|
|
Bob made a pie for the pie contest - his first ever pie. Alderman Carol Johnson had told him she was helping to organize a pie-tasting contest and was looking for entries.
When I told him I had something I had to finish, he decided to give it a try. As a retired chemical manufacturing executive he thought there'd be nothing to it.
"It's just chemistry," he said.
I acknowledged that it was chemistry, but told him that there also is an issue of how the dough was handled. He wondered out loud how hard that could be and he dug in.
Once at the park, as he gravitated toward the pie entry tent, I was drawn in another direction.
From the new pavilion that had been built for this occasion, I could hear the resounding strains of another gospel tune.
At first I thought it was a recording, but as I got closer I could see it was live singers. Owen Jones and Barney Minix were offering a deep clear rendition of "Amazing Grace."
There was something a little trendy and bouncy in their rendition of the 125-year-old tune. Folding chairs were set up in outdoor classroom style with hard cover songbooks on each chair.
A handful of ladies were placing fans and bottled water on a table were bouncing a little to the tune. Both had little labels that identified the Meramec Valley General Baptist Church at Grant and Orr streets.
"It's next to the cemetery," one lady volunteered.
Owen and his wife Sandy live in Crystal City and drive into Pacific for Sunday church services every week.
Barney and his wife Jeannette live at Cook Station, and drive 85 miles to come to church.
Even the pastor, J. B. Evans and his wife Peggy, are from out of town. They live in Fenton and have made the trip to the little church for the past 20 years.
"What brings all of you such a distance to attend church?" I asked.
"Ask our newest member," Pastor Evans said.
Bob Wright, who lives in rural Pacific, said he had been looking for a church home since his wife Betty had died last year. She had been Catholic and he occasionally attended Catholic services with her, including her funeral at St. Bridget Catholic Church in Pacific. But his background was Baptist and he remembered the little church up near the cemeteries.
When he walked in the door he had a good feeling.
"I enjoyed the music," he said. "And everyone seemed to want to give you a hug or a handshake."
"We're a wayfaring church," the Rev. Evans said.
"General Baptists are different from other Baptist churches," Rev. Evans said. "We believe that Christ died for everybody, for all mankind. We have open Communion and everyone is invited to partake."
Members don't proceed to the pastor to receive Communion.
"We take it to them," the Rev. Evans said. "If they stand we bring it to them."
General Baptists is a denomination of about 900 churches, headquartered in Poplar Bluff.
"We support an accredited four-year university and several orphanages and nursing homes," Rev. Evans said.
What makes this denomination different is the amount of freedom that individual pastors have. This particular congregation has a freewheeling attitude filled with humor and music.
"We have a lot of freedom in the way we worship," Evans said. "Our particular church has three ordained ministers and sometimes we do a tag-team sort of service where we hand off the sermon to another minister."
Sunday School begins at 9:45 a.m. and worship service starts at 10:45 a.m. and lasts until the pastor tires or the congregation appears ready to leave.
"It's usually over by 12:30 or so," Jeanette Evans said.
The group all spoke at the same time.
"It's a shame Mary and Martin Sokeland aren't here," someone said. "They live in Richwoods."
The group first met in the Catawissa Union Protestant church building in Catawissa. They got a storefront built on St. Louis Street for a while until they were offered the little church on Orr Street.
I'm mentioning this in my introduction of my new friends.
The movement of churches today called General Baptists began in America in 1823 when founder Benoni Stinson organized the Liberty Church (now Howell General Baptist Church) in southern Indiana. In 1870 the General Association of General Baptists was organized, bringing together General Baptist local associations of churches in cooperative efforts.
