few
while overlooking the ones that warn about sins , SPECIALLY certain PC sins .
NO LEADER who is not seasoned S HOULD be a leader . I know folks can slip
BUT if they wont heed your correction but double down on why they do and why they allow
YOU NEED TO GET OUT and take others with you . IT AINT a sin to meet in a house for church
OR a building . BUT CHURCH N EEDS TO HONOR GOD , HIS CHRIST first and FOREMOST
and sins DO NOT honor him , NOR will any sin do any good to the one IN THE SIN it will destroy them .

 

[BeforeThereWas]

We have to also examine our own leaders .
That is gonna play a massive major part in all of this .
because if you leaders are off your church wont make it .
So if anyone notices error or even sins being allowed in the church
You bring that up to your leaders and watch their repsonse .
NOW ANY true seasoned man of GOD
would have not defended this at all . IF they try and say hey the reason
we allow these gay married men or women
OR whatever sin it is that is seen in one to remain
And they do so saying HEY its not our job to judge , we gots to love them to GOD . GET THE HECK OUT .
first off the leaders S HOULD have been seasoned men of GOD .
ALSO the leaders s ho uld have themselves been teaching scriptures and NOT JUST a few
while overlooking the ones that warn about sins , SPECIALLY certain PC sins .
NO LEADER who is not seasoned S HOULD be a leader . I know folks can slip
BUT if they wont heed your correction but double down on why they do and why they allow
YOU NEED TO GET OUT and take others with you . IT AINT a sin to meet in a house for church
OR a building . BUT CHURCH N EEDS TO HONOR GOD , HIS CHRIST first and FOREMOST
and sins DO NOT honor him , NOR will any sin do any good to the one IN THE SIN it will destroy them .

Ok, so excluding hired leaders, how do the people themselves find something more meaningful and deep that has them wanting to attend every chance they can get? Churchianity and its leadership aren't the only answer to all this. What else can fellow believers find or do that would get past all the blockages that define modern and historic churchianity so that the majority of them grow rather than just a few within the stagnations that is such a defining feature within most of churchianity?

In other words, rather than trying to enhance and/or defend the status quo of churchianity, what else is there?

BTW

 

[amigo de christo]

Ok, so excluding hired leaders, how do the people themselves find something more meaningful and deep that has them wanting to attend every chance they can get? Churchianity and its leadership aren't the only answer to all this. What else can fellow believers find or do that would get past all the blockages that define modern and historic churchianity so that the majority of them grow rather than just a few within the stagnations that is such a defining feature within most of churchianity?

In other words, rather than trying to enhance and/or defend the status quo of churchianity, what else is there?

BTW

Its known as stir thyself up .
and a key way of being stirred up ag ain ,
Are the letters of the apostels and etc .
BEING reminded of the truth . Many folks over the years
have wondered how on earth a man like myself stays so fire up and always pointing to Christ and all reminders .
We do us lots of lovely bible reads my friend .
You would be suprised if folks just had a desire and a passion to return to the scriptures .
Many exhorterts today be exhorting with the wrong s tuff .
TIME to exhort one another daily the pure and lovely truth .
And another thing
Many often wonder why the dont see GOD at work , the SPIRIT at work
in their meetings .
WELL the SPIRIT darn sure aint behind lessons that contradict The truth .
But also do beware for their are other spirits at work and they darn sure can decieve .
So who wants to b e fire up again . GOOD , then lets get back into bibles again
and stop skipping over parts or twsting and omi tting parts of it , rather jus embrace it all . You would be suprised .

 

[amigo de christo]

Ok, so excluding hired leaders, how do the people themselves find something more meaningful and deep that has them wanting to attend every chance they can get? Churchianity and its leadership aren't the only answer to all this. What else can fellow believers find or do that would get past all the blockages that define modern and historic churchianity so that the majority of them grow rather than just a few within the stagnations that is such a defining feature within most of churchianity?

In other words, rather than trying to enhance and/or defend the status quo of churchianity, what else is there?

BTW

i have a present for you and i would like for you to read it my friend .

