Pack by Mike Bockoven

Author:Mike Bockoven
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF BARTER COUNTY, PART 4

In the 1970s, Cherry had seen its boom and was starting to see its regression. The age of Main Street had come and gone and while you could still find several small businesses in downtown Cherry—a Ben Franklin, a small grocery store—none of them would survive any later than 1988. Throughout the 1970s, the decay that would lead to the abandonment of downtown was starting to peek through the cracks and make itself known.

The 1970s were also the first decade where the people of Cherry realized their young people were not going to stay. Generations of farmers saw their children leave for larger cities and population centers, even go to college. It was the sort of shift that left a generation rattled. Beyond that, however, the town was pretty much the same. Quiet, slow, full of people who valued their church, community, and privacy.

It was these three elements of community life that converged in 1978 to create an incident that was spoken of for years afterward. It involved the First Baptist Church in Cherry, overseen by the Rev. Thomas Rhodes. He decided, one Sunday, to try something he had heard about from his peers but had never been tried before in the town. This new innovation in worship was known as an “Altar Call” and consisted of the pastor or some other church leader offering public absolution and counsel for those with troubled souls.

Logistically that would mean the pastor saying something to the effect of “if you feel Jesus moving in your heart tonight, asking you to make a change, come to the altar and receive his forgiveness.” The language varied from time to time and even though the nature of what brought them to the altar was kept private, the act of absolution, that you had something to confess or that needed changing in your life, was deliberately a public part of the process.

When Pastor Rhodes first tried an altar call, things went about as well as could be expected. During that time he was presiding over a fairly large congregation for the area and routinely saw over one hundred parishioners come to Sunday service. Some of those who attended the first altar call were no surprise—the woman who had well-known problems with money, the man who had been seen drinking too much in public, a child whose parents urged him to go. The second altar call drew an unexpected person—the pastor’s own brother, William.

At that point William was known as a hard-working, solid individual. He wasn’t the pillar of the community that his brother was, but he was known and if not liked, tolerated. Some had seen his temper. None had seen him seek any sort of absolution.

But this Sunday he was seeking forgiveness, guidance and, if reports are to be believed, a handkerchief. The altar call came and William, tears flowing down his clean-shaven face, stumbled to the front of the church and threw himself prostrate near the altar. One of the aldermen came to help but Willie had descended into sobs.

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