There’s a little church in Berryville that turned 150 years old in 2021. It’s the oldest continuously operated church in Carroll County. Some who were raised in that church in this century may quip that they were baptized there when the church was still fairly new, but that would be stretching the truth by a couple of generations. Yet, there’s no mistaking the fact most of the contemporary congregation is now on the silver side of life.
Descended from two great American faith movements, both intent on following the Gospel rather than denominational-ism, the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Berryville has always been a body more than a building. In fact, no one knows where the original congregation worshiped in the early years, because it wasn’t until October 1871 that they decided to build a church.
The list of 28 Charter Members who signed on back then includes names still recognized around the county today – Meek, Hailey, Bell, Fancher, Mattox, Freeman, Fanning, Walker, Packwood and Williams, for instance.
The church’s general membership already numbered around 150 at the time; quite a testament to faith considering Berryville consisted of only 50-some houses with a population of just over 200 souls. The Berryville settlement wouldn’t even be incorporated for another five years.
But this isn’t a story about history. It’s a story about heart.
In 2020, Pastor Dan White and his wife, Carola, took on the joy of shepherding the First Christian (DOC) flock, now numbering 64 members in the directory and counting 20 or so in the pews on any given Sunday.
One of the first issues the new pastor faced was dealing with COVID. Churches couldn’t hold in-person services, and not all had online services, so Pastor Dan took his sermons and choirmaster David Bell out on the back porch and held a service for the faithful who parked comfortably in their own vehicles while tuning in on a prescribed radio frequency to catch the music and preaching – much like attending a drive-in movie. Word spread, and soon folks from some of the closed churches also drove in to join the Sunday “car-gregation’”on the lawn. This drive-in worship enabled congregants to connect spiritually and fostered a sense of community during isolating times.
When COVID subsided, the church’s disused choir room, a couple classrooms now full of storage, and a silent nursery begged to be used for their original purposes again. But there was no choir nor kids to be taught, and no babies to tend.
This year, Carola and a small team came up with a plan aimed eventually to enlarge the congregation by creating a free event for the public at large, both to introduce the church and build community relationships. This is not to say outreach isn’t already happening. First Christian Church (DOC) maintains a street-side food pantry on Church St. and replenishes it daily. The members also regularly fill 5-gallon Disaster Buckets with relief items to send to places suffering natural calamities and take up special collections for victims of such. Several members volunteer at the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank, and the church also supports a full-time missionary in Thailand and has a Sister Church in Puerto Rico.
But this plan had more to do with a statement on the church website as a congregation being “focused on families, on close fellowship among members, and on being the best people we can be as we follow Christ’s command to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
It took an idea session or two to come up with a way to do that on a large scale. The result was a Western-themed day of food, fun and games completely free to the public. Then came a couple months of planning, ordering food and materials, and working what was close to two weeks of eight-hour days building sets and assembling props, prizes, handouts for games, and other miscellany.
To spread the word, the church booked and manned booths at the Ice Cream Social on the Berryville Square in June, and at the 4th of July Red White and Blue Bash at the fairgrounds, to hand out goody bags and flyer invitations ahead of the free event scheduled for July 19.
Setup on the half-acre outdoor space behind the church took two days including arranging tents, stocking the welcome table, placing and decorating dining tables, setting up the food and beverage serving line, setting up the chuckwagon cooking area, bringing in grills and cooking/serving gear, creating a photo booth, setting up the props and outdoor games, hiding scavenger hunt items, making a pen for the stick ponies and marking a course for their races, among other things.
An easy job for a big church, but for a small congregation of fewer than 20 able bodies, this was a real commitment. Happily, a couple of members’ adult children living nearby showed up (with friends!) to help.
The plan for the big day was this: visitors would enter through a makeshift corral gate flanked by two real saddles and pick up a scavenger hunt bag and instructions, a train ticket and other material at the welcome booth, and then enter the game area to play a Feed the Pig tater toss, join a lassoing contest using ring tosses, play a tic-tac-toe game using human space markers, and engage in the scavenger hunt and stick pony races.
From there it was a meal of hot dogs and juicy hamburgers, choices of chips and cookies and gallons of cold drinks to be enjoyed under a shady tent. After a trip to the free photo booth for a framed picture on the spot, guests could head to the railroad crossing, turn in their train ticket, collect prizes and head on out. That was the plan.
July 19 dawned bright and hot as Hades.
Over the course of the three-hour event, two families with kids showed up along with a scant handful of individuals. One set of kids played every game on the field, and both sets were coerced into the photo booth.
Pastor Dan later officiated a stick pony race with no children present, so the young men who volunteered help with setting up the props ran as contestants.
Hundreds of hot dogs and hamburgers went uncooked and will be frozen. The score or so of cooked ones were sent off with whoever would take them
As tents were dismantled, sets taken apart, props collected and tables were being folded up, Carola could be heard discussing possibly re-purposing the props and games, perhaps for a public harvest event in October. She was met with a few tired groans, but don’t count it out.
“This was worth it,” she said. “We’ve learned some things, and we’re excited to reach out again.”
Just what Jesus would do?
For information, mission statement, meeting times and more, see berryvilledisciples.com or phone (870) 423-2588