 

[amigo de christo]

The big bad wolf and the christains .
There once lived a wolf and he did all he could to destroy and tear down christain churches .
And he came upon a very solid and true church .
He puffed and he huffed and he blew and blew and blew
but that house could not come down .
So one day he comes up with a bright idea
One day a sheep shows up at the doors of the mighty church
and it says alas
I am a traveler that can show you how to build a greater and even mightier house
than your original founder and his blue prints have left you .
Now this h ouse will not only grow in numbers but in strenght .
So in he comes and he begins to lay the ground work slowly .
He says , Okay we have a problem , some of these fundamental
parts of this building have got to go so we can replace them with stronger ones to hold .
In time he begins having them tear down walls
and rebuild barriers . This morter has to go he says , Oh these bricks over here has to go .
They are in the way and unecessary , they are old and outdated
LET us build back better he says .
And in time more and more of the fundamental works are removed .
And more and more of the hay is put into its place .
Then one day the sheep says , alas its t ime for me to go now and i leave with you
a strong and mighty newly built HOUSE .
So out the sheep does go and into the forest he does go . .
And soon a pack of wolves show up
and they see their new leader pull off his wool coat
and say to the wolves , HEY its dinner time
as they are all laughing at the straw shack IT HAD BUILT for them . WE better watch out
THEY DECIEVED US ALL MY FRIENDS .

 

[Marvelloustime]

The big bad wolf and the christains .
There once lived a wolf and he did all he could to destroy and tear down christain churches .
And he came upon a very solid and true church .
He puffed and he huffed and he blew and blew and blew
but that house could not come down .
So one day he comes up with a bright idea
One day a sheep shows up at the doors of the mighty church
and it says alas
I am a traveler that can show you how to build a greater and even mightier house
than your original founder and his blue prints have left you .
Now this h ouse will not only grow in numbers but in strenght .
So in he comes and he begins to lay the ground work slowly .
He says , Okay we have a problem , some of these fundamental
parts of this building have got to go so we can replace them with stronger ones to hold .
In time he begins having them tear down walls
and rebuild barriers . This morter has to go he says , Oh these bricks over here has to go .
They are in the way and unecessary , they are old and outdated
LET us build back better he says .
And in time more and more of the fundamental works are removed .
And more and more of the hay is put into its place .
Then one day the sheep says , alas its t ime for me to go now and i leave with you
a strong and mighty newly built HOUSE .
So out the sheep does go and into the forest he does go . .
And soon a pack of wolves show up
and they see their new leader pull off his wool coat
and say to the wolves , HEY its dinner time
as they are all laughing at the straw shack IT HAD BUILT for them . WE better watch out
THEY DECIEVED US ALL MY FRIENDS .

@amigo de christo

 

[BeforeThereWas]

Again, I'm looking for alternative solutions rather than attempts at bolstering the status quo churchianity model with all its inherent flaws that will never be resolved before the Lord destroys this universe. Attendance levels are also not a part at which this thread is aimed. Many books have been written and many seminars have been performed, all in attempts at trying to band-aid the ailing and limping, historic model of the institutional system with all its real estate and precious buildings that will also burn with this earth.

This thread is aimed at people...specifically the people of God who need to grow in their spiritual stature rather than to remain in the usual stasis promoted by churchianity. The perpetual sheepdom that characterizes so much of historic and modern Christianity can be broken, so how do we effect a mitigation to that without wasting efforts in trying to reinvent the many, many program wheels aimed at reinflating the flat tires of the worn out institutional model?

I realize there are some who have a great deal of love and zeal for their institutional church organization they attend and support, but not everyone has a heart for those things given that the institutional model, although historic in origins, is just a model among models. It's not the only means by which believers can gather together and BE a family and a fellowship. The warm fuzzies from the insituational model fail to satisfy the hunger many are experiencing without understanding the source of that hunger, how to satisfy that hunger and how to help others find that filling they so desperately need.

BTW

 

[Marvelloustime]

Its known as stir thyself up .
and a key way of being stirred up ag ain ,
Are the letters of the apostels and etc .
BEING reminded of the truth . Many folks over the years
have wondered how on earth a man like myself stays so fire up and always pointing to Christ and all reminders .
We do us lots of lovely bible reads my friend .
You would be suprised if folks just had a desire and a passion to return to the scriptures .
Many exhorterts today be exhorting with the wrong s tuff .
TIME to exhort one another daily the pure and lovely truth .
And another thing
Many often wonder why the dont see GOD at work , the SPIRIT at work
in their meetings .
WELL the SPIRIT darn sure aint behind lessons that contradict The truth .
But also do beware for their are other spirits at work and they darn sure can decieve .
So who wants to b e fire up again . GOOD , then lets get back into bibles again
and stop skipping over parts or twsting and omi tting parts of it , rather jus embrace it all . You would be suprised .

@amigo de christo

 

[ScottA]

The best that I have experienced was a routine of Bible study home group following Sunday Church service to go back over the sermon topic with small group Holy Spirit involvement and prayer.

I liken Sunday service to "pastorial" (everyday) feeding and care, as mere maintenance. Like nurse care, not doctor care.

More later.

 

[BeforeThereWas]

Reading scripture is absolutely important, and even religious zeal for attending churchianity every time the doors are unlocked is also admirable as far as that goes, but this thread is not about those things. This thread is about that deep-seated need for genuine fellowship that's deeper than the surface niceties one gets at churchianity.

BTW

 

[BeforeThereWas]

The best that I have experienced was a routine of Bible study home group following Sunday Church service to go back over the sermon topic with small group Holy Spirit involvement and prayer.

I liken Sunday service to "pastorial" (everyday) feeding and care, as mere maintenance. Like nurse care, not doctor care.

More later.

Bible studies can also be nice. I've enjoyed many through the years. They still, however, focus on only one aspect of the needs that I'm targeting in this thread, put there by the Lord when He created us.

I look forward to the rest of what you have in mind.

BTW

 

[ScottA]

Bible studies can also be nice. I've enjoyed many through the years. They still, however, focus on only one aspect of the needs that I'm targeting in this thread, put there by the Lord when He created us.

I look forward to the rest of what you have in mind.

BTW

Paul outlined the church for what it has become--which I do not say as negative, but as a reality regarding the plan of God for these times of the gentiles.

Paul preached more than the gospel, he preached and taught people how to live their Christian lives, addressing offices within the church, and relationships like husband and wife and family. If Jesus was going to burst forth on a white horse in the clouds touching down on the Mount of Olives (as most believe is what is still to come), he would not have had a reason to prepare the church for the long game of generation after generation not seeing Jesus come.

He did that for a reason.

He even foretold of how we would believe a "lie" causing "strong delusion" during generations of boring church life.

The reason is--it was revealed to him, that as an apostle to the gentiles--he was the beginning not the end, and the end would not come for some time, until the times of the gentiles were fulfilled. He built a bridge to carry us across to the other side--yet did not finish it, because the finish was not his part. That finish is foretold in Revelation, and Paul foretold of his own glory of such a time and such a one--but it wasn't to be him. That is why he prepared a way for us before finishing his own race--which, as it is written, he finished.

See: 2 Corinthians 12 to see what Paul foresaw of the end of the bridge that he was building.

 

[ScottA]

Reading scripture is absolutely important, and even religious zeal for attending churchianity every time the doors are unlocked is also admirable as far as that goes, but this thread is not about those things. This thread is about that deep-seated need for genuine fellowship that's deeper than the surface niceties one gets at churchianity.

BTW

How would you elaborate "that deep-seated need for genuine fellowship?"

 

[rockytopva]

George Clark Rankin... Please note the two important differences here...

1. His Grandfather's dead church
2. His Uncles very much alive church

This will take a few posts to describe...

 

[rockytopva]

n the 1850's George Clark Rankin came from a "blue stocking Presbyterian" into a revived Methodist church. And to let him describe the revived church...

George Clark Rankin. The Story of My Life Or More Than a Half Century As I Have Lived It and Seen It Lived Written by Myself at My Own Suggestion and That of Many Others Who Have Known and Loved Me
CHAPTER III
An Old-Time Election in East
Tennessee, and Else

In the earlier days, long before the railroads ran through that section, East Tennessee was a country to itself. Its topography made it such. Its people were a peculiar people - rugged, honest and unique. I doubt if their kind was ever known under other circumstances. Hundreds of them were well-to-do, and now and then, in the more fertile communities, there was actual wealth. Especially was this true along the beautiful water-courses where the farm lands are unequaled, even to this good day

Among them were people of intelligence and high ideals. No country could boast of a finer grade of men and women than lived and flourished in portions of that "Switzerland of America." Their ministers and lawyers and politicians were men of unusual talent. Some of the most eloquent men produced in the United States were born and flourished in East Tennessee

Those evergreen hills and sun-tipped mountains, covered with a verdant forest in summer and gorgeously decorated with every variety of autumnal hue in the fall and winter; those foaming rivers and leaping cascades; the scream of the eagle by day and the weird hoot of the owl by night - all these natural environments conspired to make men hardy and their speech pictorial and romantic. As a result, there were among them men of native eloquence, veritable sons of thunder in the pulpit, before the bar, and on the hustings

But far back from these better advantages of soil and institutions of learning, in the gorges, on the hills, along the ravines and amid the mountains, the great throbbing masses of the people were of a different type and belonged almost to another civilization. They were rugged, natural and picturesque. With exceptions, they were not people of books; they did not know the art of letters; they were simple, crude, sincere and physically brave. They enjoyed the freedom of the hills, the shadows of the rocks and the grandeur of the mountains. They were a robust set of men and women, whose dress was mostly homespun, whose muscles were tough, whose countenances were swarthy, and whose rifles were their defense. They took an interest in whatever transpired in their own localities and in the more favored sections of their more fortunate neighbors. They were social, and practiced the law of reciprocity long before Uncle Sam tried to establish it between this country and Canada

Who among us, having lived in that garden spot of the world, can ever forget the old-fashioned house-raisings, the rough and tumble log-rollings, the frosty corn-shuckings, the road-workings and the quilting-bees? And when the day's work was over - then the supper - after that the fiddle and the bow, and the old Virginia reel. None but a registered East Tennessean, in his memory, can do justice to experiences like those. No such things ever happened in just that way anywhere on the face of the earth except in that land of the skies.

Therefore, the man who even thinks of those East Tennesseans as sluggards and ignoramuses who got nothing out of life is wide of the mark. They had sense of the horse kind; and they were people of good though crude morals. No such thing as a divorce was known among them. It was rare that one of them ever went to jail in our section; and, if he did, he was disgraced for life.
I never knew, in my boyhood, of but one man going to the penitentiary and it was a shock to the whole country.

 

[rockytopva]

The dry, dead, denominational church... "Grandfather was kind to me and considerate of me, yet he was strict with me. I worked along with him in the field when the weather was agreeable and when it was inclement I helped him in his hatter's shop, for the Civil War was in progress and he had returned at odd times to hatmaking. It was my business in the shop to stretch foxskins and coonskins across a wood-horse and with a knife, made for that purpose, pluck the hair from the fur. I despise the odor of foxskins and coonskins to this good day. He had me to walk two miles every Sunday to Dandridge to Church service and Sunday-school, rain or shine, wet or dry, cold or hot; yet he had fat horses standing in his stable. But he was such a blue-stocking Presbyterian that he never allowed a bridle to go on a horse's head on Sunday. The beasts had to have a day of rest. Old Doctor Minnis was the pastor, and he was the dryest and most interminable preacher I ever heard in my life. He would stand motionless and read his sermons from manuscript for one hour and a half at a time and sometimes longer. Grandfather would sit and never take his eyes off of him, except to glance at me to keep me quiet. It was torture to me." - George Clark Rankin

George Clark Rankin was then sent to Georgia after his grandfather could no longer care for him. With his belongings in a satchel he had a Colt's navy pistol of a large make. It was an old weapon, and what under the sun I wanted with it is a mystery to me to this good day. I reached the station in time to catch the eleven-o' clock train. I purchased my ticket and boarded the car for the first time in my life. I had one lone lorn fifty-cent piece left in my depleted purse, and that was the sum and substance of my finances for the rest of the trip. As the train whizzed along I looked first at the people and then through the window at the country and thought over my journey and what was to come of it. At nine o'clock we reached Dalton and disembarked. I had never been in a hotel. I saw one not far from the depot and went to it. I asked the clerk what he would charge me for a room that night and he said fifty cents. That was exactly my pile! I called for the accommodation, but before retiring I told him I wanted to leave very early the next morning for Spring Place and that I would pay him then, for no one would be up when I would leave. He smiled and took the silver half dollar. I went to my room, and solitude is no name for the room I occupied that night. After a while I fell into a sound sleep and awoke bright and early the next morning. It was not good daylight. I arose and hastened downstairs, and there sat the same clerk whom I had the night before it had never dawned on me that a hotel clerk sat up all night. I thanked him for his kindness and bade him good-bye in regular old country style.
It was not long until I was in the road and making tracks across the country to where my uncle lived. It was in 1866 and the marks of Sherman's march to the sea were everywhere visible. The country was very much out of repair and all around Dalton the earth was marked with breastworks. Every hill showed signs of war. Much of the fencing had not been restored and here and there I could see blackened chimneys still standing. After I had gotten out a few miles I stopped and took that old pistol with its belt and scabbard out of my satchel and buckled the war paraphernalia around my person on the outside of my coat. Just why I did this I cannot explain. I must have looked a caution in my homespun suit and rural air trudging along that highway with that old army pistol fastened around me. In going down a hill toward a ravine from which there was another hill in front of me I met two men horseback. They spoke to me and eyed me very curiously, but, strange to say, I could not tell why. Why would not men eye such a looking war arsenal as that? There were two others riding down the hill in front of me, and as the first two passed me they stopped and looked back at the others and shouted: "Lookout, boys, he is loaded!"